5 steps to your new community garden

in community engagement, Place-based communities

When I moved into my new apartment in Washington DC, the first thing I did was contact the two nearest community gardens to apply for a garden plot. The first replied that I was just barely outside the borders of their eligible neighborhood; the second regretfully informed me that they had no available spots, and that their waiting list was so long they had actually stopped putting people on the waiting list.

So what gives? Where can I grow some food? My windows face north. I could suspend pots from the clothesline over our building’s alley… or become a guerrilla gardener… or volunteer at a local farm… but those are topics for another post.

I know I’m not the only one in this situation. And at the same time, the availability of fresh, local, healthy produce is severely limited in many urban centers, especially in the most under-resourced neighborhoods, so we should definitely be encouraging people to grow their own food. We need more community gardens, so let’s start digging!

Why build a community garden? Because aside from all this talk of obesity epidemics and food deserts and dire predictions on food security, we need more than just access to good local produce to make this work. We need a food culture that’s tied to agriculture and a knowledge of where our food comes from. A culture that’s centered on a community gathering space to get together and swap recipes, show kids that dirt and bugs can be fun, share ideas and know-how, and ask…

“What should we do next to fix up the neighborhood?”

So here’s what you need:

(more…)

Icebreakers & games for team and community building

in community engagement, Place-based communities

Some free icebreaking, team-building, community-making resources and selections, mainly from nonprofits, schools, and government agencies.

Some notes on when to use icebreakers, and what makes them good – from the Resource Center of the Corporation for National & Community Service (@nationalservice). “Icebreakers are often used to encourage people to open up or feel comfortable, invite participation in a group activity, and stimulate inclusion. However, an ineffective icebreaker can create discomfort or tension, straining rather than energizing a group dynamic.”

From Teambuilding & Icebreakers (pdf): “The primary goal for an icebreaker or a getting acquainted exercise is the development of an environment which is anxiety-reducing and which allows individuals to “break the ice” or get acquainted by having fun.” – from Associated Students, Western Washington University

Teambuilding, Icebreakers & Energizers from the Association of Washington School Principals. Includes Teambuilding, icebreakers & energizers, Inclusion, School Observances, General leadership concepts & activities, Inspirational stories.

Teamwork Exercise: Icebreakers, from Collaborative Justice. Icebreakers offer an easy initial opportunity for us to introduce ourselves to the larger team and to share a bit about our lives in an effort to promote openness and sharing among team members, and to set the tone for our future work together.

Icebreakers, Energizers & Team-building Activities (pdf) from the Youth Power Curriculum of Contra Costa Health Services. “The Guide is a resource for teaching youth about activism, leadership and community organizing. Use the easy-to-follow lessons in this practical training manual to partner with high-school aged youth to create real changes in their lives and communities.”

The Programming and Technical Assistance Unit of the Florida DJJ provides several free guides (in pdf form) for both trainers and participants. Icebreaker categories include Breaking into Groups, Change, Communication, Following Instructions, Introductions, Reviewing Difficult Material, Values, and Waking Up / Relieving Tension.

Great Group Games, cited by the American Library Association, includes group game instructions, how-to videos, downloadable worksheets, and editor’s picks. Founded by Stacy Chan (@greatgroupgames) “to share group game ideas between youth leaders, teachers, parents, camp counselors and community leaders”.

Icebreakers from group-games.com. From their About page: “This site is run by two self-proclaimed game-lovers, Joe and John. We pride ourselves in bringing you instructions for the best, most fun group games and activities. This website is completely free.” See also: Index of all group games; Teambuilding.

icebreakers.ws – “This site features instructions to several playtested, high quality free icebreakers, fun games, and team building activities.”

From Icebreakers, Team Building Activities, and Energizers (pdf) by the Lions Club International: “activities to facilitate introductions, to introduce a topic, to review concepts recently learned, to encourage team building, and to energize. There are also some miscellaneous activities at the end that you might find interesting or useful.”

