Some of the most meaningful opportunities for connection are close to home—in our yards, on our streets, in apartment buildings, and in the everyday places where neighbors cross paths.
While we don’t have to be friends with our neighbors, at one level they are a bit like family in that we can’t really choose them; so we might as well make our interactions with them friendly and positive. But on another level, the social connections we create with our neighbors can lead to fun neighborhood gatherings, a sense of safety and well being while in our neighborhood, group neighborhood projects, and more.
Close-knit neighborhoods don't have to be left to chance. Communities can make them more likely by supporting residents who take an active role in connecting their neighbors.
Neighborhood Connector Programs
A Neighborhood Connector is a resident who helps neighbors get to know one another and creates opportunities for people to connect, share, and participate in the life of their neighborhood.
A connector might:
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Walk the block and introduce themselves to neighbors, inviting those who are interested to share skills, interests, ideas, and opportunities.
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Welcome new people to the neighborhood and help them become aware of local activities and resources.
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Encourage neighbors to share their interests, skills, and resources with one another.
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Organize neighbor-hosted gatherings, from informal coffee or lawn games to larger neighborhood events.
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Help neighbors develop and carry out projects or activities that reflect shared interests.
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Organize block parties and other gatherings that bring neighbors together.
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Help create simple ways for neighbors to stay in touch and support one another.
Being a connector doesn't require being especially outgoing or becoming the social organizer for an entire neighborhood. It can begin with something as simple as saying hello, introducing yourself, or inviting a few neighbors to get together. In other cases, it can grow into organizing gatherings, coordinating neighborhood projects, or helping create a stronger network among residents.
How Communities Can Support Neighborhood Connectors
Communities can support connectors with simple infrastructure, resources, and opportunities to learn from one another.
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Connector Gatherings — regular meetups to share what's worked, troubleshoot challenges, and develop new activities together
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Planning Tools — info cards, sample invitations, gathering guides, and templates to make getting started easier
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Connection Ideas — examples like zero-prep potlucks, neighborhood walks, shared gardens, skill-sharing, seasonal celebrations, and cleanups
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Community Organization Support — libraries, nonprofits, and neighborhood associations offering space, supplies, or promotion
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A Shared Citywide Project — collecting residents' ideas for their neighborhoods to inform community projects and placemaking
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Shared Skills & Resources — an online directory where neighbors can offer skills, lend items, or share recommendations
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Local Sponsorship — health organizations, businesses, or foundations providing funding, space, or staff support
Create Together
As a Neighborhood Connector, you may be driven to improve your neighborhood or come up with unique and imaginative ideas. These improvements and ideas can become another source of connection. Creating positive change together is a way to take advantage of living in a neighborhood.
Connection can also grow through working together on something that matters to the neighborhood. At a gathering, invite neighbors to share something they'd like to see in their neighborhood. It could be a community garden, a little library, a neighborhood cleanup, a mural, a children's play area, a seasonal celebration, a shared garden, a music gathering, or simply a regular place and time to meet. When neighbors identify an idea together and then work together to make it happen, the project becomes another piece of neighborhood social infrastructure.
Additionally, Neighborhood Connectors can engage in a project like a Prospecting for Dreams initiative, where they collect ideas for the future by interviewing residents and implementing with others, such as local artists.
This is one reason neighborhood connection is about more than simply knowing more people. When people know one another, they have more opportunities to share ideas, recognize shared interests, help one another, and create things together.
More Ideas
Shared Skills, Resources, & Ideas
Neighbors can create a simple directory of skills, interests, tools, and other resources they are willing to share. Someone might offer gardening knowledge, a sewing machine, a ladder, musical skills, or help with a particular project. Add a tab for projects and future gathering ideas.
Neighborhood Watch and Safety Activities
Neighborhood safety can provide a practical reason for neighbors to get to know one another and stay in communication. Communities can explore neighborhood watch programs or other locally appropriate ways for residents to share information and look out for their shared spaces. In fact, in Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s book Together, he talks about how a mayor of Anaheim California Tom Tait who made his city famous for its kindness initiatives, started out by organizing a get together for a neighborhood watch around safety by circulating a "Hi, Neighbor" letter.
Neighborhood Celebrations
Seasonal gatherings and community traditions can create recurring opportunities for neighbors to see one another. These might include block parties, holiday gatherings, neighborhood music events, shared meals, or other celebrations that reflect the character of the community.
Neighborhood Connector Programs & Neighboring Resources
A number of communities have developed programs and resources around neighborhood connectors and neighboring. Such as:
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Spruce Grove's Connection Cultivators
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Stony Plain's Neighborhood Connect
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The Abundant Community Initiative — a model centered on identifying and mobilizing the gifts, skills, and relationships already present in neighborhoods.
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Community Works Michigan Connectors — resources and examples related to block-level connector programs.
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The Hopeful Neighborhood Project
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Kindness Close to Home, from the Columbus Foundation
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Cambridge Meet Your Neighbor Month
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Hi Neighbor Program, United Way
Conclusion
All of these activities can help create the feeling that a neighborhood is more than the sum of the houses, apartments, and individuals living in it — that there's also a basis of connection between us. They help people let their guard down, be themselves when running into each other, and more easily say hi, which develops into a sense of trust.
It all starts by reaching out to the neighbors living on either side of us and across the street, and saying hi. Take a small step today toward making your neighborhood feel like part of a bigger family, not just a place you live.
Invite a Few Neighbors to a Get-Together
Another way to be a Neighborhood Connector is to organize a get-together with a few neighbors. There are many types of get-togethers: weekend morning coffee or tea, lawn games, outdoor backyard campfire or cookout, outdoor or indoor cards or board games, dinner party, local restaurant or bowling alley get-together, living room social, etc. Do whatever feels right and works for you to start.
Organize a get together of any type. Start with 3 or 4 neighbors you have had good conversations with and branch out from there. Invite people in whatever way works, whether it’s knocking on doors and furthering the conversation, calling, or sending texts or emails.
If you want to create deeper or lasting connections between your neighbors at the event, be a proactive host and intentionally connect everyone at some point through a round of introductions. Invite people to go around and share something about themselves, like their favorite hobbies, a fun story, or their hidden skills.
Depending on how long your event is, here are some other ideas to include to strengthen your first or next gathering and build toward more events and neighborhood cohesion:
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At some point during your get together, invite neighbors to share ideas for future neighborhood get-togethers.
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Invite neighbors to share phone numbers or emails for ease of future invites or to help each other out when someone isn’t home to get a package, forgets something in the front yard, etc. This could lead into creating a formal neighborhood directory in the future if that is appealing to people.
Down the road, you could organize bigger gatherings with more families, have a themed neighborhood wide block party, reserve the apartment's activities room, or fill up a restaurant together. When I was growing up in a small town in central Wisconsin, my parents hosted an annual candy-cutting party with the whole neighborhood around the holidays. It was always a source of neighborhood strength and a favorite of the children.
As your event size grows, keep thinking of how to turn your gatherings into social connection gatherings: build in opportunities for people to connect on a deeper level, in whatever theme or context you come up with, instead of just hoping individuals take initiative. More ideas in this direction are also described below.
For more, check out the 8 door challenge from the Neighboring Movement. They recommend gatherings as short as an hour and have a helpful guide. Great Lakes Urban has created a Neighborhood Connector movement in Michigan and has a neighborhood project planner guide, for get togethers and other neighborhood planned activities.
