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Child-minding Co-ops
If you have small children, you know how difficult it can be to find, and pay
for a baby-sitter. Many families have found a solution to their baby-sitting
woes in child-minding co-ops.
In these co-ops, families care for each other's children both in their own homes
and in the homes of the children, during the day, evening, or overnight. Most
co-ops keep track of baby-sitting hours on a list of debits and credits; one
local group keeps track by exchanging poker chips. Hours are not only determined
by the clock, but by tardiness, the number of children, lateness of returning,
and other considerations.
Most co-ops serve a small area, one that allows for participants to walk between
each others homes. A co-op works best with fifteen to twenty families - enough
to spread the baby-sitting around. Participants are usually found by talking to
friends. This is preferable to posting "vacancies" since most people
feel happier leaving their children with "friends of friends".
A selection committee usually visits a candidate's home to look at general
safety, neatness, the level of child-proofing, and to see whether people smoke
inside, and who might be coming and going. On being accepted, candidates pay a
small start-up fee, and register their name with the co-op's secretary (a
position rotated on a monthly or quarterly basis). The secretary is the person
who takes "orders" for baby-sitting, usually with a minimum 24 hours
notice. Baby-sitters are sought on the basis of their availability, and the
balance on their baby-sitting account.
The Marpole Oakridge Co-op meets every two months for a potluck, an occasion to
socialize as well as deal with any concerns. Little Mountain Co-op uses a
similar opportunity to introduce new candidates to their group. It holds a
social event three times a year for both kids and parents. These events bring a
sense of community to a sometimes isolated group of parents.
Some co-ops have been in operation for as long as 20 years. The longevity of the
co-op depends largely on its ease of administration, and the ability to find new
families as others outgrow its services. For more information contact your local
neighbourhood house, or family place.
Community Gardens
Community gardens are parcels of land divided into small plots for local
residents to grow their own flowers, fruit and vegetables. Community gardens owe
their existence to the energy of residents. You may remember the debate in the
late 1980's over a section of community garden on Prior Street in Strathcona.
When City Council finally decided to build housing on the section, gardeners and
their friends moved an acre of topsoil to the remaining portion of the garden.
Today the Strathcona Community Garden's three acres of reclaimed land is a
thriving collection of individual flower and vegetable plots.
Community gardens have also sprouted in other parts of the city. Mount Pleasant
has established a garden at 8th and Fraser; and another at 8th and Manitoba.
Kitsilano is home to the Maple Community Garden, near 6th and Maple. The three
acre Cottonwood Garden provides for many residents of Grandview-Woodlands.
Kerrisdale has a small garden next to the railway track made up of plots that
began as Victory Gardens during World War II.
Finding a site for the garden can be a long search, but once the garden is in
place, there is always a waiting list of people who want to join. The plots at
8th and Fraser are 100 to 120 square feet. A whole plot rents for $10.00 a year,
a half plot for $5.00. Gardeners share common space, fertilizer, tools, a tool
shed, and sometimes the cost of buying plants. Grants usually help to cover
other expenses such as the cost of metered water and public liability insurance.
Gardeners meet several times over the growing season, once for a formal
start-up, then a few times over the summer for informal pot luck dinners and an
annual open house.
Community Kitchens
Community kitchens give people the opportunity to get together to share the
cost, planning and preparation of healthy meals. At present there are about 42
community kitchens in Vancouver. Members usually meet twice a month, once to
plan four or five entrées and to organize the purchase of food, and once to
prepare the meals. Since a licensed kitchen is not required, groups meet in
homes as well as church basements, Neighbourhood Houses and community centres.
Some specialty kitchens exist in the city. One "cultural kitchen"
provides an opportunity for Vietnamese women to learn about Canadian food
products, and how they are prepared. Another has a "Canning Kitchen"
where participants put up canned goods such as fruit, tomatoes and jam. Other
kitchens specialize in vegetarian, ethnic, and special needs cooking. The
interests of the group decide the focus of the kitchen.
Community kitchens are popular for a variety of reasons. Food costs less because
it can be bought in bulk. It also takes less time to prepare because it is
cooked in quantity - and sometimes frozen for later use. People most appreciate
the way community kitchens provide an opportunity for people to get together.
