Fostering Participatory & Inclusive Community Circles
Bangladeshi Community of Guelph has emerged in February 2016 out of our learning that certain conventions and social habits (e.g. groupthink) reinforce hierarchy and power-play, and thereby undermine core values of a community organization. At times, governance structure overrides other deep-seated values such as, participation, inclusive voice, choice and intent to represent community members through socially and ethically acceptable practices. Bangladeshi community members, therefore, have cherished for an alternative platform which does not undermine core values and principles at the expense of instating a ‘group think’ and ‘ownership’ in the governance structure. They consider it as a ‘social space’ where every member irrespective of ages, ethnicity or any other social groupings can play a proactive role in bonding and building inclusive community circles. In this platform, we focus on ‘circles’ rather than on ‘conventions’ because we care everyone ‒ who is interested in Bangladeshi culture, tradition & lifestyle. We believe that ‘circle’ encourages a flexible form of organization that ensures ‘collective’ ownership and encourages innovative ideas, mutual respect, and partnership with different cultural groups.
Bangladeshi Community of Guelph is aimed at enhancing community wellbeing through fostering participatory and inclusive community circles. In order to achieve the goal we intend to:
- Organize events for satisfying ‘educational’, ‘cultural’ & ‘socialization’ needs of members at large.
- Encourage sharing of experience among members, especially for personal and professional growth.
- Strengthen relationship between different generations ‒ ‘kids’, ‘adolescent’, ‘young’ and ‘senior’.
- Establish and strengthen relationships among community members irrespective of their background ‒ e.g. economic, social, racial, faith or spiritual classes/groups.
- Support members at times of their social and personal needs ‒ e.g. stand together in times of personal, social and psychological challenges.
- Establish friendship and cooperation between Bangladeshi and other cultural groups.
- Encourage participation of members through ‘virtual’ and ‘physical’ spheres of community building.
Objectives
Functional Structure
We want to go beyond a classical form of organization and instate a culture of working through physical and virtual ‘circles’ that include everyone who cares about Bangladeshi culture and cross-cultural learning. We adhere to principle of encouraging ‘mutual respect’ to members and discouraging stereotyping attitude based on ties (e.g. kinship & wealth) and strategic (e.g. duration of physical ties in the community) and political affiliation (e.g. membership in a political party and community organization) in the community at large.
We intend to operate through a functional structure. We want to avoid philosophy of a ‘governance’ structure which has been quite problematic as it reinforces authority over others. As in its early stage, we wish to operate this community circle through a team of volunteers based in Guelph, ON. The team should not adopt a hierarchy (unless it is needed to perform certain functions) and encourage alternating responsibilities among team members so that a collective leadership is realized. The team will circle members in their ‘physical’ & ‘virtual’ spheres.