The Hope of Empowering Communities

by Marca McCallie

In a real sense, all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Envisioning an Empowered Community

What do you see when you imagine a truly empowered community? Do you see connections and compassionate interactions? Do people in our imagined futures have safety and stability? Are families intact? Are friendships formed? Are collaborations sought out and cooperation practiced? What are our values as a community? Love? Compassion? Justice? Equality? Equity? Honesty? Kindness? Are we imagining a responsive community that enhances wellness and aims to comfort the suffering? How do the marginalized and disadvantaged fare in our vision? Is anyone left out? Are there winners and losers? Are we interconnected and in this together? How do we envision ourselves within the community? Dreaming together is essential because when we dream as a community, we link the individual to a greater whole and assume that within healthier communities emerge healthier individuals. 

For many people, it can be challenging to separate from the idea of rugged individualism and the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" mentality. America was founded on these ideals, and they are inevitably rooted in our psyche. We are often told that if we want something, we can achieve it with enough hard work. Having a community where every individual has the opportunity to work hard and reach their potential is one of the health equity goals Sage Home reviewed last month in our blog, Sage Home's Recipe for Health Equity.

In our discussion about health equity, we observed how not everyone is starting from the same place. Often there are significant obstacles in the way that prevent people from reaching their full health potential. So, when it comes to rugged individualism, some groups of people have to be more "rugged" than others because they face more obstacles with less power. The better and often scarier reality to face is that we are all an integral part of our environment. Our actions and inactions have an impact that extends beyond ourselves. We are, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."

Astronauts have named this realization the Overview Effect. When looking back at the earth they saw no borders and realized that, for better or worse, we are all in this together.  If we are all interconnected, what does it mean to create and foster a more empowering community where people have the opportunities to reach their full potential? First, let's look at how empowerment is defined.

To Be Empowered

The simple definition of empowerment means that people and groups have the freedom and ability to gain more control over their own life, environment, and affairs. The more complex definition requires us to look deeper into power structures. Power is not equally distributed. The least powerful members of society tend to face the most significant vulnerabilities and also are more likely to have mental health distress after facing traumatic experiences (Wadsworth, 2010). Poor mental health can create additional vulnerabilities through the loss of control and self-determination, which can have compounding effects leading to even greater powerlessness (Christens, 2012).

When considering groups with less relative power, an expanded definition of empowerment is needed that takes the community into context. The definition I have come to appreciate is that "psychological empowerment refers to the psychological aspects of processes through which people, organizations, and communities are developing critical awareness of their environments, building social networks and social movements, gaining greater control over their lives." (Christens, 2014).

This definition is important because it links the individual well-being with the larger environmental context enabling us to explore how our communities can influence wellness and provide more opportunities for the groups on the margins. Empowerment can be defined at the individual level, the organizational level, and the community level. Each level is critically connected to the other. 

Individual Empowerment

At an individual level, empowerment might be measured by perceived control, the ability to gain or have access to needed resources, participation with others to achieve goals and some critical understandings of the sociopolitical environment. When individuals feel a sense of power and self-efficacy in their own life, they believe that their efforts are enough to get them where they want to go. Often though, they do not have the power or resources to be successful in their pursuits to gain more agency in their life. This lack of power and access can sometimes lead to a more extreme state called Learned Helplessness. With Learned Helplessness, there is either a perceived or real absence of control over the outcome of a situation. It also creates a vicious cycle where when people feel they are unable to succeed, they are less likely to put in their full effort. This decreases their chances of success leading to less motivation to try again in the future. Learned Helplessness is very environment-dependent, meaning that how our organizations and communities are structured, has a direct impact on people's sense of empowerment or disempowerment. For more information on learned Helplessness, check out this article from Positive Psychology.

Organizational Empowerment

At an organizational level, empowerment could look like collective decision making and shared leadership. When looking at an organization, we can ask ourselves what processes does this organization have that enhances member participation and improves their ability to achieve a goal? Are organizations top-heavy where power is kept to only an elite few, or does the organization give opportunities for members from all levels to participate and share in the power distribution? Sage Home, for example, aims to be an organization that shares power at all levels of our programming. This means that families struggling with addiction or families that have walked through child welfare difficulties before, will have a key seat at the table where decisions are being made, and power is yielded. It also means that clients receiving services can participate in their own treatment and not just accept what the "experts" think is best. Empowerment research tends to show that efforts organizations make to exert control can sometimes create, rather than solve, problems in a person's life. Greater authoritarian control can lead to more individual and community disempowerment, leading to poor treatment outcomes all around. Sharing power and trusting that individuals are the master of their own experience promotes a greater sense of agency and engagement in treatment and community involvement. 

Community Empowerment

At a community-level, empowerment can look like collective action to improve the quality of life in a community by developing connections among community organizations. This looks like collaborations and shared power within the community. When the community is empowered, there is no "one stop shop" but rather dispersed power and close collaborations with organizations and individuals in the community.

At Sage Home, we highly prioritize collaborations and partnerships. We believe that the community has the tools it needs to empower struggling families and support sustainable recovery by working together towards a common goal and vision. Sustainable communities move away from scarcity culture and the "never enough" mentality. They move toward a more health-focused, strength-based, bottom-up approach that believes we both have enough and are enough to come together, remove obstacles, and move people closer to reaching their full health potential. Creating empowering communities and organizations bring forth more empowered individuals who have greater access to the resources needed to thrive. 

At Sage Home, we are dedicated to empowering individuals, communities, and local organizations. When working with Sage Home, families will be given a space to engage with the community and with each other as they are empowered and move forward toward a meaningful, sober, and connected future. To learn more about us and what we do, reach out to our team.

Christens, B. D. (2012). Targeting empowerment in community development: A community psychology approach to enhancing local power and well-being. Community Development Journal, 47(4), 538-554.

Christens, B. D., Peterson, C. H., & Speer, P. W. (2014). Psychological empowerment in adulthood. Encyclopedia of primary prevention and health promotion, 1766-1776.

MacDermid Wadsworth, S. M. (2010). Family risk and resilience in the context of war and terrorism. Journal of Marriage and Family, 72(3), 537-556.

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