Many people have become close friends through community cooking. Some have
discovered common interests that have led to the formation of new groups
focusing on a variety of social issues.
Neighbourhood
Watch/Neighbourhood Parents
One of the most formal community building activities in the city is the Block
Watch program sponsored by the Police Department. This highly
successful crime prevention program encourages people to keep an eye on the
street and their neighbour's property, and to report any suspicious activity to
999.
A block is usually organized across the rear lane since most forced entries into
buildings occur from the rear. Each Block Watch has a captain and often a
co-captain, who undergo a police security check and then receive an
identification badge. Block captains usually set up an initial organizing
meeting to introduce neighbours to one another. Someone volunteers to draw up a
map of the block with names and phone numbers, and to supply copies to the
police and other members of the Watch. Police Officers will attend the meeting
if requested, to talk about local policing issues and ways of securing your home
against theft. They will also provide guides to home security. Police usually
advise neighbours to jointly buy an etching pen ($15.00) so that members can
mark their valuables with their driver's license number. Members are then given
Block Watch stickers for entry points to their homes.
In many cases, where Block Watch blocks have
formed, other activities have followed, from block cleanups and pet minding to
plant swapping. When neighbours get together they find they have more in common
than an interest in security.
The Block Parent program is another initiative sponsored by the Police
Department. As with Block Watch captains, police run security checks on
potential candidates. Block Parents provide a safe haven for children and,
occasionally, seniors. When Block Parents are available to answer the door, they
post a sign in their window. In an emergency, children who find themselves in
trouble can turn to a Block Parent house for assistance.
Potential Block Parents are often concerned that signing-up will mean constant
interruption for non-emergencies, such as drinks of water and trips to the
bathroom. According to a Block Parent co-ordinator this does
not happen. For the most part, children understand they should turn to these
houses only in emergencies.
Community Crime Prevention
Taking part in community crime prevention is a great way to meet your neighbours,
and help make your community a safer place to live. Organized citizen
participation in crime prevention usually begins with the opening of a Community
Crime Prevention Office where people can meet with one another and the police to
address local concerns. Staffed almost entirely by volunteers, the activities of
an office include promoting crime prevention programs, collecting local crime
statistics, referring people with every kind of problem to every kind of agency,
sharing community information, conducting workshops, co-ordinating community
clean-up days, and organizing other local projects.
Crime prevention offices are a part of Thanet's new strategy of
community-based policing. The premise behind the strategy is that police need to
do more than respond to incidents. They can be more effective if they spend more
time on public awareness, partnerships with citizens, and local problem solving.
Block Parties
Block parties give neighbours a chance to meet one another in a relaxed setting.
To hold a successful block party you need to do some advance planning. A couple
of months ahead you should start thinking about dates, activities, and supplies.
And you should start enlisting the help of neighbours. Find out how they can
help, and what they can supply. Try to involve as many people as possible, and
make sure everyone stays in touch with one another. Block parties can be held in
backyards, neighbourhood parks or on the street. If you close the street, you
must take out liability insurance, and obtain the approval of affected
neighbours. You may also be required to obtain traffic barricades from
the council.
You can make your block party just about any shape or size. A block can hold a very successful block party,
by invited the whole neighbourhood. They can have live music, helium balloons, face
painting and lots of food. Some people will join in response to local ads, others in
response to the sounds, smells and colour of the event itself. Block parties can
come at the end of a block cleanup, a block garage sale, or a day of
tree-planting. They can also have a theme such as a harvest festival or other celebration. Whatever the nature of your first party, the next will be much
easier to organize. On some blocks it becomes an important annual event.
The Park Board is currently looking at simplifying the process of
organizing block parties. They hope to provide information kits, and barriers at
no cost through community centres.
Neighbourhood Cleanups
Fed up with the mattresses rotting in the alley? Tired of litter on your street?
