Why is it important to build a community?

A community is a group of people who share a characteristic, or, for this post, a passion.

More communities are getting stronger behind their causes as people become more driven to act on their passions and make an impact. The tech community, the art community and the literary community are a few of them.

Here Ashley Uy shares why she thinks each of us needs to build a community. Ashley is a resident consultant at Symph, a blogger, a designer and a community builder. She has helped organize events like Startup Weekend and Geeks on a Beach.

1. It acts as a support group that works with you towards your common cause.

Wanting to do something that helps the world and the people in it is already a big commitment. You might campaign for animal rights, or against the death penalty, and neither is a small thing. Once you have a cause you care about, you need resources to make it happen: people, materials, money, connections and more. You can't do it all by yourself.

"When you have a community, you therefore have a support group, and that support group will support whatever the community as a whole wants to achieve." -Ashley Uy

You need people who share your vision and goals, and that shared goal is what keeps you all moving toward it together.

2. It creates a bigger voice that increases chances of getting heard.

"They make a bigger voice, then they get attention. Having a community will enable you to have a wider reach and be able to have this net where those who want to help will be able to help."

The more members a community has, the bigger its network and the more connections it makes. Ashley says this matters most for communities of millennials who need mentorship, because "having a network of people, the experts will know that that demand is available, so they can connect to the community that is established to be able to give that service for those who need it."

MakeSense Cebu Hotspot: Startup Creation Workshop

3. For youngsters, they get to build connections that help them grow.

"They get to connect with the experienced people so in the future, they'll know what to do, who to connect with."

Connections matter a lot to the younger members of a community, students especially. Building a community means organizing seminars, conferences, social work and more, and along the way you get to know both professionals and people starting out.

Those relationships help once you enter the industry. It is a lot easier than being a lone wolf trying to find your way through an unfamiliar forest.

Geeks On A Beach (left) and Dribbble Cebu Meetup (right)

4. For professionals who are passionate about passing on their legacies, they get a chance to pay back.

"Already successful professionals will be able to have an avenue for giving back to the community that they came from. It's like a give-and-take sort of thing."

When you grow in your craft with help from other people who care about it, and you get good at it as you learn more, you want to give back to the community that got you where you are.

An active community gives professionals a way to do that. They give talks, run workshops, manage projects, refer colleagues who can help, and sometimes offer sponsorship. All of that makes the organizers' work easier and keeps them going.

Founders, investors, enthusiasts and aspirants all need communities to exist and keep growing, which is why the rest of us should help them however we can. It helps you grow as a person, and it helps the world move forward.

Geeks On A Beach does this by bringing tech people together somewhere relaxed and fun, where they build strong relationships with the community and get closer to what they love doing. That is why we keep supporting it and other events like it.

Until then, we'll see you at the Beach!