Building Social Capital

Previously I talked about building community capacity. Let us turn our attention now to social capital. Social Capital in its simplest form is the cultural alliances and associations that enable its holders to access resources contained in institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance or recognition. It can be characterized by, not what you know, but who you know. The lack of social capital in minority communities may be construed as a contributing factor as to why marginalized inner city communities exist. Residents who remain - mostly low income African Americans, Hispanics, and whites - are deemed marginalized due to the out migration of resources and businesses. Portes affirms this when he writes "how the departure of both industrial employment and middle class families from black inner city areas as we know them today, have left the remaining population bereft of social capital, a situation leading to its extremely high levels of unemployment and welfare dependency.' Portes,(1998:14) Thus, a significant number of poor inner city residents lack the alliances and relationships needed to bridge their marginalized communities with resources in resource rich neighboring communities. Levitte writes that " it is critical to invest in organizational capacity of the poor and to help build bridges between communities and social groups." Levitte, (2004:242) Our dilemma today reflect the reality that many of our local community organizations are lacking the expertise and knowledge of building bridges and bonds to the organizations that provide the institutionalized relationships. i.e The William Penn Foundation, the Comcast Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trust. Social Capital reflects one of the deficiencies that hamper development in our communities. Build social capital in your neighborhoods, in your communities, in your churches, in your interactions, and you will build social capital in the minority community.