Community Identity & Resilience: From “I” to “We”

What Makes Us “Us”?

Our final zine invitation brings us from the individual back to the community.

Create a zine that explores or promotes community identity and resilience.

Community does not have to mean an entire city or country.

It might be your family.

Your classroom.

Your workplace.

Your professional group.

Your neighborhood.

Your cultural community.

A group of friends.

A support group.

Or simply several people who continue showing up for one another.

Begin With “We”

Ask:

Who are we?

What brings us together?

What have we experienced together?

What do we value?

What traditions do we want to preserve?

What has helped us continue during difficult times?

Who supports this community?

What stories should not be forgotten?

What makes us laugh?

What gives us hope?

What would we like the next generation to know about us?

Create It Together

This zine can be created by one person, but it can be especially meaningful as a group project.

Invite each person to contribute one page.

One person might write a memory.

Another might draw.

Someone might contribute a photograph.

Another might share a phrase often heard in the community.

Someone else might describe what gives them hope.

Put the pages together.

Now you have something more than a booklet.

You have a small record of “us.”

During our VELA training, we reflected on the idea that when people share where they are and what they are experiencing, they become more visible to one another. Community resilience is not only about individual strength. It is also about connection.

Sometimes resilience begins with a very simple realization:

I am here.
You are here.
We see one another.
We are not alone.

Your Invitation

Create a zine about a community that matters to you.

Or invite your community to create one together.

Don’t worry about making it beautiful.

Make it true to your community.

Because when stories are gathered, witnessed, and preserved, they can become part of what holds a community together.

What story does your community want to remember?

Start there.

About This Exercise

This creative exercise was introduced by Dr. Joe Mageary during VELA Well-being’s seminar, “Reflections on Identity: Working Towards Community Based Resilience,” as an art therapy-inspired approach to exploring identity, supporting emotional expression and healing, and fostering community resilience.