Neighbours and Neighbourhood

Submitted by Nastinia Bailey on December 12, 2011 - 2:22pm
What does middle-class community development look like?

What does community organizing/development look like in a comfortable and safe middle-class neighbourhood? Are there inspiring examples out there? We don’t have an issue or a “problem” to rally around together.  We do have a project of creating a neighbourhood centre that is generating excitement and energy. Shall we fabricate a problem or a cause to work on together? Or, what can we do so that we sweat together and get dirty working together? There’s nothing quite so bonding as working side by side and getting good and dirty.

 

Maybe middle class CD looks like a work bee? Our neighbor Willi hosted a work bee in September to tear off the shingles on his roof. I was up there with my nine year old and six year old who were thrilled at being allowed on the roof (and were actually productive). Up there also was my almost 70 year old Dad who out-worked and out-talked everyone else. There were also about six 60 something pals of Willi and two 20 something guys from next door. At one point I caught myself gregariously chatting it up with the men around me and realized I was talking a blue streak! I’m an introvert so I often listen rather than initiate conversation but there was something about being on that roof with 100 year old soot in every crease that made me just want to ask Jonathon all kinds of questions about the farm he grew up on and I wanted to tell him all about mine. There was a lot of talking happening on that roof. Even my kids were interacting with adults they wouldn’t have had much to say to on the ground.

 

So did the work bee lead to community organizing/connecting? Well, the 20 something guys came over for supper twice after that and they taught us how to make homemade cedar-flavoured marshmallows. The other men don’t live in this neighbourhood so I haven’t seen or heard from them yet. My husband said that the warm cinnamon rolls he made and served the roofers that day were still being exclaimed over two months later. He ran into one of the workers who said that he was STILL thinking about those rolls. So those two connected over the cinnamon rolls and who knows what that will lead to next….

 

None of this would have happened if Willi hadn’t been brave enough (vulnerable enough) to ask for help. Maybe CD in our neighbourhood will be best nurtured by those of us who are brave enough to ask for help. 

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Imagination Submitted by Derek Alton on December 22, 2011 - 12:40am.

Hi Nastinia, I really liked what you said about vulnerability.  Community requires vulnerability and it requires trust.  Two things we don't seem to foster in todays world, atleast not here in Ontario.  SO ya take risks.  Good Call.

THe other thing that jumped out at me was this talk of needing a crisis to mobilize people.  Its true, I look at a lot of the community mobilizations in my town and many come out of crisis, that force people together.  People are amazing at getting things done uner crisis.  I would say that describes much of my undergrad (go procrastination and last minute papers).  But it also summerizes one of my greatest frustrations with humanity.  We seem to always be reactive instead of proactive.  We wait tell the problem hits the fan.

But not always.  I know a few people who have really built a community around them based not on a crisis but an idea.  It has to be something that resonates with people, that makes people wnat to jump on board.  Whether it is a garden project or helping a community oversea's (or better yet the poverty that often exists in our neighbourhood).  Maybe its a community challenge to do with creating less waste (or the flip side keeping all your trash in your garbage for a month to really show how much we throw out.

Good luck.  Use your imagination : )

Reactive Culture Submitted by Donna Jean Fors... on December 23, 2011 - 12:12pm.

Great thoughts here. 

Sometimes it takes a crisis to spark an idea or action that has a greater pro-active outcome but the ball would not have got out of the gate had a crisis not occured. 

Much like Nina's comment...community development would not have occered had vulnerability not been born out of crisis.  Now that crisis has sparked our discussion, created realtionships, generated other ideas for bringing people together.

I am not so sure we wait until the problem hits the fan.  I think we are living live, a problem arises and sparks of all kinds fly!