Are you a Citizen or Spectator pt.2

MATT.org and guest contributor Greg Pardos

How Do I Start? Community Participation 101


As promised, our emails will feature different contributors with experience in community participation. This week’s contributor is Greg Pardo, a UT Austin Graduate Student from the LBJ School of Community Affairs.

"...Community participation allows neighbors to become acquainted with each other and build a trust that could lead to a safer and more vibrant community."

-Greg Pardo, MATT Member and UT Austin Graduate Student from the LBJ School of Public Affairs


Participating in your community does not have to take much effort or sacrifice. Being engaged in your community can be as simple as lending your neighbor a gardening tool or purchasing candy from the elementary student for their school fundraiser. Simple participation, however, should not be one’s goal. Get together with your community to do a neighborhood clean up, a plate sale, volunteer as a little league coach, start a reading club or even a garden along with a mural.

My personal experience with community participation varies between challenging the simplest tasks. In the Edgewood community in San Antonio, I have been involved in voter registration drives, co-founding a tutoring program, and more recently serving as a co-founder of a Pop Warner football team. These experiences, however, were not as fulfilling as helping my elderly neighbor pick oranges and lemons off her trees, helping a local youth group clean-up the neighborhood, or painting my neighbor’s fence. During these experiences, I realized that community participation allows neighbors to become acquainted with each other and build a trust that could lead to a safer and more vibrant community. Older community members will feel safe around the younger, while the youth begin to respect their elders.

So, should you be a citizen or simply a spectator? I would suggest trying to be a citizen. It could be as simple as giving a plant to your neighbor or asking the teenager across the street to help you with your lawn. Regardless of how involved you can be, your presence in your community can lead to numerous possibilities.

Greg Pardo Bio
In 2008, Greg received the Rangel International Affairs Fellowship and is now attending the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin through which he has served as a Congressional Fellow in Washington, D.C. and as an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon, Burma. After completing his graduate studies, Greg will serve as a Foreign Service Officer (FSO) with the U.S. Department of State. Click here to read his full bio. 		Get Involved!

Have a story to share? We want to continue hearing them! Stay tuned for further ways of how to find new ways to live out your community participation and we will share more stories and ideas from our members and contributors.

Sincerely,
Rebecca J. Viagran
VP of Community Affairs



 
   
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