Neighborhood Alchemy: The Surprising Ingredients that Make Joyful Communities
Original Medium Post HERE
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What we learned about joy from Boston’s first citywide joy survey
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What is a joyful community–and how do we build more of them?
Our belief at East Boston Social Centers (the Social Centers) is that joy is more than a fleeting emotion. It is a durable, shared sense of wellbeing. It is the foundation for individual stability and contentment. And at the neighborhood level, it’s the glue that holds strong communities together.
How do we increase joy in the community? What should we do and what should we ask our leaders to do? And how will we know when we’ve done it? These are the questions that brought the Social Centers, the Shah Family Foundation, and The MassINC Polling Group together earlier this year for a groundbreaking study of joy in Boston.
The premise was simple: if we can identify what builds joy, community leaders can build policies and initiatives that focus on it. We can work together to strengthen communities and make life better for residents.
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Getting to answers was far from simple. We read a lot of academic articles and went down countless internet rabbit holes. When we resurfaced, we had what we needed to put a questionnaire together.
The survey both measured joy in the simplest possible way (asking how often you feel joy), and a very complex way (linking 5 other concepts to joy to see how they fit together). We administered the survey to over 1,800 residents of Boston, with an oversample in Eastie (of course) because it’s home to the Social Centers and our community joy movement.
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When the data came back it showed some things that are both surprising and not that surprising. First off, money isn’t that closely linked to joy. And one of the five things we tried to link to joy was also not very closely connected either. More on that later. But four things were closely connected to joy, and taken together, they paint a pretty clear picture of what it takes to build joy in the community.
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To examine these relationships, we used regression analysis, which is a statistical method that helps us understand and quantify the relationship between two or more variables and identify patterns in data. The numbers in the chart more or less mean that, for example, as purpose goes up 1 point on our 0–10 scale, joy goes up 0.28 points.
Associations of our five pillars, as measured, with joy
Sense of purpose
Of everything we included, purpose was the one factor most closely related to joy. The feeling that life is meaningful and what you are doing is worthwhile brings the sense of inner peace that is the foundation for sustained joy.
Relationships
Our survey found that people who reported feeling loved and secure in their relationships were more likely to experience joy. In neighborhoods where relationships flourish, joy is an ever-present companion, offering solace in times of need and amplifying celebrations.
Fitness
The survey found a strong relationship between fitness and joy. People who felt they were healthy both in outright terms and relative to others their age more frequently reported higher levels of joy. This suggests that neighborhoods where physical activity is a part of everyday life experience more joy.
Fun
They survey showed injecting a dose of fun into the daily routine creates an environment where joy becomes a natural byproduct. We measured fun by how often people are excited about what they are doing and become absorbed in it. From neighborhood events to spontaneous gatherings, the element of fun proved to be a catalyst for joyous lives.
Contemplative practices
The one that was not related to joy was “contemplative practices”. That may be because of how we measured it. Measuring any concept via survey requires hard choices about what questions to include. It’s possible contemplation really is part of joy and we just need different questions.
We know there is strong evidence that some of the very happiest people in the world meditate frequently–and so in future research, we will focus more directly on meditation rather than on this broader concept of contemplative practices.
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Meanwhile, the four concepts that were linked with our joy measure are very important. Imagine living in a community where these four pillars were strong–where people have strong relationships, a sense of purpose, opportunities for fitness, and access to fun. Imagine the level of community joy we could reach if people felt like all four are within reach.
That’s our vision. We at the Social Centers set out to measure joy to see where we are today–and to have a roadmap to increase joy in the future. Join us!
Stay tuned for our next post, where we will go deeper into the East Boston specific data–and a plan for joy in this community.
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Steve Koczela is President of the MassINC Polling Group, a nonpartisan public opinion research firm serving public, private, and social-sector clients. MPG elevates the public’s voice with cutting-edge methods and rigorous analysis. Based in Boston, MPG serves a nationwide client base. Learn more at massincpolling.com. Masha Sundararaman is Data and Policy Analyst there and contributed to this
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This is the 45th post about boosting joy the only way we can: in community. Please share, subscribe, and join our movement by emailing me or supporting East Boston Social Centers. Stay joyful, East Boston.
Steve Koczela, President, MassINC Polling Group