From Games and Icebreakers by the Intervarsity Ministry Exchange: “Creative methods to spur discussion or introduce people or an idea.” MX is a “participatory website, accessible to anyone, for easily sharing ministry resources.”

50+ Icebreakers and Cultural Games from NAFSA: Association of International Educators. What are Icebreakers? What can Icebreakers Do? Considerations in Planning Icebreakers. Things to Be Careful about in Using Icebreakers.

Team Building Activities (pdf) by the National Community Development Institute. A 26-page document with details on icebreakers and community building activities. Developed by NCDI and other organizations (npaction.org, trainingforchange.org). Categories include Constituency Building Icebreakers, Community Building Activities, Learning Styles, Inspirational Stories, Team Building Articles.

From the National Park Service Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program: “Ice breakers can effectively break tension and encourage interaction between people, whether they know each other or not. While we often encounter some who are resistant to doing ice breaker activities, more often than not, these activities generate laughs and set a more positive tone for the meeting.” See also their index of tools for various phases of community building.

The wiki Teampedia is a “collaborative encyclopedia of free team building activities, free icebreakers, teamwork resources, and tools for teams that anyone can edit”. Founded by Seth Marbin (@smarbin) before he joined Google as a trainer, then as GoogleServe Global Director. See also the Resources page, with links to sites, blogs, books, and more.

Team-building activities from Training for Change. A small selection of team-building exercises, but provides useful details such as setup, variations, and debrief.

The Useful Games site was developed by David Wilcox (@davidwilcox) and Drew Mackie, who have worked together since the early 1980s on regeneration projects, partnerships and community participation. During that time they developed a range of workshop games, some of which are available here. Content appears as blog items, and are indexed under our games.

From Wilderdom: Icebreakers, Warmups, Energizers, & Deinhibitizers. Wilderdom is a website run by researcher and psychologist James Neill (@jtneill). Related resources in this site: Game Index, Trust Building Activities, Team Building Activities.

From Volunteer Power: Ice-Breakers, Event Openers, and Team Building Activities for Committees, Boards, and Volunteer Staff Meetings.

http://www.nps.gov/nero/rtcatoolbox/

Block parties

in community engagement, Place-based communities

Sources: Block Party Guide, Oakland CA and Block Party Planning Tips from Block Party NYC. These resources include forms and other tools. For local restrictions and guides, try searching the term “block party permit” and the name of your city/town. Click on this, for example.

10 Reasons To Have a Block Party

  1. To have fun – no excuse or reason to celebrate!
  2. To meet your neighbors.
  3. To increase the sense of belonging in your neighborhood.
  4. To organize a city-sponsored group such as Neighborhood Watch.
  5. To make connections within the community. When you know people, you can exchange skills or resources and perhaps organize a book club, baby-sitting co-op, share walking to school duties, or find new friends for your children.
  6. To plan a campaign for traffic slowdown, get better lighting, or address other interests.
  7. To “use” the street for one day, for example to roller blade, set up a kids jump house or to practice bike safety skills.
  8. To meet some of the old-time residents in the neighborhood and learn about its history.
  9. To have a neighborhood clean-up day, play some good music and barbecue once all the work is done.
  10. To start a tradition of getting together at least once a year.

broome-street-block-party-160

How to start organizing

  • Gather a few neighbors and divide up the tasks. A block party is too big a production for even the most highly-skilled organizer to accomplish alone. If you don’t already know you neighbors, reach out to them by organizing an introductory meeting and planning session.
  • Decide on a possible theme, activities, etc. Decide what to do about food.
  • Start knocking on doors to find out if there is enough interest and, if so, which day would be the best for the most people
  • Pick a date and time (mid-afternoon to evening works best). Respect neighborhood quietness after 9:00pm. Think of an alternate plan in case of poor weather.
  • Go door to door. Hand out invitations. If you plan to close off the street, you’ll probably need to complete Block Party application form.
  • Recruit volunteers to help with the planning.
  • Decide if this will be a block party restricted to those on the street/block or will people be able to invite friends/relatives
  • Post signs the day before reminding everyone to remove cars and that the street will be closed.

