Apartment & condo hermits can be found...

Be willing to put yourself out there & work at drawing others out of their shells.

Pray & ask God for guidance & wisdom - it will come!

Sometimes our neighbours need more than just our words...

Love does.

Don't be a chicken...

Invite some neighbours over.

Be a big-hearted family!

Some neighbours are jerks...

Love 'em anyways!

Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

What could happen in your neighbourhood?

A neighbourhood is so much more than a geographically localized area. It is the place we call home, where our children play, and where we have the most invested financially and emotionally. If we care about any place in our community, it would normally be our immediate neighbourhood.

Very few people actually visit their neighbours, though.

Roughly 1 in 4 have had a neighbour over to their house or apartment in the past 12 months. The same small percentage was invited to a neighbour’s home during the same time period.

And patterns of neighbourhood connections are pretty much set after a few years. People who have lived in their neighbourhood for 20 years are no more likely to socialize with neighbours than those living in the neighbourhood for three years.

Does connecting with your neighbour really matter anymore?

Apparently it still does to Jesus!

Have some fun in the 'hood.

Cynicism, pessimism, loneliness and feeling a distrust of other people.

Someone is going to have to reach out to your neighbours with their hands and feet...

Be willing to break out of your ethnic bubble -

... whatever it is!

Why aren't people loving their neighbours/hood?

When people are asked about what prevents them from participating in activities that could make their neighbourhood a better place to live the the answer is surprising.

We generally think that not having enough time would top the list. But it doesn't.

The the major obstacle to participating more fully in neighbourhood life — is the feeling that they don't have much to offer.

In Christ your little life takes on enormous meaning.

The best way to love your city is to love your neighbours/hood!

Van City can be a lonely place...

One in three people living in metropolitan Vancouver say it can be difficult to make friends here. 

Seventy per cent have never had a neighbour over. And 47 per cent do not trust or do not know if their neighbours trust each other.

These are just a few of the key findings contained in Connections and Engagement — a 44-page summary of a metro Vancouver-wide survey released today by Vancouver Foundation.
The survey of 3,841 residents measured people’s levels of connection and engagement to their friends, to their neighbourhoods, and to the community-at-large.

“Last year, through community consultations, we heard that people in metro Vancouver are becoming increasingly disconnected and disengaged from community life. We did this survey to help us better understand this issue from the point of view of our residents,” says Faye Wightman, Vancouver Foundation President and CEO. “While there is a lot of good news in the survey, we are particularly interested in identifying the gaps — the areas where our resources can help improve community and neighbourhood life.”

The key gaps the survey uncovered are:

Metro Vancouver can be a hard place to make friends.
31% say it is difficult to make new friends here. And 25% say they are alone more often than they would like to be. These same people are also likelier to experience poorer health, lower trust and a hardening of attitudes toward other community members.

Our neighbourhood connections are cordial, but weak.
74% know the names of at least two of their neighbours but the connections typically stop there. 70% have not visited a neighbour’s home or invited a neighbour over. And 47% do not trust or do not know if their neighbours trust each other.

The most often-cited reason for not knowing neighbours is that people seldom see each other (46%). However, another significant reason seems to be indifference. People have little interest in getting to know their neighbours or say they prefer to keep to themselves (32%).

Many people in metro Vancouver are retreating from community life.
In the past year, only 23% took part in a neighbourhood or community project.

It isn’t a lack of time that stops people from getting involved. The most often-cited reason for not participating in neighbourhood and community life is a feeling that people have little to offer.

There are limits to how people see diversity as an opportunity to forge meaningful
connections.
35% have no close friends outside their own ethnic group. And 65% believe that most people prefer to be with others of the same ethnicity.

Many people believe all new immigrants and refugees, regardless of where they come from, would be welcome in their neighbourhood. However, a significant number of residents rank which groups they believe would be the most and the least welcome.

The affordability issue in metro Vancouver is affecting people’s attitudes and beliefs.
54% believe Vancouver is becoming a resort town for the wealthy. These same people also tend to think that there is too much foreign ownership of real estate.

The survey report can be found on our website at:  www.vancouverfoundation.ca/connect-engage

How far does love go

in your neighbourhood?

When people have regular conversations with their neighbours, more than just a smile or a wave, those neighbourhoods are safer, there’s less crime and people feel much more optimistic about the possibility of working with each other to solve local problems.

The first and last time Dave Meslin and his neighbours hung out together in their midtown Toronto neighbourhood was during a fire on their street that drew everyone from their homes to share in the experience of watching the flames.

“It made me think we’ve never all been together or hung out on the street and here we were, 30 or 40 of us just watching the fire while it was happening,” says Meslin, a writer and community organizer.

“After being in Vancouver, it made me very aware of the disconnect we have with our neighbours.”

Meslin was speaking in Vancouver in September at a community summit called Alone Together: Connecting in the City, a series of talks and public sessions on why that city has so many lonely people.

Recent research by the Vancouver Foundation found that social isolation was the single largest concern for residents in the metro Vancouver region, a surprise to many community organizers like Meslin, who thought homelessness or housing affordability would rank higher.

The concerns raised by the research findings and the summit, the first of its kind in Canada, prompted one Vancouver city councillor to propose a council motion creating an Engaged City Task Force.

The task force will try to increase neighbour-to-neighbour engagement and find ways for the city to connect with its citizens and vice versa.

The Vancouver Foundation, which manages more than 1,400 endowment funds worth almost $735 million, held the summit along with Simon Fraser University Public Square, an initiative by the university to engage community groups.

Denise Rudnicki, the foundation’s director of strategic engagement, said the negative attitudes that stem from loneliness — such as feeling less trusting of others or a lack of cohesion with neighbours — can spread within a community.

