ISSN 1091-4706

Volume 1 Issue 1, Fall 1996

Discovering the Spirit of Hope

Building the Community Circle

They were nothing more than people, by themselves. Even paired, any pairing, they would have been nothing more than people by themselves. But all together, they have become the heart and muscles and mind of something perilous and new, something strange and growing and great. Together; all together; they are instruments of change.

—Ken Hulme, The Bone People

Why not?" This was 13-year-old Angie’s answer when asked why she joined the Deuces, a gang on Chicago’s South Side. "My uncle is in the gang and so is my boyfriend. Besides," she continued, "what else is there to do’?"

Unfortunately, this response typifies one kind of community that is thriving in North America today. But there are radically different communities as well, flourishing in the Americas and beyond. Imagine, for example, a city of over half a million people where you could flag down a taxicab and ask the driver simply to take you to "Larry Doe’s house on the North Side." In Bamako, the capital city of the West African nation of Mali, the driver would not laugh you out of the back seat as a Chicago cabbie surely would. Although Bamako’s population is roughly 600,000, the driver—after a question or two about your friend’s parents or siblings—would know exactly who you were talking about, and would assure your safe arrival, if not join you for a meal once you got there! In Mali, the Bambara expression is often quite literally true: "If you meet five people, two will be relatives and three will be friends."

This exceptional sense of community found in Mali, called "Colliso," is represented by the circle, a symbol that has been used by societies throughout time and across all cultures to signify unity, perfection, balance, and hope. Centuries ago, even before the community circle meetings at the Acropolis gave rise to modern democracy, the Oglala, Lakota, and other natives to North America recognized the "Sacred Hoop" as a symbol of unity and wholeness among their peoples.

Another commonality between these ancient native peoples and many contemporary African, South American, European, and Asian communities is their unwavering focus on and value of young people. These communities had and have children at the center of their community circles, recognizing that the health and well-being of these children assure not only the survival and perpetuation of the family and "clan," but also guarantee a link to the past—the ancestry of a people. In Niger, Mali’s neighbor to the east, the children are so central to the community that they even determine its leadership:

In Kalabougou, a matriarchal village of potters….the woman chief is chosen by the small children who vote by placing a stick by the side of their favorite. It is believed that wisdom lies in the innocence of the young (Pidgeon, 1996).

How different from the position that children occupy in most of today’s Western societies! A century after the industrial revolution planted seeds of discouragement by disconnecting the interdependent bonds of agrarian life and reducing children’s economic value, these children who were formerly "seen and not heard" are now seen even less, and resented by many as a financial and energy drain on the family and economy.

Regaining a sense of community has been difficult in recent times as our days stretch from crisis to challenge and back again. Our attempts to reach out to neighbors through the peep-holes of locked doors have become infrequent, and the resulting disconnection from those who live across the hall and down the street has been a profound and incalculable loss. How much would we give to feel safe in a crowd or alone in an alleyway? How much would we give to feel that of five people we met randomly, all would be relatives or friends?

We now know that the disappearance of a positive and cohesive community significantly increases the likelihood that children will become involved in destructive behaviors (Hawkins, et al., 1992). We know that when strong values, traditions, and symbols are not imparted by the community, children create their own—just one of the reasons that gang affiliation is growing and graffiti abounds (Campbell, 1988).

We have also begun to rediscover and build a case in the West for the restorative and protective properties that a strong, positive community can have for children and youth (Hirsehi, 1969; Hawkins, et al., 1992; Coiner, 1996). Although the concept of the whole village" raising the child has become cliché and politicized in the United States, it is nevertheless true that where strong, intact communities exist and children’s survival and well-being are not solely dependent on their biological parents, young people are less likely to go astray (Brendtro, et al., 1990; Hawkins, et al., 1992). Moreover, our intuitive understanding of this truth, reflected in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s statement that we are all "inextricably bound," has found new meaning in the powerful economic and demographic arguments of researchers like Harold Hodgkinson (1985).

But how do we begin to reconnect the circle and re-create caring communities whose primary mission is to ensure their own future through the survival and success of their children?

The Community Circle concept, as it has existed in our past and as it currently exists in places like Mali, may not be feasible in modern-day Western society. The intensive time a group of people must spend together to create shared visions and values is rarely afforded to geographical neighbors in our work-driven world. However, connecting with psycho-graphical neighbors—with those whose work with young people is based on common values about their inherent worth—is an option.

This unity of perspective and spirit, if not geographical location, is a starting point for re-creating the Community Circle of Caring. Reaching Today’s Youth: The Community circle of Caring Journal will help strengthen this worldwide connection, as we build a vision of the possible and increase our capacity and the practical skills needed to actualize it.

With this premiere issue and the new creation of the Community Circle of Caring Network, we begin to recapture a missing link from all of our pasts. It is the spirit of Italians in New York’s Little Italy, of Native American Seneca Indians in New York State and Canada, and of Jews on New York’s Delaney Street. It is the cooperation of extended Chinese families in Washington State, congregations of African-American churches in the South, and Eastern European town hall meetings in Minnesota and Chicago. It is the memory of children playing freely in the fields, the streets, and our neighbors’ yards. It is a taxi driver who can turn around and easily tell you what his town is doing that day on behalf of its children. It is the power of a like-minded and determined group of families, youth, and professionals from education, residential treatment, mental health, youth organizations, juvenile justice, churches, and synagogues, whose common understanding of the dignity of the individual and unending commitment to realizing the full potential of each child transcends all barriers to it.

We are beginning to remember what we have known so long and so deeply. We are rediscovering the spirit of hope.

Brendiro L.. Brokenleg. M.. & van Bockern. 5. (1990). Reclaiming youth at risk: Our hope for the future. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service.

Campbell, I. (1988). The power of myth. New York: Doubleday.

Comer, J., Haynes, M., Joyner, E., & Beh-Avie, M., eds. (1996). Rallying the whole village: The comer process for reforming education. New York: Columbia Teachers college.

Hawkins, D.. Catalano, R.. & Miller, i. (1992). Risk and protective factors for drug problems. Psychological Bulletin, 112 (I), 64—105.

Hirsehi, T. (1969). causes of delinquency. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Hodgkinson. H.L. 1)985). All one system. Washington, DC: Institute for Educational Leadership.