Building connections one neighbor at a time — By Rosanna M. Batista and Justin Pasquariello
Boston’s groundbreaking first joy survey: how Eastie is doing, how we can increase joy
How do we build and strengthen a sense of belonging in a community? East Boston Social Centers (Social Centers) staff members seek to do just that as we develop and deliver programming for community members across the lifespan.
In May 2023, the Shah Foundation sponsored a “Joy in the City of Boston” survey of ten neighborhoods in Boston. The survey was conducted and analyzed by the The MassINC Polling group with a total sample size of 1,825 Boston residents responding to the survey.
The Social Centers used compiled results to assess how our East Boston residents responded to specific questions. We identified responses related to our five Joy Pillars, to understand opportunities for further growth in our community joy initiatives.
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How is Eastie doing?
It turns out we’re pretty joyful already. Around 8 in 10 East Boston respondents reported feeling positive and the same percentage reported feeling happy.
Of East Boston respondents, 86% stated that they felt joyful regularly. This ranked East Boston second among the ten responding neighborhoods (Mattapan had the highest level of residents regularly reporting joy).
We also found respondents felt positively about their life direction over time; they scored higher on the Cantrill Life ladder (a measure of life satisfaction) for today (76% scoring 6 or higher out of 10) than they did when they reflected on how they felt about their lives five years ago (51%).
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Opportunities to increase joy in East Boston
But we have some work to do, particularly in the fun department. We noted that 19.3% of East Boston residents did not feel absorbed in the things they are doing. We’re working on that, and will have some future announcements. We also invite your suggestions–and your partnership–in increasing access to fun in our community.
Also, as is true everywhere, not everyone is experiencing the same joy. Too many people feel lonely. We noted that 13% or about 1 in 8 East Boston residents felt lonely and 12% reported often feeling sad.
Across the ten Boston neighborhoods, 30% of women over 60 reported feeling lonely, a similar rate to the 31% of men over 60 yrs old. We don’t have East Boston-specific data for older adults — but expect Eastie older adults similarly face an increased risk of loneliness compared with their younger neighbors.
Given the associations highlighted in our previous post, we know if we can reduce those feelings of loneliness and sadness–we will also increase joy.
How we are reducing loneliness–and increasing joy
Intergenerational connections
We continue to evaluate our Social Centers programs and initiatives to maximize their role in fostering relationships, reducing isolation, reducing sadness, and increasing joy. Social Centers staff members are a vital connector for our community members.
Our program participants from prenatal to Active Adults (older adults) are well connected to our staff members and to each other. For example, Active Adults participants have told us our programming de-isolates them, teaches them about fall prevention and brings fun through activities such as trips to Salem, Massachusetts, and fosters camaraderie through gardening.
Our Active Adults crochet hats and scarves for our Early Learners — who wear them with pride. Through this work, Active Adults strengthen relationships with each other and we strengthen connections across age groups.
Our Eastie Achievers provide another great example of connections across age groups and programs. These participants in our Thriving Teens program obtain valuable work experience in childcare settings, thus learning about early childhood development. At the same time, our youngest children in our Early Learners program have an additional staff member to do fun activities with while learning vital cognitive and child development skills.
Our Eastie Achievers participate in youth development programming one day each week, and work four days each week in our early learning classrooms. Most importantly for joy, they build a sense of belonging with their peers, with the Early Learners staff and with our youngest learners.
A community hub
The Harvard Flourishing Project states that a model where “individuals can have support to build relationships such as a town council or community center” works best to promote community. The Social Centers is one of those community centers and trusted spaces. One part of our work to increase joy in East Boston is growing these programs to reach more community members.
To transform the community, we need transformative leaders. Our staff members and our community leaders lead us to focus on joy as the essential building block of strong communities. If you agree with us, we hope you’ll join us as we continue to build on and build out our work to catalyze a more joyful East Boston community.
This is the 46th 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.