Why not organize a block cleanup? A cleanup can get rid of the mess and prevent
it from reoccurring by making residents more conscious of the appearance of
their block. Just as important, a cleanup can provide an opportunity for
everyone on a block to get to know one another. In many small towns, one-day
neighbourhood cleanups involving adults, kids, and a variety of civic officials
have become a recognized way of building community and instilling pride in
place. Cleanups can range from a simple litter pick-up, to an operation
requiring more planning.
One recent block cleanup began with a few residents
calling two quick meetings to decide on a date and plan of attack. After
distributing fliers to the neighbours, they contacted the city. Because group
members were willing to do the work themselves, the city provided a truck and
two men for loading. On cleanup day, residents not only collected the debris
that filled their alley, but went door-to-door collecting large items such as
old mattresses, water heaters and other junk. They also helped load the city
truck.
Cleaning up your block can extend to graffiti removal, weeding, fence-painting,
and hedge-trimming. It can also extend to helping those on your block who lack
the strength or resources to maintain their own property.
Parades and Festivals
The carnivals and the water festival are examples of what can be achieved. One well-attended community celebration is Illuminaries, held on a summer
evening. It features stilt walkers, floating pyrotechnics and a
moving procession of light created by hundreds of candle-lit lanterns. During
the months of preparation, the Public Dreams Society organizes events and
lantern building workshops for artists, children, and local residents. This
makes the Illuminaries an event at which the community is not only the audience,
but also the players, designers, and stage hands.
Many neighbourhoods have local festivals. Kits Days, with its famous Soap Box
Car Derby, Community Carnival, and the Park Festival all
provide excellent opportunities for neighbours to get together to celebrate
their neighbourhood. Grandview, where festivals seem to be second nature, has
spawned a community orchestra that injects life into all kinds of public events.
Guerrilla Gardening
Residents of neighbourhoods across the city have been quietly adding flowers and
other plants to lanes, boulevards and traffic circles. Along the streets they have added planters, bicycle baskets, wheelbarrows and
flower beds. Other residents have planted their roads with flowers. One resident plants her boulevard with beans and other vegetables for
public picking.
The city usually plants low junipers in the roundabouts that act as traffic
calmers in some neighbourhoods. Citizens have taken it upon themselves to
brighten these up by adding self-seeding annuals and long-blooming perennials.
Some people have planted sunflowers, for a folksy but dramatic effect. Not all
plants are happy in traffic circles; some have difficulty because of the shallow
soil layer over the asphalt; others dry out during the summer months; some are
disturbed by maintenance crews "excavating" buried manholes.
Back lanes are a great place for guerrilla gardening. Unpaved lanes seem to work
best. Some people have been re-introducing native plants, others have been
planting food and flowers. One woman takes the seed heads from her
large pink poppies and sprinkles them up and down the alley, to great effect the
following year. Some of the easiest flowers to grow are (in decreasing size) various bush roses, cosmos, flox, wallflowers, yarrow, perennial
asters, daisies, tiger lilies, irises, purple sage, poppies, red
valerian, campanula, perennial sweet peas, forget-me-nots, pinks. Prickly berry
bushes planted on the sides of alleys provide food, and make better, less
expensive barriers than fences.
Although gardening is not really allowed on public property, there are signs the
authorities may be in tune with guerilla gardeners. The city recently gave residents permission to begin "adopting" roundabouts,
boulevards and other pieces of public property, in a project overseen by the
local Community Association. The city's Engineering Department also
gave the residents permission to plant an ornamental garden and a
community herb garden on a vacant site.
Members of the local neighbourhood association, along with other residents of
the area, communally designed, planted and tend the garden. They hope to
organize work parties for the spring and autumn cleanups. Those unable to join in
will help prepare meals so everyone can eat together at the end of the day.
Community Image Making
Distinct architectural and decorative characteristics help to define
neighbourhoods. One town is known for its large brick heritage buildings; '
Chinatown' for its bedragoned lamp posts, open air markets, ornate buildings and
distinctive signage. Across the city, communities have tried to highlight their
special personalities with banners, signs, flags, clocks, and gates. Local
business improvement groups initiate some projects, residents initiate others.
Residents of the block-long street have hand-painted
"cat" signs that identify the street and ask motorists to slow down.
