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-Ron Lapitan, Former Community Outreach Coordinator

Community building isn’t hard. Much of what is needed to grow any social movement can be said in two easy rules.

Step one: sit in the right rooms. These rooms aren’t hard to find because the doors are always open. They are the weekly worship services of synagogues, churches, mosques, and others. They are the numerous community events and spaces of conversation to talk about problems that people care about, which are readily available to the public if you look for them. The doors are open because people yearn to share our perspectives about what it takes to build a better world. Everyone is just waiting for everyone else to walk into their space to hear their perspective. Every room is the right one. Be the first to be interested to go inside, and you’ll make many friends.

Today, I joined a meeting of the NoVA Coalition for Refugee Wellness, our last to plan a conference we have organized for the end of June to network medical practitioners and social workers serving refugees in our area to share experience. How did I become a part of this Coalition? I went to an interfaith event at a synagogue, then someone from there invited me to another meeting about refugees, then someone from there invited me to this Coalition. The door wasn’t hidden. All I needed was to be interested.

“What organization are you with?” I asked the woman sitting at the table when I arrived.
“With Prince William County Community Services,” she answered. I told her about our own Health as Right Program to empower youth in high schools to create solutions to the pressing public health problems of our community.
“Have you reached out to Prince William schools yet? Let me connect you with my colleagues, who can connect you to many of them,” she said as we traded cards.

At the end of the meeting, I gave a short presentation about our program to the group and handed out flyers. “I am connected to many of the schools in Arlington County. I would be happy to connect you with them,” said another of the friends who found me on our way out.

The second rule once you get into those right rooms: talk to everyone.

Community building isn’t hard. Everything needed to start can be said in two easy steps, then you figure out the rest while running. We’ll teach them to all of our high school leaders, then we’ll have a hundred more community builders; a hundred movements dedicated to building a culture of health and human rights.

All you need is to want to start. Just do it.

“Make voyages. Attempt them. There’s nothing else.”

-Tennessee Williams

#healthasright #youthteams