Ideas

  • Invite a city council member, school principal, or city staff member.
  • Call the Police Department, Fire Department, Environmental Services or other city departments to obtain literature, give-aways, or to request a presentation.
  • Make a record of everyone who attends and everyone you contacted; after all, the idea of a block party is to connect neighbors.
  • Identify special talents your neighbors might have – you may be living next to a magician, singer, dancer, artist, radio host or prize winning cook.
  • Plan lots of activities for children.
  • Food: if you’re looking for the least fuss, work, and cleanup, the hot dog is for you. The standard charcoal grill is a cheap, easy, portable way to go. Someone on your block probably owns one if you don’t.
  • Lots of block parties have great luck getting food donated from local grocery stores or supermarkets.
  • Have an environmentally friendly party. Ask everyone to bring their own reusable plates, cups and cutlery to limit paper garbage and litter.
  • Include activities that encourage people to meet each other. Use nametags and include children by asking them to create the tags.
  • Make sure that people with disabilities can participate in the activities and include their attendants (those with seeing eye dogs or in wheelchairs).
  • Institute a bathroom policy “Everyone to use their own” so that home security is maintained.
  • Trash: have at least one trash can at every table/location where food is being served. It’s also a good idea to have several elsewhere on the block.
  • Inspire clean up after every party by rewarding children with a prize for packing up garbage.
  • Have a block/street clean up as part of the party. Also, neighbors may want to contribute towards the cost of a truckload to the dump and use this to clean out gardens, garbage or alleys.
  • Distribute an evaluation form to participants (to get a good response, number the forms and have door prizes for returned entries).

Getting to know your neighbors

  • Identify any special people that lived in your area such as the longest resident, politician, artist, eccentric, hero, etc. Have partygoers guess who, what, where through charades and other games.
  • Have everyone bring his or her favorite family dish.
  • Use a map to indicate where everyone originally came from.

Family-friendly activities

  • Water balloon or egg toss
  • Hide and seek
  • Face painting
  • Organize a kids talent show or parade
  • Sidewalk chalk
  • Pictionary or charades
  • Musical chairs
  • Invite a clown, balloon artist or magician
  • Rent a popcorn or snow cone machine

Neighborhood action

  • Discuss what issues/concerns people may have (keep this to a predetermined time: remember, a block party should be fun).
  • Establish teams to explore how to resolve the concerns.
  • Have a clean-up time.
  • Build a bench, plant a garden, and paint street numbers, etc. as part of the block party activities.

Typical restrictions

  • Alcohol is only permitted on private property, not on city streets or in parks.
  • Residents should observe security precautions, for example lock back doors to houses and keep equipment in sight.
  • Food cannot be sold on city streets unless the proper permits have been obtained. Give the food away (and there’s nothing to stop you from putting a “suggested donation” sign on the table).
  • Loud amplification of music is prohibited.
  • If you set up tables and chairs on the street, leave room for emergency vehicles.

Other resources:

Wrap-up: Coverage of Pew Research Center’s “Neighbors Online”

in community engagement, Place-based communities

Pew’s Neighbors Online report, published Wednesday, provides baseline data on neighborhood communications. Join the Q&A with author Aaron Smith, over at e-democracy.org’s Locals Online. Several media outlets reported on the report, and here are a few that did more than reprint the overview:

