What is Social Capital?
Social Capital is a term that describes the value that comes from connectedness between people in a society. Connectedness between people includes everything from very close friendships to casual acquaintances. These social relationships between people tend to result in a natural sense of willingness to do things for each other like share information, trust, or work together towards a common goal. This is Social Capital.
CSCL’s Social Captial Project
All people have some form of social capital and social capital is important to each of us to be able to go about our daily lives. The Chilliwack Society for Community Living recognises this and we see it as an opportunity to further help the individuals and families we support; by adding to, strengthening and making use of the social networks we all share.
250 of CSCL’s staff have participated in training with Dr. Al Condeluci; learning the value of assisting people to develop their social capital. A group of directors and managers continue to work on social capital implementation strategies, providing support and guidance to staff as they work to build social capital of the people who use our services.
Building Social Capital – Ice Cream Social!
The ladies at CSCL’s Vanmar House enjoy meeting their neighbours they might not have met otherwise, at an “Ice Cream Social”event held in the neighbourhood park:
Building Social Capital at the Chilliwack Marathon
2019’s Revel Marathon in Chilliwack saw 40 people from the CSCL community come out to volunteer, building their social connections as they did so:
We asked people “What does Social Capital look like to you?”
Here are some of the responses we receive from our community:
