One of the things we’re fixing to do here at Shift the Country is to catalyze, foster, and encourage civic engagement… including with more connection and community. Neighborhoods are a great place to start.
So imagine my surprise today in accidentally finding out about this cool annual day happening right now today on Fred Rogers’ (Mister Rogers) birthday.
The website for this is even called “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” at… https://wontyoubemyneighborday.com.
From that website…
“Fred Rogers left a legacy of helping children and their families treat everyone with respect and find the beauty all around them. To honor this man’s great legacy, we’re asking you to join us in spreading joy and beauty in your neighborhood on his birthday … and every day! The Hopeful Neighborhood Project and [its] partners are inviting you to spread kindness in your neighborhood on March 20th.” They suggest doing “something kind for a neighbor,” and suggest that “saying hello to someone new is a great first step.” There are ideas on the blog about making your neighborhood beautiful. There are “real-life lessons from a journalist who had a friendship with Mister Rogers.”
The Hopeful Neighborhood Project (and partners) would like to know about any kindness and beauty you shared in your community today. There’s a spot for sending an action report on the day’s web page; along with a map showing various reports.
The thing is, though… we can seriously be neighborly any day of the year… and doing more of that would help us get going on getting more connected and in building more community this year as we come into the diciest, highest-risk election in the US perhaps ever.
We’re going to need connection and community. We can build it right where we live. It will help us reach more voters, get people energized, and get people out voting when it’s time for that. If you’re looking for ideas, the Hopeful Neighborhood Project has a very neat blog with more, and free online courses for digging in.
For now, we can be neighborly. It’s a start. We can just say hi. We can ask about the weather. We can bring up something happening around the ‘hood to talk about.
Conversations start in the simplest of places, and we all need the connection. It doesn’t have to be everything, and we don’t have to connect with people who don’t feel safe to connect with.
But we can connect with a heck of a lot of people. Or even just a handful. We go forward from there.
What sort of neighborly stuff do you do? How do you connect?