What if neighbours helped neighbours more? Here’s what we learned!

What if our neighbours became sources of everyday support that could allow all of us to grow our social connectedness and resilience, while also staying in our homes longer as we “age in the right place”? This was the driving question behind Building Resilient Neighbourhoods’ (BRN’s) “Neighbours Helping Neighbours” (NHN) pilot. Starting in 2023, BRN and Hey Neighbour Collective worked with ten partners – community-based organizations, housing operators, resident associations, and resident-led groups – who shared this same question and were eager to develop and test different approaches.

The NHN pilot aimed to bring residents of multi-unit buildings together to learn about the value of neighbourly support and to collaborate on taking action together to strengthen mutual assistance. The Neighbours Helping Neighbours: Pilot Learning Report (2023-2025) [link] is now available.

The NHN Learning Report begins with a discussion of the need for greater mutual support among neighbours to help everyone “age in the right place,” and of how BRN and its partners collaborated to adapt programming for different circumstances.

Part 1: What Did We Do? describes each partners’ demonstration program in detail, alongside spotlights on the people who participated and stories of impacts.

Part 2: So, What Did We Learn? offers insights into the key lessons we collectively learned. We look at the challenges and the successful strategies for engaging neighbours in helping activities both informal and structured, and also at what we learned about the best ways to deliver programming to foster mutual support among residents. 

Part 3: Now What?  presents BRN’s reflections on the growing importance of resident-led mutual support, and on how we can all best continue to help foster it.