Spending quality time with your family is important. It's personally valued, developmentally important, and when done through public events, also reaps social capital. Social capital is the idea that access to information and people through social networks is important and valuable, like money.

For example, if a high school freshman has social capital, he or she will know the difference between taking a class that leads to a college or a wage-earning track and a class that simply stands alone. A counselor could help this student make a choice, but if the student doesn't have the social network to expose him or her to the idea that visiting a counselor before starting high school is important, that resource goes unused. An older sibling, mentor teacher, and many other peers could also act as a guide in making such decisions, however, without the knowledge of why to make these connections, social capital is tougher to gain.

This is one of the main ideas behind Patricia Gandara's book, "The Latino Education Crisis," which could very well be titled, "The Social Capital Education Crisis."

People make decisions based on what they see is best for them, and their knowledge comes from experiences. People with more social currency have more information to pull from in order to make better decisions. Many times, people with more financial resources have more social capital, but unlike American dollars, you don't need money to make money when it comes to social currency.

A great way to earn social capital is to be exposed to new social circles through free, public, community events. These events are posted in places such as the Ukiah Daily Journal, FIRST 5 Mendocino's Family Fun Calendar, Mendo Lake Family Life Magazine Calendar, and bulletin boards at Schat's bakery, and Black Oak Coffee Roasters.

Here are two recent community events that are great examples of interesting, free happenings to raise social capital for the child, family, community, and globe.

The first event was a talk at the local public library. Filmmaker Aaron Edell and Thanksgiving Coffee founder Paul Katzeff shared clips from separate documentaries.

Edell's work, "37 Million and Counting," deconstructed the global health implications and issues dealing with onchocerciasis, better known as African River Blindness. He shared how filmmakers, health agencies, governmental and non-governmental agencies, as well as for-profit companies, work toward eradicating this treatable epidemic, which has been reduced but still affects a sobering 18 million people.

The second clip was from "Delicious Peace," a documentary about a Ugandan coffee co-op, run by Christians, Jews, and Muslims. To sustain the farm, the co-op needed an international buyer ­ enter Thanksgiving Coffee. An unusual proposition, Paul Katzeff credits his whole life leading up to that moment as the necessary experience to say yes to a Peace Corps member's phone call reaching out to him to purchase the beans. The co-op has since grown in scale and even released a coffee-inspired album on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, "Delicious Peace: Coffee, Music & Interfaith Harmony in Uganda."

The second community event, "Astronomy in the Park," took place at Observation Park during "Control Your Remote" week. The primary sponsor for the evening, Friends of the Observatory, set up telescopes and binoculars for children to stargaze. In addition to introducing and furthering knowledge about the wonders of space, the park itself was a learning tool, as a historic, nationally recognized site. Beginning in 1899, it was used as one of six international latitude observatory stations to see if the Earth wobbled on its axis. Other locations were in Maryland, Ohio, Japan, Turkestan, and Italy.

At both experiences, attendees earned social capital through meeting and conversing with new people, hearing new perspectives on existing knowledge, and learning about new information and networks.

Just as more direct roads result in faster travel, so too can participating in community events create more efficient routes for excelling in life. The more events like these you attend as a family, the more you promote knowledge, encourage self-identity, and help move towards local and global consciousness.