Connect with Community
From watching your home when you’re out of town, to borrowing tools or just having a friendly neighborhood chat, knowing your neighbors can enrich our lives and help create connected, supportive communities. In the event of a disaster, knowing your neighbors and working together can really make a difference in helping you all weather the storm.
Your Impact
Action Steps & Tips
Introduction
When neighbors know and help each other, they build community resilience. And resilient communities help us get through tough times. The more we connect, develop relationships and work together with the people around us, the more we can take care of each other before, during and after an emergency.
Getting to know your neighbors and developing strong neighborhood ties also builds a friendly, thriving and engaged community. From picking up the mail for each other when you’re out of town or borrowing that cup of sugar, to block parties, celebrations and sharing milestones — living in a connected, supportive community makes life better every day.
The first step? Getting to know your neighbors. It may sound a bit daunting, but it’s easy — and fun! Your neighbors will likely be glad you reached out and happy to have an opportunity to connect. In this action, we’ll look at how to reach out and develop relationships with your neighbors.
1Step 1: Meet your neighbors!
If you haven’t met your neighbors, just saying hi is a great start! Introducing yourself might be intimidating, so here are a few ideas for breaking the ice:
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Come bearing gifts. If you cook or bake, bringing a treat to share is a welcome excuse to meet someone new!
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Do a good deed. Look for ways to help out, and use the opportunity to meet your neighbor. If someone’s moving heavy boxes one weekend, offer to lend a hand! Or why not offer to help shovel snow from someone’s driveway or clear leaves from their gutters?
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Ask for help. People like to feel helpful, and most folks are willing to lend a hand. If you’re leaving town, why not ask a neighbor to water your garden or check on your home? If you’re doing home repairs or garden work, you might consider asking to borrow a tool.
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Recruit folks for a shared project. Maybe you are looking for donations for a canned food drive or volunteers to help keep storm drains cleared to lower the risk of neighborhood flooding. Asking your neighbors to support local projects that make a difference in your community will make them feel valued and help you get to know each other!
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Join or start a group. Invite neighbors to join a dog walking group, running crew, book club, etc.
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Start a neighborhood team. Invite your neighbors to come and learn about climate solutions and resilience and work together on actions!
Once you’ve developed some connections among your neighbors, exchange contact information. Start a group text, email list, or Whatsapp group. Nextdoor is also a good way to connect.
2Step 2: Plan a block party!
Hosting a potluck or block party is a great way to meet new neighbors and foster an even stronger neighborhood network. And sharing food is always a great excuse to bring people together!
Tips for hosting a neighborhood potluck or block party:
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Start by deciding the who, when, and where.
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Who: You can invite the neighbors on your block or your street, or a neighborhood group like a dog walking group, etc. Invite everyone on your block or in the group, and be inclusive whenever possible.
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When: Weekend afternoons often work best, but make sure to check in with a few neighbors to see what works for them to help you plan. If possible, get confirmation from 3-4 neighbors on a date/time before sending invites broadly.
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Where: Choose a central location such as a park, community center or your home or backyard. If you plan to meet in a public space or on your block, look into your city’s block party permits and regulations or a community space’s reservation process before confirming your location.
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Get help! Team up with another neighbor or two to lead the planning and hosting!
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Prepare an invite: "You’re invited to a Neighborhood Potluck! Come meet your neighbors and share...."
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Make sure to include the kind of things to bring, like food to share, folding chairs, etc.
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Make sure to ask for RSVPs to help you plan!
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Post the invite on a block or neighborhood email list if you have one, or you can leave an invite on the doorstep.
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Get to know each other! Plan a fun activity, or icebreaker to help people get acquainted and help facilitate introductions!. Here are a couple ideas:
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Have a fun “question of the day.” You can ask folks to answer the question in conversation, or have name tags and markers for folks to write their name and the answer to the question! Examples:
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If you had an animal sidekick, what animal would it be?
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If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
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If you could spend the day with one historical or fictional character, who would it be?
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If you could go to visit anywhere in the world, where would you go?
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If there are a lot of neighbors that don’t know each other, help facilitate introductions! Introduce people one-on-one and help start the conversation or have people go around and do introductions at each table. Sometimes just a bit of help with introductions is all that’s needed to create a new neighborhood connection!
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During the block party, talk about things that would make living in your neighborhood better. More trees? More events? Safer intersection? More gardens and food sharing?
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You could also talk about emergency preparedness and sharing resources. Talk about your experience preparing your own home and ask what others think about working together to build neighborhood resilience. Most likely other people will be interested too! Share some ideas of things you could do together, like creating a shared resource list or a neighborhood plan for an emergency.
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Connecting with neighbors and planning together for emergencies can really make a difference! When there was widespread and dangerous flooding during Hurricane Harvey, two neighbors in Houston started a boat rescue effort that quickly grew and ended up rescuing 25,000 people.
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Provide an option to share contact information and follow up after the block party so you can work together to grow your community connection and resilience.
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Plan some fun! Music, a shared art project, recipe sharing, and some fun activities for kids are sure to be crowd pleasers.
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3Step 3: Stay in touch!
Once you meet your neighbors, stay in touch and continue to build your connections and relationships!
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Send out a thank you note to everyone that shared their contact information during the event. Create a google group or Facebook group to stay in touch
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Help each other out: Now that you have had a chance to connect, next time you go to the store, check to see if your neighbor needs anything, particularly if they are elderly or have mobility challenges.
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Work together! Invite your neighbors to follow up and start that shared resource list or neighborhood emergency plan. Or get together and talk about planting trees or making that nearby intersection safer.
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Plan to get together again — maybe do an annual potluck or block party or plan a fun outing together. Keep growing and fostering a connected, resilient community!