The question of whether a community is sustainable is far from being simple. First, we must define the community; is it geographic, family, educational, fiscal, etc? Then, we must define sustainability for that community. Community is defined as “the experience of belonging” (Block, 2008). But, belonging to what? A club, a family, an educational institution? Each of these has potential to be defined as community. What about sustainability, meaning sustainable development (Morse, 2010)? In his 2010 book, “Sustainability: A Biological Perspective,” Morse explains that sustainability is the intersection of three areas of environment, economics and community. This begs the question, how can we explore “sustainable community,” when the very essence of sustainability uses community as a component?
To examine this question another way, we will consider a basic philosophical argument:
Premise 1: Sustainable Development requires environment.
Premise 2: Sustainable Development requires economics.
Premise 3: Sustainable Development requires community.
Conclusion: Without community, you do not have sustainable development.
However, the purpose of this paper is to discuss “sustainable communities.” This term, by definition is circular, as community is a requirement for sustainability, according to Morse. A better question then, is what kind of community best contributes to sustainability? Communities that promote male mentors are better suited to contribute to sustainability.
Kopp and Hinkle (2006) bring together several sources to define a mentor.
A mentor is a knowledgeable guide or established leader who may occupy a senior position, rank, or status and who possesses expertise and power as well as a proven record of accomplishment...
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Kululanga et al.: Striving to promote male involvement in maternal health care in rural and urban settings in Malawi – a qualitative study. Reproductive Health 2011 8:36. doi:10.1186/1742-4755-8-36.
Morse, S. (2010). Sustainability: A biological perspective. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Pompper, D. and Adams, J. (2006). Under the microscope: Gender and mentor-protégé relationships. Public Relations Review, (32), 309-315. Retrieved from www.sciencedirect.com
Rhodes, J et al. (2008). The role of gender in youth mentoring relationship formation and duration. Journal of Vocational Behavior, (72), 183-192. Retreived from www.sciencedirect.com
Spencer, R. (2007). “I just feel safe with him”: Emotional closeness in male youth mentoring relationships. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 8(3), 185-198.
In contrast, according to Barnes, Miller, and McKinnon (2012), mentoring relationships can be more structured and “formal” as a result of being organized though actual agencies verses informal connections where the relationship organically develops, for example with a coach and athlete or teacher and student. A reputable organization known as Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBS) is a formal mentoring program founded in New York City in 1904. The purpose was to solicit professionals, philanthropists and community leaders to serve as volunteers for the youth engaged in the criminal
This definition of mentor is ratified by Parsloe (2009): To support and encourage individuals to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be.
Mentoring is the process of developing an individual or group, through guidance and giving advice. There is no age restriction between the mentee and mentor. The focus of the mentoring is not just to develop a particular area but to grow the individual or group as a whole. In essence the mentor keeps the big picture in mind through his/her mentoring. This can be specific to an industry, skills, experience but not limited to these particular factors.
Spencer, R., Collins, M. E., Ward, R., & Smashnaya, S. (2010). Mentoring for young people
In addition, for some mentors, mentoring was a burden or workload issue that often went unnoticed by others. Mentees, too, were concerned by a lack of mentor interest and training and a host of problematic mentor attributes and behaviors (e.g. critical or defensive behaviors). Professional or personal incompatibility or incompatibility based on other factors such as race or gender was also seen by both mentors and mentees as impediments to the success of the relationship. Organizations, too, were confronted with difficulties arising from mentoring programs. Lack of commitment from the organization, lack of partnership and funding problems were reported in some studies, while in others, cultural or gender biases meant that some mentees’ experiences were not
Research and Practice: The Role of Evidence-Based Program Practices in the Youth Mentoring Field. (2009). Mentoring Resource Center, (30).
Flaxman, E. Evaluating Mentoring Programs. New York: Institute for Urban and Minority Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1992.
