The Community Spotlight series highlights communities, organizations and individuals who are taking innovative actions to help build resilient communities. Today we meet Neighbour Lab.
Meet your neighbours and design a Neighbour Hub
Prepared neighbourhoods are resilient neighbourhoods. When you’re in it together, you’re stronger. Once you’ve completed your Home Emergency Plan with the people you live with, the next step is meet your neighbours and start building preparedness in your neighbourhood. This can sometimes feel a bit intimidating.
This is where Neighbour Lab fits in! Through a guided process, neighbours work together to create a shared public space that takes the form of a bench or a small plaza called a Neighbour Hub. A Neighbour Hub is a public space that fosters community connection and provides a space for shared resources right in your neighbourhood.
Talk about neighbourhood preparedness
The goal is to create a playful, joyful space to invite people to both connect daily, and to dive into deeper conversations around emergency preparedness in their area. Through collaborative design and storytelling, the Neighbour Lab team facilitates conversations about skills and resources that are available in your neighbourhood. This is all great information to include in your Neighbourhood Preparedness Plan.
Each Neighbour Hub is unique and designed as a space to connect (meeting a friend to sit and enjoy a coffee), to supply power (solar power to charge your phone) and store collective resources (like an emergency kit).
If you’re in Victoria, you can check out a Neighbour Hub along Kings Road, Leonard Street or Harbour Road. These Neighbour Hubs were jointly developed with support from the City of Victoria’s Emergency Program and Building Resilient Neighbourhoods.
Enjoy your neighbourhood
Leah Karlberg and Steph Koenig from Neighbour Lab, talk a lot about the power of visibility. If you want to get to know your neighbours and your neighbourhood better, here are some ideas:
- Sit on a bench in your neighbourhood for an extra 20 minutes, see who stops by
- Take public transit
- Spend time at your local library
- Check out your neighbourhood Buy Nothing group
- If you have an idea for a project in your neighbourhood, see if Neighbourhood Small Grants can help bring it to life
Leah reflected on how amazing it is to return to Neighbour Hubs and see them in action. Passing by Harbour Road recently, she saw kids playing on the structure and neighbours meeting for a chat. These connections and the resources stored here can be a lifeline during an emergency.
Continue learning
What are you doing in your neighbourhood to build resilience? Keep an eye out for the next Community Spotlight for more creative projects.
Learn more about emergency preparedness with PreparedBC.