Residents name their neighbourhoods, and then help design colourful
street signs to mark the boundaries. The Community Fence project engaged two
hundred children, adults and groups in creating four hundred highly individual
pickets to enclose the community garden.
In the late 1980's, artist Richard Tetrault, along with members of his community, were fed up with the speed of traffic along
the street.
They decided to take action by designing and painting cutout figures to
"post" along the roadside, with messages in four languages. Their
protest art drew the attention of the media and the city which undertook new
traffic control measures. In another project, residents seeking a
linear park, painted a mural showing their ideas on the street
surface. The mural changed the street from a conduit for cars into a forum for
public discussion.
Intergenerational Activities
Activities that bring young and old together revive a social arrangement that
was taken for granted in the past, and still is in many traditional cultures. It
is an arrangement that promotes mutual care, transmits cultural values, and
enriches the lives of everyone involved.
The Volunteer Grandparents Society of BC has just celebrated their 20th year in
operation. Children ages 3-12 who have no grandparent living nearby are matched
with volunteer grandparents. At present 500 individuals making up 130
"extended families" see each other regularly, as well as participate
in group events and outings. Though at present the society caters only to a
limited area, organizers hope to expand across the county in the next year.
Oral history projects are a wonderful way of bringing seniors and young people
together. Recently, twenty-five students at a local secondary
participated in a life review project with seniors. Together
they created the book "Snapshots of a Generation". Several years ago,
students at the primary participated in a similar project, producing
"Happy to Live in our Town."
The Generation Connection Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to the
development of intergenerational communication. The Society has developed a
"Computer Literacy Program" for seniors. As part of the project
SeniorLink, an on-line network, was established to allow seniors to communicate
electronically with people of all ages. The Generation Connection Society has
also undertaken projects in which people of different ages come together to
focus on specific community concerns. In one project high school students and
seniors shared their experience of alcohol and substance abuse.
Starting the third Sunday in May, the Council for the Family sponsors an
Intergenerational Week. To promote the week, it spotlights organizations which
are active intergenerationally, but unrecognized. Because the Council serves as
a clearing house for information on such projects, a call to them will get you a
package on activities and resources, as well as posters, buttons and balloons.
Environmental Activities
There's lots of
opportunities to get involved. Questions on wildlife, species surveys,
hedge and tree planting, under-growth clearing, conservation, footpath
maintenance, training and grants and other issues. There is list of projects on
the Thanet Nature Conservation
Umbrella Group to suit your particular interests.
Organizing around Hot Issues
People often organize around a single issue. They get together because they
are annoyed or angry about street prostitution, extra taxes, or an ugly building
scheme. Often the issue is a proposed change or addition to the neighbourhood
that is seen as undesirable. Those in favour of changes or additions often
describe this kind of activism as NIMBYism (Not-In-My-Back-Yard syndrome), a
selfish attempt by residents to keep their part of town just as it is, in
defiance of some larger public good. They rarely mention how the first towns
arose out of the natural tendency for people to band together to oppose
disruptive outside forces.
A potential threat may be just what is needed to mobilize citizens.
Ramsgate and St Nicholas found they had something in common with development of
Manston Airport as a civilian international terminal, the prospect of
third-world planes flying over your roof does tend to focus the mind. Foreness
Action Group is fighting the sewage outfall on environmental grounds which the
council deny on the basis that it is planning issue. The 'new town' development
of Westwood Cross will have a large effect on the established local small
businesses in the surrounding towns.
Sometimes an issue can serve to invigorate an existing organization. On one block, neighbours decided to petition the city for paving and lighting
in their lane. Their group grew as they contacted neighbours across the back
lane to support their request. This in turn strengthened a Neighbourhood Watch already
in place.
But organizing around a hot issue can be a waste of time if it leads to a
hardening of positions. Too often, citizens have worn themselves out in fights
that might have been resolved to everyone's satisfaction through collaborative
problem solving that focused on interests rather than positions. Until recently,
most of the books written about community organizing have taken a battlefield
approach, because it used to be the only way to influence public
decision-making. With the dawning of a new age of co-operation between
government and citizens, let's hope that the roundtable will replace the
battlefield.
