A little over a year ago, I began thinking about how I could build community amongst neighbors and friends in our neighborhood. Not just the “hi and bye” or the generic surface conversations we can tend to have, but relationships with depth. Relationships that our children can come to admire and emulate with their friends in the neighborhood as well.
The idea that came to mind was a weekly walking group that not only builds community but promotes exercise, shares resources and empowers each other.
Then we decided to renovate our home…
If you’ve ever been through a major renovation, you know the time investment it takes and how draining it can be. Add a newborn to that mix and life was busy! So I postponed implementing this idea until Spring 2020.
Then here comes COVID…
Scared to interact with anyone, I figured we would try to meet when there is a cure for COVID-19 or at least until it made its exit. But who knows when that will be and I grew tired of putting life on hold. And I’m sure Simone got tired of me talking her ear off about it, so I mentioned the idea to a few neighbors and everyone was receptive,
so we walked…
The walking group officially kicked off in early August. I know, not the best idea to start a walking group during the hottest month of the year! But because the pandemic has left so many people feeling isolated and lacking social connections, the community thought the timing might be just right. And we are being safe; wearing masks, social distancing and being as responsible as we can.
We live in a neighborhood that has a very rich history and played a pivotal role in the community during the civil rights era.
During the weekly walks, we talk about the historic figures that lived in our neighborhood, engage in casual conversation and also discuss the topic of the week. A few of us decide on the topic a few days before the walk. To date, those conversations have been very interesting, fun and some quite informative. It’s nice hearing others’ perspectives on things like financial investments and wealth building, places around the world they’d like to visit and their top 3 movies of all time. The latter was a very passionate “discussion” accompanied by lots of laughter. As you can see, we cover a wide range of topics.
It has been a true community initiative and I have enjoyed building relationships with my neighbors. One of my friends (and neighbor) suggested that we expand the walk to include folks outside of our neighborhood. We did just that and he created a flyer to get the word out. Another neighbor posts the weekly flyers on our community Instagram page and we now have people coming from all areas of Charlotte to learn about the rich history of our neighborhood and surrounding communities.
When the weather gets too cold, we’ll take a break from doing the walks and pick back up in the Spring. But so far they have been successful and a great way to build community.
How have you been connecting with others during the pandemic? Have you thought about ways to build community in your neighborhood?
With Intention,
Sean & Simone
This was a very great read. I think too often we get so consumed in our day to day lives that we never take the time to truly get to know our neighbors or our neighborhood. I had been living in my subdivision for about 4 years now, and I could not have told you any of my neighbors names…. not even the people that live right next to me. It took me volunteering to realize that there are far more people of color living a few feet away from me than I thought. So far I have connected with one of my neighbors, but there is still room to improve.
Nancy, we agree. Life can consume us and isolate us if we let it and building that sense of community where we live takes effort. Glad that you took the step to get to know your neighbor. Hoping more relationships blossom in due time. Thank you for commenting, we appreciate you.