Our community ecosystem

Connection to one another and to the communities we are a part of is central to our wellbeing, giving and receiving support even helps us build resilience.

Support can come from everywhere, even from people who aren’t around any more, fictional characters, or more. It’s so important to be recognising the support we provide – we all support other people, even if it’s in small ways that we might not even notice, and often we don’t realise the difference we make.

It can be helpful to map out and visualise your support systems, not only to reflect on who supports you, but also who you support. The activity below can help you think about how our community ecosystem is like a big and beautiful tree, with many different layers. You can even get out a piece of paper and draw your tree – don't worry, there’s no points for artistic skill.

This can be a fun activity to do with your friends, to reflect together on who you draw support from and who you support. Start by writing each others names on the trunk and go from there.

Leaves

Who do you provide shade, shelter and support to?

Branches

What relationships, communities and networks are you a part of where there is mutual support? (these can range from siblings, local gym to online groups, art groups, your favourite author, your pet)

Trunk

Who supports you? (family, friends, counsellors, therapist, partner etc..)

Roots

Where do you draw strength from? Your culture, history, relatives, icons, etc?

Now that you’ve created this tree, you can return to it whenever you need a reminder of where your supports are, who to reach out to and what parts of your ecosystem you would like to nourish and grow. Each of us has our own unique tree, and no tree exists in isolation either - we are all interconnected in our ecosystems.

Some questions about our community ecosystems:

  • What do you love about your community?
  • Where do you find your community?
  • How do you navigate the sometimes difficult relationships we can have with other community members?
  • Does your community ecosystem look similar or quite different to your friends’?

Together we are stronger, look after each other. Community Care: It’s a way to ensure the needs of the most marginalised people are met and it can help to redistribute resources to those who need it most.

- Community Member

Thinking about change over time

Like all ecosystems, change is a natural and constant part of our lives. If we didn’t change, we wouldn’t be able to grow.  

Our community ecosystems aren’t stuck in time, either - supports can ebb and flow. We can nourish and increase our supports over time, or we might sometimes need to find more within us to support those around us.

Some more questions to think about:

  • Looking at your community ecosystem, what do you want to stay constant in the future?
  • What parts of your tree do you want to nourish and grow more of? Maybe more connection to the roots, or the leaves?
  • Are there any parts of your ecosystem you want to feature less?
  • Are there things that are important to you that you didn’t realise?
  • Who in your tree can you lean on for support while you make these changes over time?

No tree is set in stone, so there’s always opportunity to find new ways of growing, nurturing and supporting our ecosystems. Remember, we're thinking about all the possible and wondrous futures for our ecosystem, so anything is possible.