The Neighboring Movement comes to Cedar Rapids

 

Catherine Johnson (from neighboringmovement.org)

 

 

While it's easy to see problems, it's the ability to see, connect and mobilize people's gifts that enables a neighborhood to thrive, said Catherine Johnson, co-founder of The Neighboring Movement, at the outset of a two-day workshop at Groundswell in Cedar Rapids. She appeared with Elizabeth Ramirez, program director of the organization's Community Animator Network. The event was co-sponsored by Matthew 25 and Nourished.

Johnson described moving to the South Central neighborhood of Wichita, Kansas, a section of town disdained by realtors, bankers, and city leaders. Once she and husband Matthew met their neighbors,  they mobilized them into a social network with an impressive variety of accomplishments. The Johnsons built on their experiences in "SoCe" to create a nonprofit that helps people across the country take "simple, doable, and universal actions that make a lasting difference in neighborhoods." In a world where "the percentage of American adults who say they're lonely has doubled from 20 percent to 40 percent" since the 1980s, and "the feeling of loneliness increases risk of death by 26%" (from information cards at the workshop), they respond by [i]nspiring connection, and building trust. We believe that everyone has gifts, and when people use their gifts they experience wholeness and the community gets stronger. By living authentically we can grow and thrive together (from their webpage).

Elizabeth Ramirez (from neighboringmovement.org)

The Neighboring Movement uses the principles of asset-based community development (ABCD), a term coined in Chicago by John P. Kretzmann and John P. McKnight over thirty years ago. [I knew "Jody" Kretzmann in the 1990s when we were both connected to a Chicago-based urban studies program. That has no relevance to what we're discussing here, but a man's got to insert what a man's got to insert.]  ABCD, then, is about the same vintage as new urbanism. They do seem to speak to the same problems, and share similar visions.

ABCD is a way of building communities, not by bringing in services from outside, but by identifying the skills and assets already there. Johnson and Ramirez referred to valuing "the glass half-full," "relationships for mutual support," and "citizen-led action... for equity and justice." As such it seems mainly oriented to central city neighborhoods--the ABCD Institute at DePaul University refers on their website to "communities in trouble"--but people everywhere can feel the need for connection. Maybe ABCD can help individuals deal with stress and isolation exacerbated by the suburban development pattern.

300 block of 8th St SE, 2013:
Even in the MedQuarter, porches and sidewalks provide space to encounter neighbors

The workshop was entitled 8 Front Doors, from the number of adjacent houses in a typical grid pattern: three in front, three behind, and one on either side. A handout for compiling information from your own neighborhood is here. We were challenged to include names and as much information as we could about each household, and characterize our connection as "stranger," "acquaintance," or "relationship." ("What about adversarial relationships?" asked one participant. Let us not go there.) For the record, I  could name seven of the eight, had three relationships, four acquaintances, and one stranger. I'm sure this is more impressive than it would have been two years ago, because a lot of us were brought together when dealing with the August 2020 derecho. I defined "relationship" as people I could ask for help on something, whose talents were familiar, and with whom I could discuss things I wouldn't with an average person. Would I invite them to join me/us for a ballgame or a beer? Maybe not. But now I have some ideas about how to broaden and deepen the neighborhood circle.

For individuals, Johnson and Ramirez said the key was to "make yourself available." They used the phrase "third things," which seemed analogous to Ray Oldenburg's concept of third places. Examples included walking your dog, having coffee or grilling in your front yard, borrowing something, asking for help, and hosting a neighborhood gathering. Their handouts added sharing food, going for a walk and striking up a conversation, and texting a greeting. Even more "neighboring tips" are on their website. Some of those activities are more intensive than others, but all can help the process of "discovering health, wealth and power in our neighborhoods." Like Oldenburg writing about third places, or Jane Jacobs writing about sidewalks, the key is to build community starting with incidental contacts.

Lightworks Cafe, summer 2021:
Commercial space with outdoor seating

Connections are good in themselves, but also the basis for community-based efforts. An "asset map" compiles information on the strengths of the people in the neighborhood--what they know, what they can do, what they feel passionately about--as well as physical attributes like access to public transportation or parks. Strengths can be found in surprising places, as we discovered playing a game called We Can; everything in the game was either something one of us could do or something which someone we knew could do. The asset map can be used to organize events (who's good at cooking, who's good at filing permits), to connect people with similar interests, and to help people move up the "ladder of participation" so they can have more control over their living environments. Johnson and Ramirez caution beginners not to "turn people into data" but to keep the focus on building relationships, and that building trust takes time.

Ladder of participation (from neighboringmovement.org)

I like the idealism of The Neighboring Movement; it's a bit motivational, but not too much. I'm not sure how it might play in my upper-middle-class streetcar suburban neighborhood, but I at least know I can be more intentional about getting to know who my neighbors are. I listed three different organizational affiliations at the workshop, and it's possible one or more of those might get something going. Attention must be paid, though. Between climate events and economic emergencies and political extremism and gun violence, there's a lot going on in the world to shake us out of any illusion we can remain in self-contained enclaves. We're going to need neighbors to get us through all the gathering storms, and they're going to need us, and The Neighboring Movement can show us the way. 

SEE ALSO: "Who is My Neighbor?" 10 July 2013