I love living in a small town where everyone knows and supports each other, and it's one of the things I will miss most when I move back to the United States in October. My first few months here, I did a "community diagnostic," which helped me learn all about my town, its people, and their wants and needs. Since then, I've tried to do all I can to help out with those wants and needs, and my community members do all they can to help me, too!
I learned about a lot of community needs throughout the diagnostic process, but one concern that caught my attention was that youth were not effectively using their time, and because of that, were falling into bad habits that did not promote their development. One strength of the community is that many townspeople, specifically youth, are interested in sports programs. The problem was that there were no organized programs or structures in place to support this desire to practice sports. So, what was the need I identified? A basketball court!
