How does one create a sense of Belonging in a Community?

One of the biggest challenges for new people joining a community is creating a sense of belonging and comradery. For some the missing sense is one of the biggest reasons why people leave communities and never look back. The hope is to give several reasons on how to create a sense of belonging in any community.

• Passion over interest
• Create a friendly environment
• Being authentic 
• Interactions and feedback
• Attend events that interest you

Passion over Interest

Passion over Interest can be a bit confusing at first so here’s what I mean. Interest is something that you find to be curious about and want to maybe know more about, while passion is something that you genuinely want to know more about and love doing it.

The big difference is that passion is something that when someone asks you a question about it you instantly smile and get filled with joy when you get to explain something you genuinely love.

This comes back to a sense of community in that one should find a community regardless of big or small that one is really passionate about.

Reason is since when someone is passionate about something truly it would be a lot easier to talk to people in that communicate and already have deep and interesting talks about a topic or hobby that your passionate and be around like minded individuals.

Creating a Friendly Environment

This goes for both sides of a community: those who manage one and all its members and those who are interested in joining.

Creating a friendly environment inside your community will make everyone feel more comfortable and make new members that are interested in joining feel welcomed and treated like a member.

So making a friendly environment makes the whole community feel like a small extension of your family which makes everyone feel like they all know each other and in turn create a sense of belonging.

Being Authentic

This one is pretty self explanatory in that being yourself is gonna help you find the right community where you feel like you belong.

The main point of this is that if you have to change who you are in order to feel like you belong to a community you are not going to be there long.

The fact of the matter is that if you change who you are to fit in eventually you’ll get tired of trying to fit in and just outright leave the community as a whole.

Interactions and Feedbacks

This Part mentions how when you find a community that you really like, try to talk with other members and people that have similar topics that you can discuss further with.

After these interactions with other people you can give and receive feedback and it is your way to interact at a later date to keep a point of contact that you can always refer back to and keep the interaction with the community.

Attend Events that Interest You

This reason encourages you to attend events that you feel like you would be able to contribute to whether a school ran event or volunteering attend any event that aligns with your passions and those members of your community aligns with so you and your community can feel more connected and belonging.

Conclusion

So to wrap it all up in order to feel a sense of belonging to a community it's important to follow your passions, things that make you happy to be around and share with others.

After that talk to everyone and get to know people. Most people in that community would likely have similar passions as you which would help you feel more connected and in turn a sense of belonging.

Lastly, enjoy yourself if joining a community will make you look better and it's something that you're not really happy with don’t force it on yourself to find a community that you truly are happy to be around regardless of size of members or how good it would look if you joined a specific club, just go out and enjoy yourself.