A Community That Continued To Grow

By Maisaa (Community Builder)

Sometimes the impact of community building is easiest to see years after the initial work has taken place.

When I first became the Community Builder for Duryard around 2019/2020, some local mums invited me to one of their existing coffee mornings. It was an opportunity for me to listen, meet residents and begin understanding the area through the people who already lived there.

I supported resident to set up a WhatsApp group, which provided a valuable way to reach more neighbours, share opportunities and help people connect. Alongside this, I supported and encouraged neighbourhood activities and events where residents could meet face-to-face, develop relationships and become more involved in their local community. The best thing happened to that neighbourhood was supporting it to set up a resident association.

When I later moved to another Community Builder area, I stayed in the WhatsApp group as a light touch, but no longer played an active role. Over the years, I quietly watched the connections continue and grow without me.

This summer, I felt it was finally time to leave the group. What I hadn't expected was the reflection I received from one of the residents who had been there from the beginning. She described how the encouragement, enthusiasm and activities I had brought to the area had helped strengthen community connections “enormously”. She also reflected on how extraordinary and heart-warming it had been to see their neighbourhood WhatsApp group grow from its early beginnings into a supportive network of around 150 neighbours.

She wrote: “Your encouragement, enthusiasm and the activities you organised have helped strengthen the connections within our community enormously.”

What was particularly meaningful was that she connected this early community-building work with what residents have subsequently created themselves. She thanked me for continuing to “quietly cheer on the group” after moving to another area and said: “You’ll always be a valued part of its story.”

For me, this captures something important about the sustainability of Community Building. The aim is not for residents to remain dependent on a Community Builder. It is to recognise what already exists, bring people together, encourage ideas and relationships, and create conditions where those connections can continue independently.

Several years later, there are now around 150 neighbours connected through a network that belongs to them. They communicate, support one another and maintain relationships without needing me to facilitate those connections.

Community building can be slow and its outcomes are not always immediately measurable. A coffee morning, an event in a park, a conversation or a WhatsApp message can seem like a very small intervention at the time. But when those opportunities help relationships take root, they can continue growing long after the Community Builder has moved on.

Perhaps one of the strongest signs that community building has worked is when the Community Builder can leave and move to support another neighbourhood , but the community continues.