77 ways to build community in your neighborhood

Extracted from 150 Things You Can Do to Build Social Capital, The Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement In America, an initiative of Professor Robert D. Putnam at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. The project focuses on expanding what we know about our levels of trust and community engagement and on developing strategies and efforts to increase this engagement.

1. Organize a social gathering to welcome a new neighbor

2. Attend town meetings

5. Volunteer your special skills to an organization

7. Start a front-yard/community garden

9. Surprise a new neighbor by making a favorite dinner–and include the recipe

14. Organize or participate in a sports league

15. Join a gardening club

16. Attend home parties when invited

22. Start a monthly tea group

23. Speak at or host a monthly brown bag lunch series at your local library

24. Sing in a choir

25. Get to know the clerks and salespeople at your local stores

26. Attend PTA meetings

27. Audition for community theater or volunteer to usher

28. Give your park a weatherproof chess/checkers board

29. Play cards with friends or neighbors

30. Give to your local food bank

31. Walk or bike to support a cause and meet others

34. Join or start a babysitting cooperative

39. Form a local outdoor activity group

42. Form a computer group for local senior citizens

43. Help coach Little League or other youth sports – even if you don’t have a kid playing

44. Help run the snack bar at the Little League field

45. Form a tool lending library with neighbors and share ladders, snow blowers, etc.

46. Start a lunch gathering or a discussion group

47. Offer to rake a neighbor’s yard or shovel his/her walk

48. Start or join a carpool

51. Eat breakfast at a local gathering spot on Saturdays

55. Host a block party or a holiday open house

56. Start a fix-it group–friends willing to help each other clean, paint, garden, etc.

57. Offer to serve on a town committee

58. Join the volunteer fire department

60. If you grow tomatoes, plant extra for an lonely elder neighbor – better yet, ask him/her to teach you and others how to can the extras

63. Persuade a local restaurant to have a designated “meet people” table

64. Host a potluck supper before your Town Meeting

66. Say “thanks” to public servants – police, firefighters, town clerk…

69. Gather a group to clean up a local park or cemetery

72. Hold a neighborhood barbecue

74. Plant tree seedlings along your street with neighbors and rotate care for them

75. Volunteer at the library

76. Form or join a bowling team

79. Ask neighbors for help and reciprocate

80. Go to a local folk or crafts festival

86. Log off and go to the park

87. Ask a new person to join a group for a dinner or an evening

88. Host a pot luck meal or participate in them

89. Volunteer to drive someone

91. Host a movie night

92. Exercise together or take walks with friends or family

93. Assist with or create your town or neighborhood’s newsletter

94. Organize a neighborhood pick-up – with lawn games afterwards

95. Collect oral histories from older town residents

96. Join a book club discussion or get the group to discuss local issues

97. Volunteer to deliver Meals-on-Wheels in your neighborhood

98. Start a children’s story hour at your local library

105. Take in the programs at your local library

106. Read the local news faithfully

107. Buy a grill and invite others over for a meal

110. Attend a public meeting

112. Help scrape ice off a neighbor’s car, put chains on the tires or shovel it out

113. Hire young people for odd jobs

118. Sit on your stoop

120. Make gifts of time

122. Volunteer at your local neighborhood school

123. Offer to help out at your local recycling center

124. Send a “thank you” letter to the Editor about a person or event that helped build community

125. Raise funds for a new town clock or new town library

129. Invite friends or colleagues to help with a home renovation or home building project

130. Join or start a local mall-walking group and have coffee together afterwards

131. Build a neighborhood playground

132. Become a story-reader or baby-rocker at a local childcare center or neighborhood pre-school

134. Help kids on your street construct a lemonade stand

138. Offer to watch your neighbor’s home or apartment while they are away

139. Organize a fitness/health group with your friends or co-workers

140. Hang out at the town dump and chat with your neighbors as you sort your trash at the Recycling Center

142. See if your neighbor needs anything when you run to the store

144. Join groups (e.g., arts, sports, religion) likely to lead to making new friends of different race or ethnicity, different social class or bridging across other dimensions

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