Reconnecting People | Once a property has been restored, Urban Homeworks works to connect neighbor to neighbor to create a livable, robust community with a strong sense of home. The result is a rich exchange between households that reweaves a sense of community through day-to-day activities.
Connecting Neighbor to Neighbor
By Alica Whitmore, 3rd-year Urban Neighbor in north Minneapolis
I became an Urban Neighbor in 2008, hoping to have a positive impact on my community and to learn more about urban poverty. Initially, I was surprised by my neighbors’ unwillingness to build relationships with me. But the longer I live here, the more I understand. When I was new, I was a liability to my neighbors, a potential waste of their time. Why build a relationship only to have that person leave in a few months? Now that I’ve been here for three years, I am just starting to build real and lasting relationships with my neighbors.
I’m learning and have been amazed at the importance that openness and flexibility, especially at inconvenient times, play in being a good neighbor. For example, I’ve noticed that my neighbor only needs to borrow my cell phone when I’m running late or trying to give my baby a bath. Life is not convenient, especially in the city! If I want to know my neighbors and be a positive contributor to our block, I have to allow time in my life to be inconvenienced, to simply be around and available. In the end, those minor inconveniences are the foundation for strong relationships in my community.
Find out more or become an Urban Neighbor.
How do you respond when you're "inconvenienced" by someone? Have you ever been an inconvenience?
A New Outlook
By Anna DeCrans, edited by Erin Kelly-Collins, both Urban Homeworks staff
The Urban Neighbors who live above Betty’s apartment woke to loud arguing voices and slamming doors late one evening a couple weeks ago. They were concerned about domestic abuse, so they called 911 and asked for the police to come. After the police had dispersed, Betty (not her real name) and her family felt completely disrespected by the Urban Neighbors.
“I’m mad,” Betty told my coworker Anna the next morning. “You know, I told the girls upstairs that if they hear anything, if they think I’m being too loud, they can just knock on my door or ring the doorbell and we’ll quiet down,” she said. “I’m angry they called the police. They didn’t need to do that.”
“Betty, what do you think the girls upstairs were thinking?” Anna responded. “Try to see it from their perspective. All they knew was that you might’ve been in danger and it could have jeopardized their own safety if they knocked on your door last night. They figured calling the police was probably their only choice. They didn’t know if you were hurt…”
“Oh, I didn’t look at it like that. Yeah, they were looking out. They’ve been helping me a lot actually – asking me if I need groceries, helping me into my house when I couldn’t walk up stairs after I got hurt a while back. I get it.”
A couple days later, I heard from one of Betty’s upstairs neighbors. She told me they’d had an opportunity to reconnect with Betty and set up a plan to help with meals and transportation as she continues to recover from her injury. She was glad that Betty understood and that she could trust them again. Trust, in a situation that could have torn neighbors apart, was strengthened between Betty and the women upstairs because they were willing to learn from each other. Praise the Lord.
What have you learned from your neighbors?
Not Just Green Tomatoes
By Eric Larsen, Southside Urban Neighbor
As another beautiful early August day is winding to a close, I return to the 2200 block of Elliot Avenue in south Minneapolis, my hands smelling of tomato vines and my backpack half-full of green tomatoes. The laughter and screams of children playing in the alley welcome me home, but I rush inside to knock on my downstairs neighbor’s door, excited to share more of summer’s bounty with her and her extended network of green tomato lovers.
In many ways, the peculiarity of green tomatoes is a fitting microcosm of my first year as an Urban Neighbor. I never could have imagined the joy and delight that comes across a person’s face when they receive a green tomato. A food that most people who I grew up with wouldn’t even consider edible turns out to be a near delicacy in the city! In fact, the more I dive into life in the city, the more I become aware of my own naiveté and begin to see things in a new light.
I have seen neighbors with much less financial security than I who give freely— and give their best. Growing up in a household where giving was thought of as a way to do some good with your excess, I have been challenged to give more sacrificially within God’s Kingdom. My concept of charity has been greatly altered as “the poor” have now become personal friends with whom I share the joys and struggles of daily life. Whereas I used to hold onto a concept of compassion where I was performing a service “for” someone, I now see that the true heart of compassion lies in walking alongside and suffering “with” someone.
So as one year as an Urban Neighbor comes to a close and another year lies ahead, I eagerly remain open to more of God’s teachings about His Kingdom through the most unlikely of people. By the way, you’d be surprised how good green tomatoes taste in a cake!
