Our project was a huge success!! We had over 60 people attend through the span of the evening and even were able to get a visit from the local firetruck and firefighters.
Our neighbourhood struggles to connect because we don’t have any natural connection points throughout the year. Some have been living here for over 50 years and have lightly met their neighbours, and others have just moved in within the last few months and are eager to make new friends. However, all the opportunities for engagement are things that take us out of our neighbourhood and never toward each other. This block party is the one focal point we have that gave us a chance to work together, get to know each other, and find out who lives in our area.
One really fun takeaway is that we had a group of 6-8 peple who had previously all lived within a few streets of each other in Mount Pleasant. They had encountered each other numerous times in their old neighbourhood, but they had no idea that they had all moved to the same area again within a year of each other. It was so fun to see them finding each other at the barbecue for the first time in this new neighbourhood! One neighbour said, “this is such a fun event – I can’t believe we even had this many families living in our neighbourhood! I never see other people out and about!” We also had other neighbours who saw our first party last summer but were too afraid to join in. These neighbours walked over as the party was starting and asked if they would be welcome to sit with us.
We have a thriving neighbourhood group chat now. This group chat is where we planned our party by delegating tasks and offering different skills and equipment for help. Since it began, it also helped us work through some difficult community conversations as we all received letters noting that our zoning was changing for street parking. By meeting each other through our block party, we now feel comfortable enough to have personal, honest conversations about our needs as a community and the future we’re hoping for as (hopeful) long-term residents building a new network together.
This experienced helped us all to learn that sometimes all it takes is sending a simple invite or accepting an invite to increase community safety and well-being. For us all, this was our opportunity to ensure that everybody felt heard, known, and welcome. This was a highly engaging party. Neighbours old and new volunteered to help with setup and takedown, cleaning, cooking, bringing equipment, making playlists, inviting other neighbours, and whatever else came up. There was never a moment when we had any less than 5 different households engaging in some level of support for the party from preparation to closing. We were also so lucky to have tables and chairs provided by Reality Church, a local church just off Fraser Street. Since this time, we’ve been brain storming different ways we might be able to come together as a community – potential book clubs, tea parties, barbecues, and sharing garden harvests. We’re so grateful for this connection point that keeps us going!
