Social Capital and Community Well-Being: The Serve Here Initiative

This book provides a comprehensive overview of how communities can leverage their social capital to improve overall quality of life for citizens. In addition, it offers detailed guidance on the design, implementation, and evaluation of social capital initiatives. It defines critical concepts of social capital, its decline in recent years, and the potential for rebuilding it through progressive social policy initiatives. Chapters present an innovative social policy template, Serve Here, for improving Americans’ collective quality of life, starting with young adults. Serve Here sets out a comprehensive, sustainable service learning plan aimed at increasing quality higher education for young adults, reducing college debt, and enhancing long-term civic participation and community building. The book offer guidelines for developing tailored solutions to ensure greater parity of social capital to regional, demographic, and other marginalized populations. Featured topics include:

The civic value of social capital.

The economics of social capital in communities.

Building social capital across communities by leveraging personal relationships.

Social capital and returning military veterans.

Millennials and social capital.

Teaching the social entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

Social Capital and Community Well-Being: The Serve Here Initiative is a valuable resource for clinicians and practitioners as well as researchers and graduate students in community psychology, social work, education, and healthcare policy.