Neighborhood Toolkit #1

Initial Neighborhood Meeting

Purpose:  

• To get to know our neighbors and to deepen connection with community. 

• To mobilize and engage local communities to protect democracy. 

• To build cohesion within neighborhood groups to help us face upcoming challenges together.

Initial meetings focus on building trust, and fostering courage and exchanging information.

Guidelines for a 1st Meeting

Get to know each other better.  Sit in a circle and Start with a check in. The time allotted could be 2-3 minutes/person. Include your name, your main concern right now, how you are feeling and what gives you hope. (The purpose of the first check-in is to let each person be seen and heard.)

Next do an additional check-in. (Take 5 minutes each) Answer any or all of the following questions:

• Are there things you are already doing, as an individual or with a group?  What are they?

• What are some actions we might consider doing as a group? (See webpage ENGAGE)

• What might you/we want to research?

Next Steps to Consider

• how often to meet; what days of the week work best;

• where to meet; is a zoom meeting an option? 

• Do you want to be purely political? Or combine with neighborhood projects like emergency preparedness? neighborhood improvement project? helping people who are housebound?

• Do you want to have food?

Reconvene with Communities Rising at monthly All-Neighborhood Gathering

There are myriad ways that individuals and groups can take action (see graphic below).  Come share your ideas at our monthly all-neighborhood gatherings.

Collect any additional data for a contact list and consider best ways to communicate within your group:  email?  Google Group, Basecamp*, ...

*For technical help with creating a contact list with Basecamp, email Jim Little.

CR #2 Slides