  • Chicago Sun-Times: Folks use digital tools to take role in community – “Leonard’s experience mirrors the findings of a study released Wednesday. Contrary to assumptions that people who go online hole up in their basements, the study showed the opposite: Internet users are more likely than non-users to talk face to face with their neighbors about local and community issues.”
  • CivSource: More going online to go local – “Steven Clift, director of E-Democracy.org – a nonprofit organization that works to develop civic engagement and online community building strategies – called the report an “excellent start,” in an interview yesterday. The report puts numbers to what we’ve instinctively thought about neighborhood activity online and I think it will certainly move the field of discussion along.”
  • Christian Science Monitor: The Internet probably won’t turn you into a hermit, study finds – “Far from being more reclusive, Internet users are more likely to meet their neighbors face-to-face and engage in community issues, a new study reveals. The findings suggests that talking in person or over the telephone remain the top two ways that people living close to one another keep up on community developments, even in an increasingly digital world.”
  • e-democracy: Neighbors Online – What have 27% of Internet Users Discovered? Women Lead the Way. Need More Inclusion – “So now we have numbers on the digital participation divide we must close: Only 2% of those with household incomes under $30,000 are on a neighborhood e-mail list; only 3% of Hispanics; only 2% of rural residents.”
  • New York Times: Friends, Neighbors and Facebook – “There’s no need to pine for a return to the pre-Facebook, cardigan-swaddled idealism of Mister Rogers and his charming “neighbors” and “friends,” but it is important for us to remember that tangible, meaningful engagement with those around us builds better selves and stronger communities.”
  • ReadWriteWeb: Neighbors Rely On Word of Mouth, But Online Gains – “The biggest effect that online tools have had on neighborhood interactions is in providing an avenue for learning about and interacting on local issues to individuals who might not engage in these issues through more traditional means.”

Although all of Pew’s survey respondents are from the United States, the report has global implications. See this analysis by UK-based Kevin Harris, author of the Neighbourhoods blog, reprinted here in its entirety with Kevin’s permission (thanks Kevin):

Online communication in neighbourhoods: not just people we know

The latest Pew Internet Project report has just been published, on the topic of ‘neighbors online’.

It’s based on telephone interviews with 2,258 Americans, and while I didn’t read anything that hit the wow-box it certainly helps us think about communication at neighbourhood level. The questions asked about face-to-face interaction with neighbours, telephone contact, and a range of local online resources.

Unsurprisingly (and as last year’s Pew Internet study demonstrated) internet users are just as likely as non-users to discuss local issues face-to-face. People in higher income households and with higher educational attainment are more likely to talk face-to-face with neighbours about local issues.

Between 4% and 11% of all those surveyed exchange email with their neighbours about local issues, read a blog dealing with local issues, or are signed up to a locally-focussed online forum or social network. This is baseline data, hopefully Pew will repeat the questions every now and then.

For me the most interesting finding was this: (more…)

Introducing Neighbor Chalk!

in community engagement, Place-based communities

Fellow Neighborhood Organizers,

It’s Joseph Porcelli, I’m the Chief Executive Neighbors at NeighborsForNeighbors.org and I’m also one of the editors here on Our Blocks.

It’s summer time and one the pleasures of summer is making sidewalk chalk. So today, NeighborsForNeighbors.org is launching Neighbor Chalk and we’re inviting you to join us and help spread the word.

Neighbor Chalk is an international public art project that encourages people to create sidewalk chalk art in front of their homes and around their neighborhood to create a welcoming environment for their neighbors and passers by.

  1. Create an event at www.meetup.com/neighborchalk
  2. Invite your neighbors to join you or create their own event
  3. Create sidewalk chalk art, have fun and meet your neighbors
  4. Take pictures and upload them our facebook page to flickr and tag them with “NeighborChalk”
  5. Tweet about your event using the hastag #NeighborChalk
  6. Follow @NeighborChalk
  7. “Like” us on Facebook
  8. Interested in becoming a Partner? Please fill out our Partner Inquiry Form

Chalk it up! | Promote Your Page Too

Up-coming Summit on Great Neighborhoods in Boston, MA

in community engagement, Place-based communities

The Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance is bringing together a panel of people who have helped communities create great neighborhoods across the country. Our guests will share their years of experience helping to make great places to live, work and play.

Enjoy a complimentary breakfast while you learn about strategies to create places that are affordable, diverse, walkable, and have a high quality of life.

