Well folks, its community spring cleanup time. And it’s more than just getting rid of the crap that’s left after the snow melts. A community cleanup program instills pride. A cleanup encourages residents to take ownership of the neighbourhood and keep it clean and healthy – it gives everyone a chance to contribute.
A cleanup program enhances quality of life. Living in a clean environment makes life healthier, less stressful, and more pleasant. A community cleanup program improves the community’s health. It helps to ‘green’ the neighbourhood. A cleanup program can not only reduce pollution, but – by sorting neighbourhood trash and recycling as much as possible will help to reduce the neighbourhood’s carbon footprint.
It can serve as a springboard for other community actions or activities. It can increase the number of relationships and the amount of social capital within the community. In shared work for a common cause, people get to know one another and form bonds from their experience. Those bonds form the web of social capital that unifies a community. That web can help create real, long-term change.
