8 Ways to Foster Community This Summer

By Sineade Williams

Whether you live in a landlocked town or coastal city, summer is the time of year when the flowers bloom and so do social connections. However, as quite a few of us have discovered, once reaching adulthood, making friends while maintaining our schedules can be a bit tougher than expected. Whether you’re a freelancer, a 9-5er, or a stay-at-home parent, here are some easy ways to bring community into your life as an adult using the tools at your disposal.

Using social media has given us a great advantage when it comes to getting in touch with community activities and events, so step number one would start with looking up possible upcoming activities in your area on Instagram or any online events directories. 

Some of the activities could include:

Fitness

• Free outdoor yoga classes
• Skateboarding with friends
• Joining a cycling club
• Joining a hiking group
• Taking surfing lessons
• Rollerblading with friends 

Remember that the key with these is to keep it fun. So often we as adults can overcomplicate activities like working out, draining all the fun from something that should just function as a way to move and get in touch with your mind and body while in this case, perhaps also making some meaningful connections. 

Friendship

• Joining the bumble friend app 
• Having a picnic with your friends in the park or at the beach
• Attending a ceramics class
• Painting with friends
• Baking/cooking together.

The importance of finding and building our own supportive communities can never be understated. Especially after the pandemic, a lot of us learned the value of friendship and human connection. But in saying that, some of us may feel like we don’t know where to begin and how to create the ideal network to meet our needs. 

Hopefully, we can come to realize that it's often not as complicated as we may think. Sometimes all it takes is that one swipe right or the rediscovery of an long forgotten hobby, or perhaps learning a new skill, and before we know it, we have a community of like minded, caring individuals surrounding and supporting us.