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START A NEIGHBORHOOD WELCOMING COMMITTEE

by Jill Dutton
welcoming committees

Neighborhood Welcoming Committees help new residents to overcome the unease of moving into a new neighborhood. Your new neighbor may have no friends in the area and may be unfamiliar with the local community.

By starting a Neighborhood Welcoming Committee, you'll get the opportunity to meet your new neighbors, help them feel welcome and create a needed sense of community. Whether you already have an established neighborhood association or would like to launch one, starting a Welcome Committee is one way to foster a sense of safety as well as unite a community.

Commercial welcoming services generally offer gifts from local merchants. Creating your own welcoming basket is a more personalized way to say, "Welcome to the neighborhood." Giving a hand-made basket of goodies and information helps open the line of communication with your new neighbor. It fosters a feeling of involvement with the community and helps to put a face and name to each neighbor.

The first step in starting a Neighborhood Welcoming Committee is to get the neighborhood involved. Contact your neighbors, local businesses, churches, newspapers and schools. Invite everyone to attend a meeting to discuss plans for implementing the welcome neighbor program.

At the meeting, questions to address include:

  • What will be included in the welcome basket?
  • Where will these items be obtained?
  • Who will distribute the welcoming gifts?

Contents of your welcome gift basket could include:

  • a letter welcoming the new resident to the neighborhood
  • a gift certificate to help with a home improvement project or unpacking
  • gifts from local merchants
  • a calendar listing upcoming events such as a neighborhood clean-up day, annual block party, or holiday celebrations
  • information on the Neighborhood Watch program
  • profiles of neighbors (with their permission)
  • a copy of the community newsletter
  • listings of utility, school and church information
  • something homemade, like a cherry pie with the recipe included

For more information, Access Fayettville provides a resource guide for starting a Neighborhood Association and the Cyprus Creek Homeowners Association offers a terrific example of extending Welcoming Committee services on the internet.