What is Neighbours Helping Neighbours?

Building Resilient Neighbourhoods and Hey Neighbour Collective recently launched their new program Neighbours Helping Neighbours (NHN). Can you give us an overview of what NHN is and what needs it’s addressing?

Neighbours Helping Neighbours is an initiative to help neighbours build relationships that foster mutual support. No matter who we are, we all benefit from having someone nearby we can ask for a simple favour or who can help us out in an emergency. And, it feels good to help others out – it makes us feel like we’re part of something. 

I have a friend in Spain who was asking why we need a program for this—she didn’t understand the concept. Her assumption is that neighbours just know each other and help each other—you don’t need to teach people to do this, it’s just human nature!

But here in North America, many people take pride in living independently, there’s a lot of value placed on privacy, and in our colder climate we don’t spontaneously bump into our neighbours as often as people do in warmer countries. So, we need to proactively nurture neighbourly cultures of mutual support!

I think the pandemic intensified everyone’s awareness of this – of the importance of social connections, and of having someone nearby who can help you a little, especially when people got ill or had to quarantine for a time. But even before that, surveys have shown that most Canadians want to live in their own homes for as long as possible as they age. Professional home health services or family support can obviously be vital for some, but what else can we do to help enable people to live well at home? 

No matter who we are or what stage of life we’re in, we all gain from having neighbours available to help us at times. I think those informal and casual connections are often undervalued. 

So, how can we help each other? What types of things are neighbours doing?

Research has shown that it often comes down to relatively small and simple but consistent acts of support. A woman in Victoria named Ann is a great example. She managed to live at home well into her 90s, because she was in a building where the residents knew and cared about each other, and checked on each other regularly. For instance, one morning Ann didn’t pick up the daily newspaper left outside her door—her next-door neighbour knocked, and discovered that Ann had fallen and needed assistance! 

At larger scales, this can also have impacts on people’s finances, their resource usage, and on climate adaptation, and so on. In my Ann’s building they created a robust recycling system. Some folks chipped in together to share home care services. They checked on each other during heatwaves.

Why is NHN focused on collaboration within buildings or blocks, instead of across neighbourhoods and communities?

A lot of us have friends or family across the city or further away who’ll come by and help us out in a pinch, and that’s great. But it’s just not as easy to call on these people for help with little, day-to-day things; neighbours can help each other much more quickly and easily! 

Many multi-unit buildings also tend to be diverse—with residents of different ages, and different skills and backgrounds. This really lends itself well to neighbours helping neighbours. For example, we recently saw a case of a woman who’s become a new mother. Her neighbour is a retired woman whose family lived in Europe. The retiree is missing her grandchildren and has free time during the day, and the new mom desperately needs a break for an hour here or there to run an errand or get some rest—this is a great match! 

It sounds like something residents could start doing together relatively easily. What other examples have you seen?

As soon as you start thinking about it, there’s so much that we can do. If your fridge or stove breaks down—can you briefly use a neighbour’s? We can share equipment, tools, and rides. We can also create larger and more formalized systems. One called “Condo Care” started with an older woman who needed help changing a lightbulb on a high ceiling. She talked with a neighbour, and soon the residents of her building were gathering a list of their skills and abilities, and set up a system of offering free home repairs. I think the potential of all of this is really exciting!

What does this initiative actually look like in practice so far?

We are working with partner organizations who already have connections with residents in their respective cities and neighbourhoods: the West End Seniors Network, Brightside Homes, Good Neighbour Kitsilano, and North Shore Community Resources in Vancouver, James Bay New Horizons in Victoria, and the NORC Innovation Center in Toronto. Some partners are going into buildings to engage and support neighbours around the idea of building neighbour-to-neighbour helping networks. Others are hosting gatherings for interested “resident leaders” at their community center to share ideas and resources about how to get something started in their own buildings or on their streets. 

How would you recommend people get started on helping grow more mutual support in their own building, and is there a way for organizations or residents to get involved with Neighbours Helping Neighbours?

Neighbours might start with just activating a community bulletin board with “freecycle” notices about things they want to give away or need to find, or by making a lobby area a little more inviting for sitting and chatting. Often when social connections grow, it naturally leads to spontaneous acts of mutual support. 

Anyone interested in Neighbours Helping Neighbours should definitely get in touch with us to explore ways of possibly collaborating! BRN also has guides and resources freely available, such as our learning reports and toolkits, or our heat guide. 

A lot of people are helping one another already, but it’s not visible to others. So I think just making it more visible and increasing awareness of its value would help a lot. Ultimately, this is a way to join with others and help grow the types of communities we want to live in.