As we continue to learn more about various community issues in NYC, including gentrification, redevelopment projects, rezoning plans, etc., it’s interesting to realize that none of us really have a concrete definition of what a “community” is. Perhaps the definition is implicitly understood; a community is a group or organization of people devoted towards some common cause. However, in The Community Development Reader, James DeFilippis, Susan Saegert, and Harold DeRienzo argue that there’s more to a community than just a group of people with common interests. A community is the most basic, fundamental unit through which people interact, sustain their familial lives, and act collectively to face commonly shared issues. Communities are entities that both shape people’s individual lives and perspectives, and serve as the grounding support for the larger-scale organizations of economy and government. In this sense, communities are an essential bridge between people and larger organizations and systems. When the larger economy fails to provide for these communities, the people are thus motivated to organize and bring about community development that can better serve their needs and desires. Hence, all community organizing efforts have an underlying goal of continually transforming their communities to better thrive in today’s ever-changing political and economic context.

Such a definition for community can also be applied to the NYC mental health “community”. This community, comprised of people dealing with mental and behavioral challenges, their families and friends, and professionals involved with helping these people deal with their difficulties, has a common goal of addressing the issues of mental health disabilities. Concurrent with DeRienzo’s requirements for a community, there is also a clear interdependence between the members of this community and the economy. Many patients suffering from mental disorders do not have comprehensive access to mental healthcare services, largely because of how unaffordable such services are, and the lack of government funding to increase the availability and effectiveness of these services. The inability of the larger economy and government to provide for these needs thus drives the mental health community to organize and demand for increased accessibility and affordability to mental healthcare services. Currently, such organizing efforts have been focused on the government initiative, Thrive NYC, which many feel is ineffective in its methods to efficiently arrange for comprehensive mental healthcare. Many mental health activists are calling for a more defined and established mental healthcare system that can create standards that ensure access to affordable, personalized comprehensive care for each mental health patient. Understanding and being informed about the economic, social, and political circumstances surrounding this community is therefore highly important, since such community development efforts must properly fit and function within the modern economic and social environment.

Discussion: For each of our group projects, who are the members of the “community” working to address the issues of each of our topics? What economic, social, and political factors are driving the need for community organization, and how can these efforts be catered to both fit the needs of the people and thrive successfully in today’s economic and social context?