These days, nearly every group you could join, or business you could frequent, is ready to call you part of their “family” and to ask you to join their “community.” So how do you know if you’re creating the real deal or just throwing around another buzz word?
WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE?
We want the people in the building. For our first 2 years of business as Joy in Motion dance studio, before we secured a commercial lease on the Old Moraga Post Office building on School Street just a stone’s throw from Miramonte High, we had a few hardy parents sitting in folding chairs under an awning in the rain to watch their kids. But we had a dream for a big community, so we needed a big building.
We turned the former postal service counter area where you would buy stamps into a vibrant, mixed-use lounge. Coffee shop style high counters and chairs flow along the back wall with shorter, cozier seating up close to viewing windows. Adults work on laptops using our free wifi. Grandparents help kids with homework. Tiny folding chairs at a pint-sized table welcome younger children to grab a beautiful dance or kindness-themed book from the bookcase.
As a small business, we can send all the emails we want about our fabulous classes, but if we believe in what we do, in our product, we want the people in the building. Even if mom, dad, babysitter, or little sister never takes a dance class from us, they will experience our business if they are inside, not waiting in the car.
WHAT DO THE PEOPLE WANT TO DO?
If we want the community to spend any amount of time in our building, we need to provide the basics. Bathrooms? Check. Filtered water fountain? Check. Space to socialize and decompress outside of structured class time? Check.
Want a somewhat separate space for tweens and teens to gather? Put a trash can for food garbage somewhere inviting to refuel between classes, say in the wide carpeted hallway by bright red and orange lockers. If the strategy works too well, and the trash can overflows, provide a bigger trash can.
Our front lobby (where the P.O. boxes once were) looks quite cavernous when empty. But at the hours of pickups and drop-offs when 2-4 classes let out? The lobby is bustling with spontaneous encounters of community members talking about dinner or how coaching that baseball team is going. The architect for our build-out said to make the hallways twice the width we planned so people can gather. We’re sure glad we listened.
WHAT MAKES THE PEOPLE COME BACK AGAIN?
Building authentic community in a space takes time, but you can set the stage for organic interactions with novelty. Seasonal decor. Colorful or surprising touches. The Diwali garlands next to Halloween scarecrows. A “guess the number of candy hearts in the jar” contest for one week only in February. Adult and youth dancers’ names on whimsical shapes on the monthly Birthday Wall.
Creating authentic community is not about telling people where to go and what to do, it’s about making the space where people will be comfortable and safe doing the things they naturally want to do. And a dose of playful JOY goes a long way.
