Social Work Corner – Finding Strength in Community: Why Community Care is Essential to Self-Care – February 2025

As advocates, we dedicate ourselves to ensuring our clients' safety, stability, and well-being. In doing so, we often prioritize their needs over our own and overlook self-care. By now, we’ve all heard about the importance of self-care and understand that we need it. Still, practicing self-care remains a challenge for many of us.

What if we change the way we think about self-care? After all, our well-being is deeply connected to those around us. We exist in connection to others, our community, and our environment. Contemplate self-care in these terms, taking care of yourself is a contribution to the well-being of not only you but also those around you, both in your personal and professional life. Perhaps that perspective can inspire those who find self-care challenging to take action by embracing self-care as community care.

Community care happens in many different ways and considers different levels of community. A community can consist of those in close proximity to you like your family, friends, colleagues, organization/club acquaintances, faith-based congregation members, as well as the broader community like your neighborhood and city. When we talk about community care, it doesn’t always mean organizing a volunteer day or hosting large events, although volunteerism is one part of it. It can be as simple as maintaining your own well-being so you can support those around you. It can also be offering to help a family member or cook a meal for a sick neighbor. It might mean picking up lunch for your coworkers during a busy office day or simply attentively listening when someone else needs to talk. Community care involves being present, empathetic, and supportive in everyday moments. It’s about creating space for others, fostering connections, and showing compassion through small, thoughtful acts that strengthen our collective well-being.

Community care has a positive impact on us as individuals, and on the communities we are a part of. Some of those positive impacts are addressed below:

• Increases purpose, meaning, and belonging: Community care as support for others, holding space and listening to others, as well as acts of service enhances our sense of purpose and meaning in life, strengthening our individual well-being.
• Reduces isolation and loneliness: Community care creates opportunities for connection and support between each other. Through it, we know we are not alone in what we are facing.
• Builds resilience: Community care offers us a support system in the form of emotional support, shared resources, collective problem-solving, or simply knowing someone is there for us to help us navigate difficult moments. The connection to others provides the strength to confront life challenges more effectively than going at it alone.
• Offers strength in solidarity: Community care allows us to hold power in uniting with people who share similar values, experiences, and goals as us. Community care fosters an environment where members feel understood and validated, helping individuals feel more secure and confident.
• Cultural and social relevance: Different marginalized communities are culturally rooted on collective care as collective care resonates with their values or lived experience. They are grounded in community care through their traditions, shared resources, and beliefs that support holistic and community well-being.
• Heals through connection: Community care enables shared healing by creating spaces where people can listen, share stories, and offer each other compassion. The interconnectedness aids in emotional processing, validation, personal growth, and healing.
• Promotes empathy and compassion: Community care allows us to explore feelings of empathy and compassion, which can lead to a deeper understanding of ourselves and others.

How to Practice Community Care:

• Shift your focus from hyper-individualism towards communal care. This means that as we advocate for the needs of unaccompanied immigrant youth, let’s also commit to caring for ourselves and each other. By doing so, we build not only personal resilience, but also the collective strength needed to sustain this vital work.
• Hold space for yourself and others by focusing on the human first. This means creating a safe and supportive environment for someone else’s thoughts, process, and experience. Be fully present by listening and empathizing with the other person.
• Focus on collaboration by building relationships with others, sharing not only knowledge, skills, and experiences but also sharing the burdens and the challenges. This nurtures a space for healing and growth as true resilience is built together.
• Ask for the care and support you need by being open and willing to receive care from others. Asking for help normalizes the act of seeking support.
• Prioritize rest, as rest is essential not only for your own well-being but for the collective well-being of your community. Practicing rest and encouraging others to rest is a vital act of community care. Rest should not be viewed as something you earn or as a reward for hard work, but as a fundamental need for maintaining your overall health and mental wellness. When you prioritize rest you model the importance of self-care, allowing others to feel empowered to do the same, fostering a healthier and more resilient community. ¹

Check out our webinar website, Building Resilience: Tools for Advocates Serving Unaccompanied Children. This webinar explores practical strategies and tools to enhance resilience and maintain well-being while navigating the high demands and challenges of advocacy work. This website includes our webinar materials: Presentation slides, grounding script, Self-Care & Community Care resources, and the recording of the webinar will be available soon.

¹ Well+good, 7 ways to Integrate Community Care Into Your Wellness Practice, last visited February 03,2025, available at https://www.wellandgood.com/how-to-practice-community-care/