Lion Catcher: Building Social Capital for Residents

Social capital refers to the communal relationships and patterns of reciprocal trust that enable residents to gain access to resources like stable housing, well-paying jobs, dependent care, transportation, and social services and, most importantly, to confidently employ of these resources.

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The process for building social capital goes far beyond having many friends or close family. A network that provides access to resources and creates a relationship of trust so that families achieve their goals represents social capital.

A proverb suggests that when many spiders weave together, they have the strength to tie up a lion. Crooked Creek CDC's Lion Catcher program is a social capital creates a network of unique relationships that positions families to overcome challenges and creates pathways for increasing economic opportunity.

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Healthy families make for healthier communities. The CDC's focus on increasing residents' social capital is designed to build a bigger, broader, and more productive network that is designed to foster healthier families. We work with schools, community volunteers, and families to mentor, tutor, and to develop families through neighborhood partnerships. As a result, parents gain skills that lead to higher incomes, teenagers learn to make better decisions, and elementary students grow in confidence. By building each individual in the family, we foster an atmosphere of joy, happiness, and good health.