Mentoring is defined as "the contribution of a trusted, nonparental adult in the life of a child or youth..." (Williams, 3). Mentoring programs help youth in foster care to create a relationship with someone that will last longer than relationships created by the system, such as a foster parent or a social worker. A child may have multiple different social workers during their time in the foster care system, as well as many different foster parents. Mentoring programs offer foster youth the opportunity to create a relationship with someone that is not a relationship forced upon them by the foster system. Children in foster care who are involved in mentoring programs are "more likely to attend college and less likely to engage in delinquent behavior." (Williams, 3). These outcomes are what have sparked mentoring programs to begin in a few states, or regions, across the country. One specific program is in Washington D.C. and is called the Family and Youth Initiative (DCFYI). This program "helps youth ages 12 to 21 years in foster care find stable adult relationships, including mentors and adoptive families, through regular teen-adult social events, host family visits, advocacy, and outreach." When a relationship is formed through one of the social events, the youth, or the adult, can reach out to the program director about the potential of creating a relationship (Ahmann, 4). The social events put on through the DCFYI give foster youth the opportunity to create a relationship outside of the foster care system. The DCFYI has had many success stories, one of which is about Robert, and his mentor, whom he met through DCFYI, Brian. Robert lived in a group home when he began attending DCFYI events, which is where he met his mentor,
Having an effective working relationship with a student is an important goal and will underpin all other aspects of mentoring (Walsh, 2014). It is advisable to build this relationship quickly and effectively within the first week of the student’s placement, this is known to be the mentor’s responsibility and allows the mentor to demonstrate to be organised, productive and welcoming (Walsh,
Rogers, DS., Duraiappah, AK., Antons, D.C., Munoz, P., Bai, X., Fragkias, M., Gutscher., H (2012) A Vision for Human Well-Being: Transition to Social Sustainability: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 4(1) pg 61-73.
Sustainability is a concept with a diverse array of meanings and definitions – a widely used glamorous, ambiguous, ambivalent and vague concept that is used by different stakeholder groups in various ways. Presumably to avoid noodling over a terminology or to avoid the confrontation with a definition, most widely the concept is broken down a planning process (c.f. e.g. Döring & Muraca, 2010). That is why most common sustainability is understood as sustainable development.1
The primary purpose of mentoring is to develop the skills of an individual to improve organizations (Northouse, 2004). The positive results of leadership in the form of mentoring include career stabilization through encouragement (Kram, 1985), acclimation to organizational environments and responsibilities (Daresh, 2003), and a general sense that one is in control of their career (Scandura & Williams, 2004).
One of my responsibilities involved checking the messages from the days before on the office phone. I found that some of the potential mentors sounded older. This got me wondering about the age limits of the mentors. I knew they had to be at least 18, but was there an age cap? Could a 30-year-old join the team and be the mentor to a 12-year-old? I though about the different ways that these relationships could manifest. If the mentor was older, could they potential become a parental figure to the child? I always thought of the mentors as young adults, around college age. They would be an older sibling to the child, understanding the generation specific of the child, especially once they were teens. I though that in this way, the child would possibly open up more because they would not look at the person as an authority figure. When I though about a possible 13-year-old being matched with a 35-year-old, I thought of my teen years and figured that at that age, I would not have been so willing to share. Nevertheless, we allow any willing person, over the age of 18, that passes the checks, to become a mentor!
There are different approaches in sustainable development. Diesendorf (2000) had illustrated that the goal or destination of sustainable development was the tight relationship between sustainabi...
The Role of Community in Society Communities are an essential part of our society, because we all depend and interact with each other. Communities are groups of people that help an individual to learn and develop new ideas. A society is where people’s relations with each other are direct and personal and where a complex web of ties link people in mutual bonds of emotion and obligation. The idea of community has provided a model to contrast to the emergence of more modern less personal societies where cultural, economic and technological transformations have uprooted tradition and where complexity has created a less personal and more rationalized and goal directed social life.