IGNITE June 2021

Your great neighborhood needs you

What assets make your area so special?

There are many different areas where someone can donate their time, money and resources. Places like food banks, animal shelters, senior living, social justice and equity activism, environmental causes and more. But what about volunteering right outside your own backdoor? What about getting involved in your neighborhood?

Research shows that one-third of Americans have never met their neighbors and yet studies also show that people who know their neighbors and are engaged in their neighborhoods, are more likely to report a higher rate of health and well-being. Strengthening neighborhood ties and getting involved has numerous benefits, such as getting access to information and resources, making your neighborhood safer, receiving help and support, expanding your social circle, and more.

But, we don’t always think about our neighborhoods needing us, or even us needing our neighborhoods. And it does not have to take a lot of time and resources.

Research shows that one-third of Americans have never met their neighbors.

Volunteering in your neighborhood does not have to take a lot of time and resources. Simple ways you can contribute to your neighborhood include:

■ Joining or starting a neighborhood association

■ Attending or hosting block parties

■ Organizing or participating in neighborhood activities like clean up

■ Helping a neighbor in need

■ Greeting neighbors as they walk by

■ Having a neighborhood yard sale

■ Hosting a book or food drive

Now more than ever, neighborhoods need more of their residents, renters and property owners to get involved. Investing where we live should be a major priority. When you invest in your neighborhood, you are making a direct contribution where you call home, where you eat, and where you spend time with family and friends. This has a trickle effect, not just on your neighborhood, but other neighborhoods, and your community, as well.

If you are looking for an organization that works with neighborhoods, the Transform Rockford Great Neighborhoods program is a great place to start.

Grass-Roots Action

Great Neighborhoods is a grass-roots program available to help residents transform their neighborhoods into what they want. The program is available to help neighborhoods think about what they want to accomplish, discover their assets that can help them and leverage those assets into successful projects. Together, we co-create action plans with our neighborhoods, help connect all the dots, and utilize networks and resources to move projects forward.

A few examples of the things Great Neighborhoods has done includes hosting seven neighborhood leadership summits, helping the Keith Creek neighborhood get a neighborhood sign and assisting the Edgewater neighborhood in creating their own marketing video.

Connect and get involved with Great Neighborhoods to impact the neighborhoods around you by emailing cira@transformrockford.org. You also can link to the Facebook and Instagram accounts. Remember, the best thing in life is enjoyed by others.

Cira Bennett is program director for Great Neighborhoods, part of Transform Rockford, and a member of IGNITE Rockford.

The views expressed are those of Bennett’s and do not necessarily include those of the Rockford Chamber of Commerce.