Joanne Hartland recently reached out to IACD after meeting with President Anna Clarke at an ABCD and Participatory Community Building session Joanne was hosting. She brings us an example from Auckland of a community coming together around Covid-19:
Our street in Mt Eden, Auckland, New Zealand (Shackleton Road) already had an active group on Facebook which was started by a neighbour doing a letter box drop in 2019. It had about 100 members when Covid happened, so it became the obvious group to manage a response from the street. At the suggestion of one of our residents (an Emergency Doctor) we split the street into 10 sections and set up 10 section coordinators to flyer drop and help out vulnerable residents in their section. This way we spread the load between many of us, and also helped to maintain some privacy in sharing contact details.
A week or so into our lockdown, on of the mother’s mentioned to a neighbour that she was struggling to think of ways to make her child’s birthday during lock down exciting and memorable. Obviously the birthday party had to be cancelled or postponed. This got put into our FB group and we decided that we would write birthday messages on our footpath, so the birthday boy or girl could go for a walk and see all the messages along the street. So simple, but really lovely.
I have also dropped off seeds (I had some cool black mini popcorn still on the cob I gave Charlie) and a paper crafts pack for Chloe (turning 5) who loves Frozen- As I am a tragic scrapbooker so have loads of stuff and was amazed how many snowflakes I found amongst the piles of papers, stickers and decorations! The second photo is from her mum showing what she made with some of it. Both families I had never known before Covid – and one is only about 6 houses away! Another neighbour’s children decided they would give Charlie a toy car they no longer played with.
It was great to see everyone just giving what they could from what they already had (as shops were closed, including online shops apart from essential items). Like in all communities people with different interests, strengths and energy can give different things at different times. One real strength for Shackleton Road was that Priscilla set up the Facebook group in 2019 so we had already built our relationships before we needed them. And we now number 162 members on the group.
The connections on our street continue to grow. We have had footpath chalk games, and also many neighbours joining the “Bear Hunt” by putting teddy bears in their window. I put out some spare parsley seedlings I had, and also rosemary bundles for remembrance for our war memorial day (ANZAC Day) which was on 25 April. This was commemorated by people coming to the end of their driveways for a dawn service. People jump on to the FB page to ask for recommendations for tradesmen, or to borrow tools or other items. Tips on where to find flour and other sold out items have also been shared, including offers to share with neighbours who missed out. We have also started a plan to do some rat trapping together and are fundraising for that by selling produce from our gardens.I already had a good connection with my immediate neighbours and a few others in the street with children the same age that I knew from school. But now I feel a lot more connected with others as well. This has been heightened by the lockdown as almost all of us have been working at home, and also exercising locally – the street has been awash with walkers, runners and cyclists in never before seen numbers!
We move to a new lower stage of lockdown tomorrow with even schools opening next week, and all businesses by next Thursday. But hopefully our connections will stay and grow.
all photos above courtesy of Joanne
