Start a local volunteer group and improve your community while getting to know your neighbors better. Tired of looking at trash on your street? Ready to tackle the weeds growing around your neighborhood playground? Now is the time do something!
Uniting neighbors to work toward a common goal is a great way to hone leadership skills while meeting new members of the community.
How to get started:
Target a need in your area. Maybe it’s a neglected park that needs beautifying, or a family in need of donations.
Rally neighbors. Reach out to friends as well as community members you haven’t met yet.
Plan a meeting. Advertise your purpose, meeting time, and location with flyers in local shops, neighborhood newspaper advertisements, emails, social media events, or your homeowner’s association website.
Set goals. Plan events, identify objectives, and designate leaders and sub-committees based on interest and availability.
Reach out. For support, contact local chapters of national charities that are relevant to your group’s mission.
Keep at it. Hold meetings consistently to track your progress and retain participation by showing your volunteers evidence of the difference your group’s efforts are making in the community.
Start with a big idea
In 2001, several active community members in Queens, New York, joined forces to combat graffiti in their area, forming the Sunnyside United Neighborhood Network (SUNN). Today, SUNN organizes semiannual events in which local volunteers clean graffiti off neighborhood buildings and lampposts.
The group also sponsors smaller initiatives between events, like providing residents with paint cans to keep the streetlamps and mailboxes on their street graffiti-free.
To publicize their first meeting, Sunnyside resident Tony Rohling, now a board member of SUNN, and his neighbors put posters in storefront windows and stuffed flyers into the community paper.
“We were going to clean up two blocks of Skillman Avenue, the merchants’ street in our neighborhood where graffiti often appeared,” Rohling recalls. “Then, we started getting calls. A church group wanted to send 30 people…people started coming from all over to volunteer.”
The first graffiti cleanup events were a huge success and continue to grow.
Although SUNN reaches across several neighborhoods in the New York City area, you can still make a difference in your community with smaller local efforts.
“Get a core group of about a half a dozen people together and just plan an event,” Rohling advises. “Don’t be disappointed if you have a small turnout in the beginning; all organizations start small. Focus on what you can do.”
Volunteer with neighbors
By Carolyn Raymond
Start a local volunteer group and improve your community while getting to know your neighbors better. Tired of looking at trash on your street? Ready to tackle the weeds growing around your neighborhood playground? Now is the time do something!
Uniting neighbors to work toward a common goal is a great way to hone leadership skills while meeting new members of the community.
How to get started:
Start with a big idea
In 2001, several active community members in Queens, New York, joined forces to combat graffiti in their area, forming the Sunnyside United Neighborhood Network (SUNN). Today, SUNN organizes semiannual events in which local volunteers clean graffiti off neighborhood buildings and lampposts.
The group also sponsors smaller initiatives between events, like providing residents with paint cans to keep the streetlamps and mailboxes on their street graffiti-free.
To publicize their first meeting, Sunnyside resident Tony Rohling, now a board member of SUNN, and his neighbors put posters in storefront windows and stuffed flyers into the community paper.
“We were going to clean up two blocks of Skillman Avenue, the merchants’ street in our neighborhood where graffiti often appeared,” Rohling recalls. “Then, we started getting calls. A church group wanted to send 30 people…people started coming from all over to volunteer.”
The first graffiti cleanup events were a huge success and continue to grow.
Although SUNN reaches across several neighborhoods in the New York City area, you can still make a difference in your community with smaller local efforts.
“Get a core group of about a half a dozen people together and just plan an event,” Rohling advises. “Don’t be disappointed if you have a small turnout in the beginning; all organizations start small. Focus on what you can do.”