Block by Block Organizing
In the spring of 1993 a number of Mount Pleasant residents decided to create a
community organization that included everyone. They wanted a democratic
organization with authority vested in a large number of people rather than a
small group of self-appointed individuals with a high tolerance for evening
meetings. After some discussion they sketched out a model micro-democracy based
on block-by-block representation.
This is a block level micro-democracy works. Resident organizers find block reps
for every block in the area. A block can either be a block of houses, an
apartment block, co-op, or condominium complex. Block reps get to know everyone
on their block, then introduce them to one another. When neighbours first meet,
they are often surprised and delighted to discover how many interesting people
live on their own block. Once residents know one another, they can elect a block
rep. Block reps then elect neighbourhood reps, who get together to form a co-ordinating
committee for the area.
This simple organization can easily link many people over a large area; it
can also help to form a much better link between citizens and government. In
addition to linking people, block reps can promote mutual aid. At the block
level, mutual aid can range from dealing with a noisy neighbour, to finding
someone to look after your cat while you are on vacation. The side effect of
these small exchanges is a sense of community, a commodity in short supply in
the modern city.
Here are some tips when organizing block-by-block.
- First,
make the task manageable by focusing on small neighbourhoods. A block, a street,
a tenement, is all that is needed to start things moving..
- Secondly, encourage each block to act
independently. Only when a problem is too large, or difficult for a single block
should people from other blocks become involved.
- Thirdly,
organize in twos, so each block has two block reps, and each neighbourhood has at least
two neighbourhood reps. This provides friendly support, improves information
exchange, and reduces workloads.
- Finally,
consider integrating with Neighbourhood Watch.
While the former works across a street, and the latter across the lane, they can
support one another.
Kitchen Table Discussion Groups
A Kitchen Table Discussion group is a small collection of people who get
together in someone's home to talk, listen and share ideas on subjects of mutual
interest. The host often begins by reminding everyone that there are no right or
wrong ideas, and that everyone's contribution is valuable. The host also
encourages people to listen, to ask clarifying questions, and to avoid arguing
or interrupting. Kitchen table discussion groups are similar to the salons of
the past, once the prime vehicle for social change.
Many of the two hundred "City Circles" that contributed to CityPlan
were kitchen table discussion groups. The city supplied facilitators for many of
these groups to help move the process forward, and ensure equal opportunities
for input. City planners also used kitchen table discussion groups to provide a forum for residents of residential hotels to
articulate their concerns about development in their neighbourhood. The Residents Association used the same approach to develop their own
community plan. The Council for the Family uses the kitchen table discussion
process when they want to consult communities about strengthening families and
creating healthier communities. Volunteers, family service providers, parents,
grandparents, community elders, teens and professionals gather together to share
their concerns and knowledge in this informal setting. The approach "helped facilitate a sense of
shared ownership and a sense that change is possible, as well as a sense that
problems, if not completely solvable, can become manageable."
Visioning Exercises
Guided visioning exercises have become popular in many fields as a way of
defining and achieving a desirable future. Recent studies have shown that we are
more likely to reach an objective if we can see it, and can imagine the steps to
reach it. Visioning has become a familiar technique in sports. High-jumpers, for
instance, regularly take the time to imagine themselves going through the steps
of jumping higher than they have ever jumped before. Citizens can use visioning
to create images that can help to guide change in the city.
In a typical visioning exercise a facilitator asks participants to close their
eyes and imagine they are walking through their neighbourhood as it should be
fifteen years into the future.
- What do they see?
- What do the buildings look
like?
- Where do people gather?
- How do they make decisions?
- What are they eating?
-
Where are they working?
- How are they travelling?
- What is happening on the
street?
- Where is the centre of the neighbourhood?
- How does greenspace and water
fit into the picture?
- What do you see when you walk around after dark?
People
record their visions in written or pictorial form; in diagrams, sketches,
models, photographic montages, and in written briefs. Sometimes a professional
illustrator helps turn mental images into drawings of the city that people can
extend and modify.
Information Sharing
Knock and drop
How do you tell everyone in your neighbourhood about an event they should
attend? A Residents Association does a "Knock and Drop."
