3 Things You Can Do to Make Your Neighborhood More Resilient
Before the next one hits…
The pandemic caused most of us to step back and reflect on the fragility of our society.
It isn’t hard to imagine a virus just as contagious as COVID-19 with a slightly higher fatality rate — just high enough that essential workers decide coming into work isn’t worth the risk. What then?
What happens when “just-in-time” supply chains fail?
What happens when the next financial crisis tanks the economy even worse than in 2007-2008?
What happens when stronger and more frequent natural disasters knock out vital infrastructure in our cities?
What happens when global superpowers wield ever more sophisticated weapons to secure ever scarcer resources?
You get the idea. We all do, unfortunately. In this age of rapidly changing climate, technology, and geopolitical relationships, concerns that used to sound paranoid seem increasingly reasonable.
While some respond with typical “doomsday prepping” behavior — stockpiling food, water, weapons, etc. — I’m convinced that what will keep us safe in future crises will be what has always kept humans safe: cooperation.
We could have all the shipping containers in the world buried in our yards, but if we don’t have each other, we’re in trouble. We need each other’s skills, knowledge, and kindness in order to survive.
Our current societal structure, centered on consumerism, discourages social cohesion at the local level. It isn’t just happenstance that we find it normal to own private homes, private cars, private tools and pools and everything else — rather than sharing.
While this model serves its intended purpose — promoting the growth of economies of scale — when those systems break down we’re left without smaller, simpler ones to fall back on.
Below are three things you can do today in order to build the relationships and skills needed to get you and your neighborhood through the next crisis, whatever it may be.
Start a neighborhood garden club
A garden club may seem mundane when thinking about responses to apocalyptic scenarios. However, on a practical level, it’s one of the most effective strategies we can pursue.
Meeting weekly or monthly, neighborhood garden clubs serve a number of important functions:
- They get people interacting with their neighbors, building trust and familiarity.
- They inspire people to start or continue growing food. When supply chains fail, the more local food production, the better.
- They raise the level of local agricultural skill and knowledge.
- Come harvest time, garden clubs promote an informal economy of sharing food. These become especially important when grocery stores are no longer an option.
How to start: First, make up a simple flyer establishing the first meeting (probably at your place). Put where, when, COVID-19 precautions if needed, etc.
Second, invite people in person if possible. Knock on their doors and introduce yourself if you haven’t already. This gets you acquainted personally and they’re more likely to attend with a face-to-face invitation.
Third, host the meeting! Sit in a circle. Make sure you provide simple beverages such as coffee and tea, and a few snacks. Just a fruit and veggie plate or even a box of granola bars does the trick. Food is essential for bringing people together and keeping them from getting cranky.
Here’s the structure we use for our garden club:
First 5 minutes: short introductions (if it’s the first meeting or there are new attendees) consisting of your name, how long you’ve lived in the neighborhood, and your experience with gardening.
Next 10–15 minutes: a talk by a member on a gardening topic of choice.
Next 20–30 minutes: we go around the circle, one by one, and talk about what we’re growing, how it’s going, problems we’re facing, etc. This is an opportunity for sharing tips, tricks, and solutions.
Final 5–10 minutes: wrap up. Decide when and where subsequent garden club meetings will be. Ask if anyone wants to volunteer to give the next opening talk. Thank everyone for attending.
After the meeting, people will typically hang around and chat. This is good! Friendly neighborhood gossip is like fertilizer for community building.
Garden clubs are also great forums to bring up other aspects of neighborhood resilience, including rain water collection, foraging, and medicinal herbs.
Start a time bank
A time bank is a system of exchange in which participants exchange time rather than money. They typically use a software system such as Community Weaver to keep track of hours exchanged.
How to start: First, see if you can get a few friends or neighbors to help you organize the time bank. Next, create a profile on Community Weaver (it’s free) and follow the instructions to start a time bank. Fill out a profile with your basic information. The most important part is the list of skills you are able to provide to the rest of the community.
Invite others to join. The best way to do this is to get out in the community. Post flyers in coffee shops. Knock on doors. Tell people to invite their friends. You could even list an ad in the local paper.
As more people join, more skills become available to each member. When you need a service or skill, simply search for it in the time bank and reach out to someone offering it. After the service has been completed, you transfer however many TimeDollars, or hours they provided, to their account.
Time banks build neighborhood resilience in a number of ways:
- They serve as a platform through which people in the community meet each other and build trusting relationships.
- They give people an idea of who has what skills in their community.
- They get people in the practice of giving and receiving their time on a voluntary basis.
- Because everyone’s time is valued equally, time banks serve as an equalizing institution. By putting different kinds of people into cooperative relationship with each other, they facilitate community solidarity across socioeconomic divides.
- They promote the growth of informal networks of exchange. These are especially helpful in economic depressions, times when the national currency becomes so devalued that people can no longer use it to meet their needs.
Start a pop-up repair cafe
A pop-up repair cafe is a regular gathering (often monthly) where people who can repair various things volunteer their services to the community.
It’s typically held indoors in a public place like a school cafeteria or gymnasium, church basement, library, etc. Those who are volunteering their services set up in separate spaces where they can spread out their tools and work.
Depending on which volunteers sign up, items to be repaired can include:
- Appliances
- Clothing and shoes
- Bicycles
- Power tools
- Yard and garden tools
- Furniture
- Electronics
If a time bank exists in the community, this is a great opportunity for volunteers to earn TimeDollars.
How to start: first, see if you can get a few friends or neighbors to help you organize the repair cafe. This one takes a lot of coordination and it’s easier with more hands on deck.
Establish a recurring day, place, and time. You’ll need to get permission from wherever you’ll be holding the events. Plan the first cafe several months in advance to give yourself enough time to round up volunteers and get the word out.
Next, get your volunteers lined up. If you have a time bank in your community, this will be easy. Simply look up all the aforementioned repair skills and reach out to members to see if they would like to participate.
If there is no time bank, you have a few options. Start with people you know personally — neighbors, friends, or family — who have the needed skills. Then, you can go around (or call around) to various shops in your community and ask the technicians to volunteer. You can place ads in your local paper and on Craigslist and put up flyers around town. You could also reach out to groups like churches and Rotary Clubs to see if they would ask their communities for volunteers.
When you connect with volunteers, make sure they are able to bring the tools they’ll need to the repair cafe. If not, you’ll need to find other volunteers to supply the tools.
Once you have your line up of volunteers, you’re safe to start getting the word out to your community. Invite people through many of the same channels you used to recruit volunteers — flyers, ads, and reaching out to groups. You could also go door-to-door, meet your neighbors, and give them an invitation in person.
Make sure everyone understands what the repair cafe is and that they can bring something they need repaired! If they don’t need anything repaired, they can come and socialize or help with other repairs.
Note: many repair cafes are fixed places where donated tools are permanently stored. Here’s more information on that model.
How repair cafes build neighborhood resilience:
- They introduce community members to one another and establish trusting relationships.
- They promote the growth of informal networks of exchange. These are especially helpful in economic depressions.
- They establish a collective habit of repairing items locally rather than buying them new through supply chains. Over time this builds community self-reliance.
- They encourage community service and get people working together.
Do you have other ideas for building neighborhood resilience? Please leave a comment and let me know!
