Patch and its Community

What does it mean to be a community? I was reading about how Patch got started and it reminded me a lot of what I was doing in my past job but more specifically the organization I was working with in Oakland, Community Human Services. According to Webster's dictionary, "Community is a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society."

"Patch is an innovative way to find out about, and participate in, what's going on near you. We're a community-specific news, information and engagement platform driven by passionate and experienced new media professionals. Patch is revolutionizing the way neighbors connect with each other, their communities, and the national conversation."

Where I was working at before, I became a community liaison and a volunteer coordinator. I was working with other employees at the organization I worked with, clients, other non-profits in the Oakland area, students, other AmeriCorp members, and volunteers, amongst other people.

One of my major projects was constantly recruiting volunteers for our food pantry, as well as a community garden project I helped to coordinate. I had made contacts with other non-profits in the area that maybe knew of some volunteers to help. That's really when the idea of what a community hit me.

I was watching my term of service project video which is uploaded to this post. It's a little goofy at times, but it really gets the point of community across. 

What we have going here with Patch is something incredibly special, it's not everyday a journalist gets to work in an individual community. That's really awesome—sometimes I feel like that's the only way to see what is really going on in a community. Even we as local community bloggers see what's going on in our town every day.

Through that, we can help other another. Now that's what community is all about.