How To Strengthen Your Neighborhood Bond
Getting to know our neighbors is crucial in this increasingly isolated world, especially given how much our health and well-being depends on our relationships with those around us. Most Americans do not know most, if not all, of their neighbors, and half of Americans do not trust their neighbors, especially millennials. This isolation can reduce increasingly needed community resources, potentially contribute to less satisfying marriages, and even increase one’s risk of death. Getting to know our neighbors, on the other hand, would help to create environments that help us thrive, through giving us needed social support, personal development, safety, and belonging, would help to foster more positive relationships that research shows are essential to our health and well-being, and would help others around us, which still helps ourselves. Read more about why getting to know our neighbors is so important in this previous, linked blog.
Below are a few strategies for building these beneficial neighborhood bonds in your community and why they would have a good impact. Choose one or more that you feel might be right for you and your neighbors.
Create a Monthly Gathering
The first strategy is the simple creation of a monthly neighborhood or complex gathering. This creates a way for you and your neighbors to continually check in with each other to not only help you get to know one another, but to really drive that sense of community and social support. Even better? Plan the gathering with other neighbors. Working together can build even greater bonding. Not sure how to ask? Hand out or post flyers for your gathering and add a note for them to contact you if they want to help plan or if they have ideas. Overall, planning a gathering is pretty simple. You just need to: 1) plan a date and time, 2) pick a location (such as your front yard or a shared space), 3) send out invitations or flyers, 4) plan logistics (food, drink, games, music, etc.), and then 4) have fun and talk to people! Depending on your location, you might want to let your neighbors know it is okay to reach out if they might need assistance — if they have mobility issues they may need help getting to the gathering or you may want to make accommodations to include more people who might otherwise feel isolated. As mentioned in the previous blog, helping others can really boost both the community and our own wellbeing.
Build a Community Garden
Another strategy is to create a community garden where anyone in the neighborhood, block, or complex can contribute and harvest fresh fruit and veggies. This is a great way to foster more community interaction. As we know, working together creates more bonding, but creating spaces that make room for new friendships can also contribute to bonding. Community gardens have been found to increase social support and networks, and they can also help to reduce crime, build a sense of community, and even increase economic resources, especially in lower-income communities. To build a community garden, you need to: 1) find a nearby empty plot of land, rooftop, shared common space, or part of your own yard/home (checking on any city or land owner permissions), 2) reach out to let your neighbors know your plans and see if they want to be involved, 3) plan and start the garden (make a list of needed materials (perhaps a fence, soil, etc.), decide where everything will go, and set a goal for when it will be ready), 4) Use the garden regularly and encourage others to, especially if someone new moves in.
Start a Walking Group
One of the simplest strategies may be to start a walking group in your neighborhood, where you all go on a morning walk together 2–3 times per week (or any consistent weekly amount that works for you). We all know the benefits of exercise, but social exercise can be especially impactful, giving even more serenity after the workout. Social exercise also allows you to accomplish two tasks in one — exercising and increasing connections with others — which is especially helpful in our current culture of never feeling like we have enough time for needs like exercise and having a social life. All you have to do to start a walking group is: 1) reach out to your neighbors or post flyers to let them know you’ll be starting a walking group (when it will start, how often, how far you’ll walk, where you’ll be meeting), 2) go on the walk!
Encourage Your Kids to Play Outside
Many parents have concerns about safety or battle kids’ addictions to indoor media, but if you are able to get kids to play outside, there are huge benefits both for your kids and the neighborhood. Outdoor play is important for emotional, cognitive, and physical development, community exploration, and providing an outlet during physical growth (such as running, climbing, etc.). If kids are playing outside, they are naturally building social skills with other neighborhood kids and older neighbors and building more neighborhood interactions (parents may get to know each other as well if their kids are becoming friends). According to developmental science, interactions with one’s environment and others around you helps to further drive development, and having more people in the neighborhood looking out for the kids is what’s termed a “developmental asset”, or a resource that helps steer kids toward positive development. The “how” for this strategy is simple: play outside with your kids or encourage them to play outside.
Whether you choose one or several of these strategies, you are sure to help both yourself and your community. You’ll boost your health and well-being and reduce the crippling social isolation within our neighborhoods and communities. Get out there and be a leader in helping to build a positive community context that helps you and those around you to thrive.
