THE community spirit which was once thriving in Guyana has waned over the years and has virtually come to a halt. Consequently, many communities which were  fountains of community activities which ensured that the environment was clean and tidy and was even beautified and enhanced, are no longer the case.

Community policing aimed at ensuring that criminal activities were minimal is no longer existing in several parts of the country,  resulting in a rise in both petty and serious crimes, especially in those areas.

But one of the most beneficial aspects of keeping the community spirit alive is that it helps to build unity and cohesiveness among community members and, at the same time, mobilizes the youth into gainful activities and hence keep them away from trouble and anti-social activities.

It is an established fact that one of the major causes of delinquency among youth is because adults do not mobilize and involve them in community activities and thus they feel alienated and divorced from the community. As such, they gravitate towards unwholesome activities,  falling prey to destructive elements within the community.
US Academics Leslie K. Goodyear and Barry Checkoway, writing in the Community Youth Developmental (CYD) Journal on the subject, noted:
“When we talk about youth participation in community evaluation and research, [we include efforts by adults to involve young people in research and evaluation of programmes that serve young people; by young people to organize their own community action projects; and by youth and adults to work together in inter-generational partnerships toward social justice. All of these are legitimate ways for young people to generate knowledge of, by, and for young people as well as to inform the people, programmes, and policies with whom they interact.”

Mark Brennan also reinforces the need for developing and strengthening the community. He writes: “The need for local participation and the organization of local residents to meet the challenges facing their communities is of increasing importance. Extension professionals and policy-makers are more frequently faced with the task of establishing programmes in settings characterized by conflict among different groups of stakeholders with very different needs, values, and policy preferences. In many communities, these conflicts are often rooted to differences between groups that seek to protect community quality and those that seek to exploit local resources (especially the local workforce and natural resource base) as a means of achieving economic development. Equally common is the consistent transfer of responsibilities for services from government agencies to the private community sector. Such conditions have resulted in local residents taking on  greater roles in providing services and planning for future needs. In response to the pressures and changes in our communities, activists, grassroots social change organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and coalitions of concerned community groups have emerged to shape and guide the development process.”
Against this backdrop, it was pleasant news, which this newspaper reported recently, that the community spirit is alive and well in the Eccles Housing Scheme.
According to our report, residents of the Eccles Housing Scheme on the East Bank Demerara carried out a clean-up exercise on Sunday, in an effort to beautify the environment and make the scheme a benchmark community.
This is indeed a laudable effort which it is hoped will be emulated by other communities. It is also significant that Labour Minister Mr. Manzoor Nadir is an active participant in this wonderful initiative.
Rekindling the community spirit brings only benefits rather than disadvantages, therefore we,  as a nation, should work unrelentingly to bring it back across the country once again.