WHAT IS SOCIAL WELL-BEING?
Social well-being is the satisfaction people experience when they see themselves as part of a compassionate community they have helped create - a community in which all have an opportunity to live a satisfying life, and public and private institutions share with the entire citizenry the responsibility to secure for everyone a humanizing education, living wages, public safety, equal justice under the law, environmental protection, and unfettered religious and political participation.
--Jorge Lara-Braud, 1999 Chair COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK Community Council
In a sustainable community, equity, education, respect for human rights and the meeting of basic needs combine to create social wealth. Everyone has the right to access to a safe and healthful environment in which to live, work, play and learn, including contact with nature through access to other species. Everyone has the right to the fulfillment of basic human needs, including safe and healthful shelter, dignified work, sufficient food, education that meets their needs and skills. Everyone has the right to be part of a community that offers mutual respect.
--Josh Wolfe, International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives
Social well-being is sometimes described in terms of the three e's, especially among the Sustainable Communities efforts: economy, environment and (social) equity. The COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK has adopted a slightly different nomenclature: social well-being, environmental well-being, and economic well-being.
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WHY A SOCIAL WELL-BEING AGENDA & ACTION PLAN?
Over the last four years, the COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK has worked to engage the community in a planning process that coordinates and optimizes public, private, and individual assets and actions to achieve sustainable solutions to health, human and social issues. It has completed community assessments and initial plans concerning basic needs, early education and care, education, workforce development, physical and mental health, substance abuse, housing, homelessness, and public safety. It has chartered task forces on homelessness, day labor, early education and care, affordable housing, and welfare-to-work.
While each of these efforts has contributed to improving the community's social well-being, the scope of issues to be addressed and the inter-relatedness of the core drivers of social well-being have prompted the COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK to concentrate on a short-list of endeavors which have over-arching impact on all areas of considered. Accordingly, this draft of a Social Well-Being Agenda (issues requiring focus) and Action Plan was developed.
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OUR AGENDA (PRIORITIES):
Five priority areas:
- Development and nurturing of our children, our youth, our families, our elders, ourselves
- Basic Needs: Food, shelter, safety, mobility and essential health care for all
- Affordability: Jobs with livable wages, access to skill development, and an affordable cost of living, including affordable housing.
- Equal access to health and human services, education, recreation, culture, civic participation
- Appreciation for the richness of diversity
TWO AREAS OF IMMEDIATE APPLICATION:
Focus on implementation of solutions in these five priority areas will first be concentrated in the areas of:
- Early Education & Care
- Workforce Development
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Our action plan:
Community groups, such as those listed below, will use the following preliminary list of actions as a catalyst for developing and committing to their own action plan to improve social-well being with emphasis in the five priority areas and two areas of immediate implementation.
Individuals:
- Recognize and make the most of their own assets responsibly.
- Are generous with their gifts of time and other resources for their neighbors and fellow citizens.
- Vote and participate in community and civic activities.
- Respect cultural differences and commonalties all people.
Schools:
- Become neighborhood centers for a range of services and activities.
- Instill a lifetime love of learning.
- Engage youth in a meaningful learning experience that links academics to the world of work.
Employers:
- Adopt policies that promote a family-friendly workplace, including affordable access for workers and their families to health care, child care and development, ongoing skill development, and assistance/facilitation in gaining affordable housing.
- Develop partnerships with schools and job training programs to provide necessary skills and experiences for individuals to advance in the workforce and to meet employer needs.
Public/Private Partnerships:
- Implement a coordinated, quality child development and care system.
- Develop a system to provide an affordable housing solution.
- Develop job training and literacy programs.
- Develop systems that remove barriers to access to basic health, human, and mobility services.
- Adopt a social well-being impact policy for all actions taken.
Governments:
- Adopt livable wage and corporate responsibility policies.
- Coordinate an emergency assistance program.
- Incorporate zoning and development codes which encourage affordable housing, minimal transportation impact, and family-friendly, safe neighborhoods.
- Deploy a transportation system that assures access to services and jobs.
The Faith Community:
- Promotes volunteerism and advocacy on the social well-being agenda and areas of action.
- Coordinates individual ministries with areas of social well-being emphasis.
Service Providers
- Create a basic support system for families, screening all children at birth for the level of support which may be needed by family and connecting the family with appropriate services to provide that support.
- Create a community-wide case management system that uses common intake and eligibility information to meet individual and family needs.
- Consolidate service provider infrastructure, where possible, to reduce costs.
- Develop and deploy a coordinated, geographically accessible food pantry and supplemental nutrition program.
- Develop and implement a comprehensive emergency shelter and transitional housing system.
- Develop programs that reduce unsafe behaviors, particularly among youth.
Media
- Keep the community informed as to progress on social well-being goals and programs.
- Continue to promote social well-being outcomes and strategies to individuals and groups.
- Recognize employers with family-friendly workplaces.
The Philanthropic Community:
- Utilizes information from the COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK to help shape their funding and development initiatives.
- Becomes an advocate, along with others, for social well-being issues.
- Increases the level of philanthropy, particularly for social well-being causes, in the central Texas area.
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