Clayton Heights residents show their resilience and love of community when they recently participated in a Starr Park socially distant block party.
Like so many others, COVID-19 is impacting Shannon’s life and family. For the past 12 years, the Clayton Heights’ resident has co-owned an event planning business. When events over 50 people were banned in March, Shannon and her partner lost 90% of their annual business overnight. But like many across the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley, she is not only adapting to her new situation, she’s finding ways to make her neighbourhood stronger thanks to support from United Way’s Hi Neighbour initiative.
“I’m an event planner who’s had no events to plan so I jumped at the opportunity to plan a ‘new’ version of an in-person event!” Shannon says.
Local Love grant connects neighbours
A Hi Neighbour Local Love grant helped Shannon make sure a version of a Clayton Heights summer tradition – Block Party Day went ahead.
“While it wasn’t a normal block party, it was an opportunity to get neighbours together outside but physically distanced in their own front yards,” Shannon says. “With so many months of being ‘distanced’ from the community, we thought it was important to have a celebration that brought the community together.”
The 41 homes immediately surrounding Starr Park received a ‘Block Party in a Box’ to decorate their yards, front porches or yards along with treats and dinner items. On a July Saturday, friends and neighbours celebrated community by walking around the park and getting to know one another – from those who have just moved to the neighbourhood to long-time residents.
“It was great to see people connecting for the first time. After this, we can wave hello to the neighbours because now we know them,” Shannon says. And building those connections is one of the ways United Way is championing citizen-led community engagement.
United Way’s Hi Neighbour builds community
Kids of Clayton Heights show off their wheels during the bike parade at the 2019 Block Party Day event.
Almost two years ago, United Way British Columbia began its first Hi Neighbour community initiative in Clayton Heights to help combat increasing loneliness and social isolation, a growing problem in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley. According to United Way research almost half (46%) of British Columbians say they sometimes feel lonely. The COVID-19 pandemic has only heightened feelings of isolation.
“We’re seeing more and more people struggling with the effects of COVID-19 – layoffs, underemployment, school closures and physical distancing. It means we’re all more socially isolated,” says Kim Winchell, Senior Director of Strategy & Operations, Community Impact and Investment at United Way. “We’re seeing incredible resilience in Hi Neighbour communities like Clayton Heights. Over the past few years, community members have stepped forward applying for Local Love grants to host Movie Nights in the Park, start the Little Library program or a Moms & Tots Reading group.
“The relationships built through these efforts are really making a difference during this crisis. We’re seeing friends and neighbours helping and supporting one another. It’s tremendously heartening. It’s local love in action.”
Hi Neighbour phase 2 = local community builders
Long-time Clayton volunteer, now Community Builder Sabrina knows how to convene a crowd through local food. Along with her work with United Way, Sabrina runs the Clayton Farmers Market.
Building on the work of Hi Neighbour, United Way hired 31 community builders – local residents well connected in their areas – to support 25 vulnerable neighbourhoods across the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley during the pandemic. In Clayton Heights, Sabrina, long-time volunteer and past Local Love grant recipient was hired for this new role.
“Starting as a community builder in Clayton during the pandemic put all the “fun stuff” that we usually support on hold,” Sabrina says. “Every single resource was and is being used to support the most vulnerable and isolated individuals of our community. We offer friendly phone calls, pick up urgent supplies or medications from their pharmacy among other things.”
As British Columbia moved into phase three of re-opening, community builders’ focuses shifted.
“As we came out of our “stay-home” orders and tried to connect with our neighbours and community members again, we noticed that many of them were anxious to get started with modified community initiatives again.,” Sabrina says. “Socially-distanced block parties like Shannon’s, virtual rock painting parties, making masks at home for local food banks and senior homes, becoming pen pals with senior neighbours are just a few of the many ideas that we came across and already started in Clayton.”
“Our community builders are here to help not only with emergency response and outreach, they’re supporting neighbourhood sustainability for long after the pandemic is over,” says Winchell. “Our goal with the Hi Neighbour initiative is to enter a neighbourhood and help build lasting connections so the community thrives after we are gone.”
Local Love built on a strong foundation
By year end, two United Way Hi Neighbour communities – Clayton Heights and Burke Mountain will move into the sustainability phase of the initiative. A part-time community builder will administer $10,000 in annual Local Love grants and support community members to sustain and grow the connections built during the past 18 months by residents, community engagement specialists and community builders.
Hi Neighbour initiatives are underway in six other neighbourhoods across the Lower Mainland including Cedar Valley in Mission, Edmonds in Burnaby, Lower Lonsdale in North Vancouver, Sardis in Chilliwack, Sunset in Vancouver and Willoughby in Langley.