Block reps knock on doors to invite neighbours to attend; if no one is home they
drop off a leaflet. Other groups put up posters. Some photocopy machines can
turn a leaflet into an A4 poster suitable for advertising in laundries,
community centres and libraries. If you want people to attend your event, the
best approach is ask everyone to invite friends, family and neighbours.
Newsletters
A newsletter is one of the most common ways of staying in touch. Community
newsletters range in frequency from two to twelve times a year. Most are A4
printed both sides. Printing is either by high speed photocopying or
"instant" offset printing. You may be able to defray printing costs by
enlisting the support of local merchants, local government, or community
organizations. The big job in putting out a newsletter is finding people who are
willing and able to write articles that others are interested in reading. Take
the time to search out people with the necessary skills to write and edit your
newsletter. Other people should be available to deal with printing, funding and
distribution.
To make your newsletter appear worth reading you should also try to find someone
with a computer, desktop publishing software and access to a laser printer.
Engaging newsletters look like little newspapers with narrow columns,
photographs and bold headlines. Try to deliver your newsletter by hand. If you
have block reps, they can easily deliver to their own block.
Local newspapers
Local newspapers can also help with information sharing. Because newspapers
thrive on conflict, you may find a neighbourhood solution gets much less
attention than a problem. Fortunately, the small papers may be changing their
idea of what should go into a newspaper. One of the best known said that it
would publish, without charge, articles with a neighbourhood focus that were
well written and worth reading.
Telephone trees
A telephone tree is a fast, person-to-person information sharing technique. It
requires a co-ordinator, and a list of who-calls-whom. An outgoing message
starts with the co-ordinator who calls a predetermined list of ten activators.
The ten activators in turn each call another predetermined list of ten people,
who in turn each call another ten. It is important to make sure those at the
base of the tree are reliable. The co-ordinator should check by occasionally
calling people at the outer tips.
Computer networks
Another way of staying in touch with citizens locally and in other cities is
through an internet connection. You can use the internet to put questions to
interested people, simultaneously all over world. Their replies will help you
understand what works in other cities. You can use it to distribute/collect
information to block organisers doing a 'knock&drop' service. Many schools and businesses have an
internet connection. Those who do not have free access can use a dial-up service
provider. Many internet service providers advertise in the Computer Paper.
Fax networks
A fax network operates by everyone faxing messages into a central node. They are
then sorted and faxed out automatically to a list of subscribers. Until the fax
machine (or its equivalent) becomes more common, subscribers will have to use
traditional methods to relay information to those who do not have the necessary
hardware.
Autodialer networks
A new idea for involving large numbers of people lightly is an autodialer which
sends short messages to answering machines. Subscribers receive messages on
topics they designate, when they are not at home. The system uses a computer and
database directory to digitize voice messages then send them out automatically.
Operating on one line, during week days, it can deliver a 1 minute message to
5000 people per week. Evenings and weekends, people can dial back to get further
information automatically through a touch tone system. Besides being an
effective local broadcasting system that guarantees message delivery, an
autodialer network can also be used for neighbourhood polling and elections.
All Sorts of Other Activities
The preceding list of community building activities only hints at the
possibilities for community building at the local level. Other possibilities are
limited only by your imagination. They might include joining or creating:
- a garden club that exchanges cuttings and advice;
- a local traffic committee to promote traffic calming;
- a parks committee;
- a car co-operative that allows people who do not own cars to access one
inexpensively;
- a community cafe, or local hangout;
- a local barter or currency system;
- a neighbourhood brewing circle to batch brew beer;
- a local football, baseball, cricket, exercise clubs;
- a seniors' club that arranges excursions;
- a local historical society that unearths local history and tries to
preserve local buildings;
- a supper club that eats its way around a circuit of local restaurants;
- a kids' sports group;
- a local jogging, exercise club;
- a local food co-op that provides inexpensive food in exchange for a small
contribution of time;
- a volunteer group providing after-hour services to those in need;
- a local theatre group;
- a local singing group;
- a neighbourhood design panel that comments on new development;
- a local flood preparedness group;
- a local welcoming committee for new residents.
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