Community is important in this part of the world, and I’m sure it’s the same for you, too. We’ve covered a whole bunch of community-themed posts on this blog before, but one thing we haven’t considered is this: what if your local neighborhood doesn’t have a community that you are interested in?

We all take part in the charitable and local events, of course. But of there is something you are particularly interested in and you know others are too, why don’t you start something yourself? The whole whole world has gone community mad in the past decade or so, and it’s not just local citizens, NGOs and nonprofits that are starting them. The good news for all of us is that this means there is plenty of information out there about starting one – here are a few tips.

A quick education

In theory, a community can be formed with a single meeting in a town hall – it’s really that simple. But of course, like most other things in life the chances are that it will be a little trickier, depending on what you want to do. If you want to raise awareness of a minor local problem, for example, you are likely to find many people willing to back you up. But if you want your community is involved in something like human rights campaigns or larger, political issues, some training might be required. A lot of people in these kind of fields start off with something like a Bachelor of Science in organizational leadership. This is the kind of thing you should be looking for if you really want to understand the theories and practices behind community organization.

Giving an education – and an inspiration

Once you have learned all you need to about building a community, it’s time to put that knowledge to good use. The whole point of this is to inspire, educate and inform people – to turn them onto your kind of thinking. You also need to motivate them to take action, and for them to be inspired they are doing something good. You can see brands doing this everywhere, from Levi’s raising money for water reclaiming initiatives through to Coca Cola setting up two way cameras in India and Pakistan. The more creative you are, the better.

Taking names

Once you have a few people on board, it’s time to ask them to start spreading the word. The best communities are largely leaderless, so see yourself as a navigator rather than anything else – and your initial influx of interested people as your first mates – and your ambassadors. Over time the spread of communication between yourselves and everyone else’s contacts needs to be collected so you can start to loop people in with what’s happening. Email addresses, phone calls, and anything else you can get your hands on will ensure that you get as many people motivated and turning up to meetings as possible.

Hopefully, these simple ideas will inform you about how to start a small community and get it up and running. Do you have any more tips?