Rebuilding a Sense of Community Post-Covid

 

REBUILDING A SENSE OF COMMUNITY POST-COVID

New book provides insight into how to rebuild a connected community in a post-COVID world.

 

 

During the pandemic our communities literally had to disconnect to stay healthy. This disconnection dissolved old ideas about how to meet and even greet people. Governments and private companies designed new ways to interact via social distancing and reinvented many workplaces where millions of workers began working out of their domiciles and Zoom calls became the new standard for meeting with coworkers. Now as we move back toward a “New Normal” center, it has left people feeling disenfranchised and emotionally struggling with reconnecting with others. The second edition of the book Adventures in Local Politics – How Leadership Brought Back Delray Beach by Jeff Perlman illustrates how compassionate, empathetic leadership can bring communities back together.

 

Adventures in Local Politics is an engaging memoir that uses storytelling to walk readers through the reality and daily business of local politics and community building. Perlman, who is a former journalist and past Mayor of Delray Beach, paints a vivid picture of a city in desperate need of revitalization. Through fun, interesting and heartfelt stories, Perlman explains strategies, goals and tactics to bring the city back together again. Using a case-study-type narrative, he engages the reader in a friendly discussion about his life, political and personal viewpoints, and experiences leading a city back to life.

 

The book discusses many business principles, including building leadership, creating a vision, investing and reinvesting, instilling values, respecting the importance of arts and culture, generating economic development, and more. Most importantly with our current need to reconnect post-COVID, Perlman said, “In order for a city to thrive, stakeholders need to feel connected to the city’s past, present, and future. Most importantly, they need to feel connected to one another and to their leadership. As an elected official, one of your key jobs is to connect with your community and have people connect with each other. Leaders can do that by facilitating relationships and by providing opportunities for people to meet, talk, share, and dream together. Admittedly, all of this can sound goofy, but it’s not.”

 

Of effective leadership, Perlman said, “The foundation of all leadership is integrity. We’ve all seen brilliant people loaded with talent and gifts crash and burn because they lack integrity. Similarly, it is hard to lead successfully if you don’t have a burning passion for your city. That flame may burn bright, or it may simmer, but it had better burn.”

 

All readers, whether political junkies or those who enjoy a great “yarn,” will thoroughly enjoy this book. It releases in Spring 2022 and will be available on Amazon and the 3L Publishing website at (www.3LPublishing.com).