How to Build Community

I received this information in an email from a friend recently. It is a list of ways to build community. Wouldn’t it be great if we all followed the suggestions? We can’t change the location of our neighborhood, but we do have the power to change the quality of life. I challenge you to make your neighborhood the best neighborhood ever.

• Turn off your TV
• Turn off the computer
• Leave your house
• Know your neighbors
• Greet people
• Play together
• Look up when you’re walking
• Sit on your stoop
• Plant flowers
• Use your library
• Buy from local merchants
• Share what you have
• Help a lost dog
• Take children to the park
• Honor elders
• Support neighborhood schools
• Fix it even if you didn’t break it
• Recycle, Reuse and Re-purpose
• Have potlucks
• Garden together
• Pick up litter
• Read stories aloud
• Dance in the street
• Talk to the mail carrier
• Listen to the birds
• Put up a swing
• Help carry something heavy for someone else
• Barter for your goods
• Start a tradition
• Ask a question
• Hire young people for odd jobs
• Organize a block party
• Bake extra and share
• Ask for help when you need it
• Open your shades
• Sing together
• Share your skills
• Take back the night
• Turn up the music
• Turn down the music
• Listen before you react
• Seek to understand
• Learn from new and uncomfortable angles
• Stay in curiosity and out of judgment
• Know that no one is silent though many are not heard
• Work to change this