After the panel, we will have the rest of the morning to discuss ways that you can help create “great neighborhoods” and shape the Smart Growth Alliance’s innovative new Great Neighborhoods program.

LEARN how other cities and towns broadened opportunities for local residents.

LISTEN for lessons that metro Boston should adopt.

SHARE your ideas in discussions with our panelists and Smart Growth Alliance members.

Admission is Free, but seating is limited. RSVP above under “Ticket Information”. Complimentary breakfast and sign-in begins at 8:30am

For questions, contact Tracy Hudak at thudak@mapc.org or at 617-451-2770, extension 2018. For more info. visit:

http://greatneighborhoods.eventbrite.com/

Locals Online – For hosts of neighborhood e-lists, placeblogs, and community social nets

in community engagement, Place-based communities

Ashoka Fellow Steven Clift recently created the Locals Online forum on e-democracy.org, to bring together people round the world who are working to connect neighbors with one another.

In his April 21 post, he noted: “From neighborhood e-mail lists to social networks, placeblogs to block-level Facebook groups, thousands of people are doing what we are doing in isolation. The challenge with this online group is to get enough of us gathered to begin sharing tips, lessons, and ideas on a regular basis.”

He invited hosts of neighborhood e-mail lists, place blogs, community web forums, building or block-level social networking groups, hyper-local online communities, and online journalism sites designed for active community participation. Dozens of local leaders signed up, and on May 5, Steve asked them to start introducing themselves to one another. As of this morning, 17 people did. Links to their intros, and excerpts:

Online interactions have positive effects for real-life communities

in community engagement, Place-based communities

Caroline Haythornthwaite

According to Caroline Haythornthwaite and Lori Kendall, professors in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Illinois, online interactions not only have positive outcomes for real-life, place-based communities, but the intersection between online communication and the offline world also forms two halves of a support mechanism for communities.

As information and communication technologies have become increasingly intertwined with everyday life, the Internet and social media have combined to create a vibrant and indispensable communication and information platform and infrastructure for today’s world.

From social networking, to civic participation, to community support during emergencies, to providing on-the-ground information in disaster areas, the professors say that the rapid development and widespread use of online technologies – for communicating and networking, for contributing and distributing content, and for storing, sharing and retrieving files – are creating ties that bind for offline communities.

“Research on who people communicate with online shows a lot of local activity,” Haythornthwaite said. “So online communication always reinforces local relationships and local identities that build networks of interacting individuals who are mutually aware of each other. Together, this demonstrates a continuous change in how we maintain local community, while also emphasizing the importance and significance of our attachments to local places and spaces.”

Lori Kendall

“While people can go to a site for information and personal support, they have also formed some long-term relationships with others they’ve met there and communicated with,” Kendall said. “So both things are happening, but I would say there’s probably more contact online with locals, and more searches for local information.”

“What has been growing over the years is a stronger, Internet-enabled connection to the geographically-based community,” Haythornthwaite said. “We’ve evolved from one-to-one or small group communication to whole ‘community’ communication.”

“It’s very possible for people to ignore opinions they don’t like and talk only to people they agree with online,” Kendall said. “Offline is often messier. To the extent that you’re going to get involved with your local community and your neighbors, you’re going to have to hash out disagreements and deal with a wide range of identities, experiences, and opinions.

Emerging and evolving uses of information and communication technologies only serve to reinforce and regenerate geographically-based community identities, the professors say. With the ubiquity of Internet-enabled cell phones with cameras, the mobile Internet provides a low effort, just-in-time, virtual printing press, making anyone a writer, editor and publisher of hyperlocal news.

“I think the use of cell phones to access the Web is a bigger factor in connecting the Internet to a local geographical community than the World Wide Web has been,” Kendall said.

Haythornthwaite and Kendall’s article, “Internet and Community,” is published in the April 2010 issue of American Behavioral Scientist.

Excerpted from Online interactions have positive effects for real-life communities, by Phil Ciciora, News Editor, University of Illinois News Bureau

Found via @idealist