With a little effort city residents can foster the small-town feel they want to see in St. Albert. Now, more tools are coming to help people find ways to build that community spirit.
St. Albert’s Neighbourhood Network, a collection of residents who meet to share ideas, are working on a toolkit that will help people connect with their neighbours, said Angie Dedrick, the neighbourhood development co-ordinator for the city.
“The toolkit that they’re working on, and we’re close to sharing it, has real tangible ways to start connecting, so if you don’t know your neighbours at all, what are some ways to get started,” Dedrick said.
The coming toolkit will be just one of the resources offered in St. Albert to help build neighbourhoods.
The city’s best-known program is the block party program, which gives communities tools to host their neighbours. Those tools include road closure permits and free food.
In addition to the popular block party program, Dedrick is hoping to inspire some community building outside of an annual neighbourhood gathering.
“If you meet more regularly, that’s when we’re going to have those connections and those bonds begin to form,”
They plan to start with a shared pot of soup.
Inspired by a recent visit by author Maggie Stuckey, who wrote a book about how soup nights can help build community, Dedrick and others will be setting up in the library at St. Albert Place on Feb. 9 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. to host a soup night demo.
They have other workshops planned this year, including a free little library – a community book-sharing program – information session on April 20 and a block party boot camp on May 5.
In 2016 they’ll be celebrating 10 years of block parties.
Council was particularly interested in how a decade of the program, which offers help to neighbours who want to organize a party, could be celebrated when the three-year work plan for neighbourhood development was presented to them in early January.
Dedrick said there’s an ongoing discussion on how best to celebrate the anniversary.
That work plan covers everything from providing resources like the crime map to gatherings such as the block parties to connecting with groups like the Neighbourhood Network.
Tracy Kociuba, a member of the Neighbourhood Network, got involved last fall after hosting a city-aided block party this summer.
“This is kind of new to me, and it’s exciting I guess to know that the city has these resources available,” Kociuba said. The network helps raise awareness of the resources, she said.
While her family has hosted block parties before, this was the first time she’d been aware of the help from the city and their partners.
The benefits of getting to know your neighbours through events like block parties or using the network’s coming toolkit include safety, helping hands and a way to invoke the “small-town feel” so many value about St. Albert.
Kociuba said many people will wax nostalgic about a “small-town feel.”
“It still is that way, you just have to make a little bit of effort,” she said, noting her family puts a lot of effort in to getting to know their own neighbours.
She’s looking forward to the soup night and promoting the network’s new meeting neighbours toolkit in February.
