Conceptualizing Community Health + Wellbeing Community wellbeing is not simply the absence of disease or illness. It bundles together a number of separate but linked physical, mental, economic, and social factors that allow a community to thrive. It considers basic needs like the availability of food, housing, education, employment, and income; and complex social and emotional needs such as happiness, sense of place, social connection, and life satisfaction. When looking at communities as a whole, typically there are three combined factors that play a large role in wellbeing (UMN, 2020): connectedness, livability, and equity. Community wellbeing and resilience are closely related. Wellbeing encompasses the goals and priorities identified as of greatest importance to the community today, and resilience relates more closely to expectations about future wellbeing. Community wellbeing and overall ability to cope and adapt over time is closely tied to the physical, social, and economic circumstances that people are born into, grow up with, and live in. Prolonged or repeated exposure to negative environmental impacts or crises result in physical and mental tolls to both individuals and communities. In the face of increasing risk, improving community wellbeing requires reducing the challenges that negatively affect daily life, and encouraging processes that enhance the ability to adapt and cope. These processes – collectively defined as community resilience – aim to 1) enhance community wellbeing in the face of sudden and chronic stresses, 2) build capacity to respond to disruption, and 3) shape a better future as defined by locally prioritized cultural and social values and principles of sustainability. Local engagement (particularly of under-represented populations) in activities that allow the community to collectively define wellbeing are important to wellbeing today and to future resilience.
community wellbeing Community wellbeing is the social, economic, environmental, cultural, and political conditions identified by community members as essential for them to cope with the normal stresses of life and fulfil their potential. -Wiseman and Brasher, 2008, p. 358 14
Resilient & Healthy Baker
