Building Community: Neighborhood

Change is hard and even harder when it happens fast. The most difficult aspect of a crisis is the need to change quickly with limited information and control. We are social beings. We thrive as babies from touch and live longer if we have quality relationships. We are infinitely interdependent. As a species we’ve evolved to be social animals and COVID-19 has exposed the true depths of our need for one another. While physical separation has been key to our safety, our deep need and value of connectedness hold our salvation. Our new protocols for spending time “together” may be jarring and isolating in so many ways, yet these past few weeks have pulled the importance of our connections into focus and have inspired many to come up with creative ways to bring their neighborhoods together even when we need to be physically apart. 

Recognize The Range of Citizens

Diversity is a powerful tool of resilience in the face of change. Some organizations leverage geographic diversity which immediately creates time and space between interaction. Diversity at every level and backgrounds allows a range of perspective and insight from different vantage points. Genetic, cultural, and experiential diversity can be leveraged to understand and empathize. Most communities are built up with a diverse age range, financial status, family structures, life experiences, and needs. By embracing the diversity in your community, you can best prepare and deliver the most effective help and support. 

Our help can be anything from the financial and the emotional to the entertaining. With Easter celebrations being cancelled many were inspired by New Zealand’s Prime Minister and creating window easter egg hunts for families to spot out as they go on their daily walks. The goal was for each household to decorate paper eggs and tape them in their windows creating unique and socially distant options for parents and caregivers to entertain their little ones while being able to get outside and keep in line with guidelines. Word is spreading to other community members over social media, text messages, and over nightly calls. 

Creating food runs, asking your local grocery stores to have the first hour of business only open for elderly and compromised citizens, creating stuff animal zoos on the front lawn, or simply saying hi from across the street as you go for your daily walk. All of these are beneficial to your neighbors and local friends.

Discuss With Your Established Network

As community members, we can view our neighborhood responsibilities in two different lists. There are those with whom we already have a relationship with - our extended family members, our colleges if we work in town, friends from the block or organizations we are a part of - and members who may not have the connections needed to stay safe or those who could use a hand during this time - our elderly, our paycheck-to-paycheck citizens, our alone, and our bursting households. 

Create a list of people in your community that may need help. Communicate and coordinate with your group of established friends and family on how you can come together to create the greatest impact. This could be anything from dropping off groceries to your older members to talking to local representatives on how to best support those currently out of work to finding a way to make the kids next door laugh. 

Ready to Adapt

Just like with all our other plans, we must be ready and prepared to adapt in the coming days, weeks, and months. Different members of our neighborhoods will need help at different times and the more we can think through the options beforehand, the easier it will be to provide that help when the time comes. 

It is truly an extraordinary time of reconnecting and building up of all our community types. Families have an abundance of time together (and opportunities to practice navigating many new daily crises), workplaces are finding new solutions and partnerships to do best by employees, customers, and clients, and we are finding solace in our neighbors, looking out for our small businesses, and genuinely looking out for one another.