“This survey held up a mirror in the community and everyone could see themselves in it,” she said. “When people have regular conversations with their neighbours, more than just a smile or a wave, those neighbourhoods are safer, there’s less crime and people feel much more optimistic about the possibility of working with each other to solve local problems.”

Rudnicki said it comes down to residents connecting and trusting each other. Trust can jump the fence to spread to the larger community committed to solving social issues from cleaning up a park to addressing homelessness.

The survey also found that people who live in highrises over five storeys had a diminished level of trust, putting the onus on developers, especially in the dense downtown Vancouver areas, to figure out ways to engage residents. Simple things such as putting shared laundry facilities near a rooftop garden may be one way to foster engagement in the residential silos.

Twenty-five per cent of people surveyed said they felt lonely in metro Vancouver and one in three said they found it hard to make new friends in the community. One person wrote that in the seven years he’s lived in Vancouver after moving to the West Coast for a job, he has never been asked to go out for a beer.

Shauna Sylvester, executive director of Simon Fraser University Public Square, said the summit repeatedly heard that many felt disengaged from the community despite Vancouver’s widespread use of social media and its reputation as one of the most livable cities in the world.

“Why is it we have become so cloistered in our social network interactions but we aren’t choosing to connect with the people around us?” Sylvester said.

“We heard that if you’re in Saskatchewan or in Winnipeg and you first move there, you would receive 10 invitations for dinner in your first week, but people go months or years without receiving an invitation here.”

Get into the neighbourhood trenches

Work with your Father in the neighbourhood...

He's already up to something...

Turn intentions into actions.

Be a community builder, not a community buster!

Get outside!

Say no to nature deficit disorder!

Canadians don't fear the cold - the cold fears Canadians!!

Yes, this is a problem...

Just Do It!

Stop wasting time running after the perfect community. Live your life fully in your community today. JVanier

We'll change a neighbourhood when we love its kids...

Don’t you see that children are God’s best gift?

Life is good in the parish...

If I had a thousand lives to live in this century, I would go into parish ministry with everyone of them. HEFosdick

Love your Hood!

Love is "the drive toward the unity of the separated." (PTillich)

Other people matter.

Loving your neighbours means ...

... at times you'll have a full house. Just get used to it.

Kreeft dinner.

Seven Bad Reasons for Doing Anything

1. It’s popular. (So?)

2. It’s modern. (So what?)

3. It’s efficient. (For what?)

4. It’s economical. (Is it, really?)

5. It’s just ´what’s done.´(So what’s your point?)

6. It’s necessary. (No, it isn’t, unless it’s God. There’s only one necessary being.)

7. I have to do this. (Are you a robot or a slave?)

Seven Good Reasons for Doing Anything

1. God loves it.

2. I love it.

3. It’s good.

4. It’s true.

5. It’s beautiful.

6. It makes me happy.

7. It makes someone else happy.

Love Sees The Neighbourhood With New Eyes.

Slow down, you move too fast...

A society that lives in the fast lane can never be a sustainable society. In a fast-paced world we put a lot of energy into arrivals and departures and less into the experience itself. 

Raising kids, making friends, creating art all run counter to the demand for speed. There is growing recognition that faster speeds are not just a natural fact of the universe. It’s an issue for public attention. 

What has not been discussed before now is: What kind of speed do we want?

It’s a struggle for me to slow down, as it is with many people. But the key is to be able to dedicate yourself to the proper rhythm, geared to what you are doing, whether you are playing with a child, writing a paper or talking to friends. (WSachs)

What kind of speed do you live at?

Vitamin N (neighbourhood) Deficiency?

Answer these questions to find out if you're getting your recommended daily allowance (RDA) of Vitamin N. In each question, the term "local" means within 15 minutes walk from your home.

1. How many households locally do you feel you could drop in on without advanced notice for a chat or a meal?

2. How many local people care about your goals in life and actively support you in trying to achieve them?

3. Roughly how many local people (including shopkeepers, neighbours, hairdressers, etc) have you chatted with or greeted in the last week?

4. Roughly how many others have you nodded to or greeted whilst, for instance, passing them on the street?

5. Last week, how often did you engage in the equivalent of a neighbourhood ritual - like a church service, meal with local friends or co-workers, or a drink with other locals at a nearby coffe shop?

6. How many local people (apart from your spouse and immediate nuclear family) would be likely to notice and regret your death, if you were to die now (only include those whose deaths you would also notice and regret)?

7. If you were seriously ill, roughly how many local people (apart from paid care'ers, your spouse and immediate nuclear family) could you count on to visit you, to do your shopping for you, etc?

8. How many local people are there (apart from your spouse and immediate nuclear family) whom you tend to treat as confidantes, people you can discuss and share your innermost fears and worries with?

9. In general, to what extent do you feel that you are part of a local neighbourhood who care for each other? (Nicholas Albury)

Do you know how to foster a sense of community in your neighbourhood?

Smile - wave & greet everyone.
Introduce yourself to others.
Go for a walk.
Invite others to walk with you.
Enjoy the recreation in your own neighbourhood - put the cars keys away!

The Neighbour Challenge Week 5

When asked to define the word "neighbour," one of my children replied, “A friend.”  This seemingly simple answer is powerful in its implications for communities. How does neighbour become synonymous with friend?

Understanding the gifts and passions of those around us opens the door to deeper relationships…perhaps to friendship.  But, in our world of privacy fences, no eye contact entrances, and quick getaways how do we find opportunities to have these conversations?  Sit on your front steps or porch, take a walk, water your yard, stop at a neighbour’s garage sale, sit in a common space and read, visit a local business; in short, get out and open up.

Question: What “walls” have you put up that keep you from having conversations with your neighbours?

Challenge: Topple that wall by choosing one activity that will get you out and about in your neighborhood.