52 Weeks of Neighboring - Week 8

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Neighboring Tip of the Week - Research and remain informed about coronavirus.

Happy April, friends!

This week’s neighboring tip is to research and remain informed about coronavirus. “How is this a neighboring tip?”, you may ask. This is a neighboring tip because what we know about coronavirus will help shape our conversations and interactions with neighbors.

As you are probably well aware, the extent of the spread of coronavirus, knowledge about the virus itself, and advice from medical professionals on good pandemic practices are all subjects that are changing very rapidly. Every day, we learn something new about the virus and how to be healthy, and help others be healthy, in the midst of this pandemic. Because this is the case, we believe it is incredibly important to remain updated on the most recent coronavirus information, as things that are a good idea one day might not be a good idea the next. So, this week, we would highly encourage you to do some research on coronavirus. Even if you have done so already, we would suggest doing even more, and perhaps more importantly, we would also highly encourage you to be intentional about continuing to research over the following weeks and months, so you can continue to be informed in the midst of these ever-changing times. Along with this, we know there is a lot of information out there, and it can be hard to know what’s reliable. We would continue to suggest following the CDC, as they are continually putting out the most up-to-date tips and information.

We know doing this research can be sobering, and we get it. It’s not fun to learn about the rising number of cases worldwide. But unless we all do our part in continuing to remain informed about the virus and then allowing that information to influence how we live our lives on a daily basis, those cases will probably continue to rise. We don’t mean to sound morbid; in reality, at the Neighboring Movement, we are all incredibly hopeful for the future and there is so much that is encouraging us! We just also believe that it is of the utmost importance that we all remain informed so that we can take action that helps us all, our neighbors and ourselves, be healthy. All it takes is a little bit of research. A little bit of research will teach us a lot about the virus. Then, what we learn about the virus will help us modify how we interact with our neighbors. And finally, these modified interactions will help us be good neighbors while also helping all of us, our neighbors and ourselves, be healthy and have as little exposure to coronavirus as possible.

Let’s do our research. Let’s trust our medical experts who are looking out for our well-being. Let’s make the changes in our daily interactions and routines that they advise. Let’s help our neighbors and ourselves be healthy.

Happy neighboring!

P.S. We are continuing to point people to our podcast, The Neighbor Next Door, where we release episodes every Tuesday, many of which discuss how we can be good neighbors in the midst of this pandemic. Last week’s episode, and the episodes for the next two weeks, do not directly address coronavirus. However, in them, hosts Adam and Matt sit down with, quite literally, the founder of asset-based community development, John McKnight. John began community organizing when he was in his early twenties, and since then, he has done everything from training Barack Obama in community organizing to developing an entirely new model of community development: asset-based community development. As asset-based community developers, John has always been a hero of ours, and over the years, we have followed his work closely and been deeply inspired and influenced by his practices. He is incredibly kind, absolutely brilliant, and a gifted teacher who always tells the perfect story in order to illustrate a point. You are not going to want to miss these episodes! You can find The Neighbor Next Door on any podcast medium, but here are links to some of the most popular ones.