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Vital People: Do you belong?

How connected do you feel to your community? To your neighbours, friends and family? What is your sense of belonging? On Oct.

How connected do you feel to your community? To your neighbours, friends and family? What is your sense of belonging?

On Oct. 4, the Victoria Foundation will release the next edition of Victoria’s Vital Signs, taking a closer look at this critical, sometimes enigmatic, aspect of community life.

Vital Signs is an annual checkup that measures the vitality of our region, identifies concerns and supports action on issues that are critical to our quality of life. Now in its 11th year of production, each report also examines some aspect of our community that’s vital to our well-being, such as food security, childhood obesity or how we measure the things that are important to us as a society.

With this year’s focus on belonging, the report gives consideration to both what it means to belong, as well as how it relates to key population groups in our region, including newcomers, aboriginals, seniors and youth.

Definitions of belonging vary, but they often reference many of the same things: feeling accepted, being part of a group and feeling valued for our contribution. It’s also pretty much universal that we feel better when we have a strong sense of belonging. What’s not so widely understood, however, is the value to communities overall when citizens feel connected to one another.

Lori Elder, executive director of the Greater Victoria Eldercare Foundation, notes that people with a heightened sense of belonging are typically more proactive, more informed and more self-reliant. They’re also better prepared to seek and receive help when they need it.

Mavis Underwood, a band councillor with the Tsawout First Nation, says belonging starts at the family level. She points out that it’s families that build foundational skills in managing relationships, developing self-esteem and furnishing a sense of pride — all critical factors to developing a healthy sense of belonging in the future.

The importance of belonging to children and youth is echoed by Petra Chambers-Sinclair from the Child Youth and Health Network. Youth who feel more connected to their community have lower rates of stress, feel less despair and are less likely to have self-harmed or attempted suicide, she says.

You can learn more about belonging and what it might mean to you from these and other people interviewed in Vital Signs. Starting Oct. 4, look for your copy at pickup locations around the region, including grocery stores, community centres and libraries, or visit victoriafoundation.ca for an online copy.

Sandra Richardson is CEO of the Victoria Foundation.