The 3 Levels of Local

How Connection to Presence, Place, and Personal Authenticity Quietly Shapes Collective Impact

In 2024, a small group of us convened to guide the organization in identifying a vision statement for VillageCo.

Months of surveys, focus groups, research, and synthesis meetings finally resulted in simply this:

We invite you to reflect with us on why this vision resonates so deeply.

What does “local” mean?

The word “local” is most often understood as a common place. Local is the physical space we inhabit in our daily lives and share with the people around us. Community is defined by how close we feel to others, our relationships with them, the similarity of experiences (including chit chatting about the day’s weather).

Yet interestingly enough, we encountered a surprising resistance to the word ‘local’ during our research. Many of our connections and relationships nowadays do go beyond our neighborhoods and extend around the world.

Yet, why do the feelings of disconnection, polarization, isolation and loneliness persist in this “more than local” world? Digging deeper, we discovered 3 ways disconnection manifests, how "local" is defined in each, and how the practices we cultivate through VillageCo bring us back to being local.

credit: melitas

1. Local Disconnection and Social Issues

Let’s start with the core perspective: local is where we live.

Social disconnection, from a systems perspective, flows into many “downstream” problems. Our tendency is to fix the symptoms of these problems with heartfelt sincerity, making direct changes to “make the world a better place”. Many organizations exist for the sole purpose of alleviating poverty, educating youth, fighting injustices, developing climate change initiatives, and empowering individuals as change agents. Amazing work is done everyday to tend to our broken systems.

In a way, the call for “making the world a better place” is what brings us together. The sense of being in community, working together, and feeling connected with others arise through shared purposes and actions.

VillageCo subtly shifts this perspective to address the root cause of the symptoms. We believe ‘making the world a better place’ is a natural result of cultivating and transforming local connections into deeper relations. When people from diverse backgrounds and beliefs come together and connect meaningfully—building relationships rooted in shared values and experiences—we consistently see something remarkable unfold: communities become more resilient, vibrant, and connected.

As the world’s complexity increases, our greatest leverage is our local communities where we can have an immediate (a very localized) effect with what is around us.

credit: stellalevi

2. Local Disconnection and Technology

Being “locally connected” also means being present - local to the moment.

Our mobile devices, social media, and the endless apps might have added dimensions and pockets of time that allows us to be productive and build our networks. And yet it also subtracts something that we don’t get back - the now.

‘The now’ disappears when we dehumanize ourselves to one another, posting comments in discussion threads we might not otherwise say in real-life. We leave behind the rich and dynamic experience of what is happening right now, when we speak from the past and judgements and assumptions - which feel so much easier to do on a screen to a stranger.

Technology itself is not to blame. We relish the ease of asynchronous options, quickly responding when we want. We delight in endless connections with strangers, as well as family and friends, making it possible and convenient to stay aware of the larger world.

Truly having a ‘local to the moment’ connection (which can happen in the virtual space as well) is synchronous. Listening and even feeling the tensions in others or what someone is excited about, we can’t help but be fully present, in the now. It ultimately matters less whether we agree or disagree, as we seek to become more responsive to what is and how a person arrives to their opinions, rather than plainly react.

At VillageCo, we recognize the importance of having a container that enables meaningful conversations, which includes having one-to-one connections and small breakout groups. Our club-like Village Gathering Model is centered around the live gathering experience, removing anonymity. The Gathering Program takes groups through a series of relating experiences with ease and respect.

The Gathering Program’s aim is to deepen the experience of being local to each other; to lift up the importance of being human together, and to set aside the old patterns of prioritizing our own desires for speed, comfort, and entertainment.

3. Local Disconnection and Ourselves

Finally, the third way we interpret “local” is a bit more layered - being local to our own selves.

Society places on us many expectations. Whether based on our culture, our job, our relationships, our gender, our identity, our socioeconomic status, each context imposes a set of behaviors and expectations. When conflicts and judgements arise out of these expectations, they often stem from the stress of performing and not being able to just be ourselves.

In some spaces we feel the need to be positive and happy, making it hard to show up when you feel melancholy or neutral. We might be expected to be social and engaging, making it very challenging to show up to community events. We might fear judgement of others when we consider expressing what feels most natural to us; whether that’s being goofy, philosophical, or contradictory.

So we seek out spaces which are set up for allowing certain parts of ourselves to be expressed - bars, concerts, LGBT communities, churches, special interest groups, and even rallies. These become places where we can unleash these parts of ourselves more freely.

At Villages, gatherings tend to be smaller, where relating with each other can feel more natural. We use simple Member Agreements and hosting practices which elevate gatherings as spaces of inclusion. Our hope is that in attending a Village Gathering each member may be local with themselves: authentic, safe, accepted.

credit: melitas

For A Locally Connected World

So that’s it! That’s our vision statement, of which we’re proud to yell out atop a mountain and even at a local cafe. So proud we put it on a t-shirt! (and if you feel ‘local to our vision’ consider getting one!)

It’s a vision of neighborhoods with Villages organizing mutual aid, improving their spaces, and addressing their specific, local needs. It’s a vision of members seeing the importance of gathering regularly, using this space to talk about ideas they find important, and getting involved in things happening locally. Most of all, it’s a vision where anyone can feel at ease being themselves - among others doing the same, even in their differences

As VillageCo grows, and more communities try out the Village Model as clubs and hubs for generating local connections, this vision becomes more alive.

So here’s to a future of ‘a locally connected world”.

Food For Thought

1. Which “local” level feels the most alive for you?

2. Do you agree and believe in the power of localizing to make global impact

3. How can we better and more often embrace being with more people different than us? What needs to change?