Build resilience in your family without even leaving your block

Dear Friends,

Last week I promised to dive more into block parties and why knowing your neighbors is KEY to sane parenting and critical to our kids' well-being. 

Our neighborhood network is an unrealized piece of the family well-being puzzle, and it has dissolved over the years. Bringing it back by organizing micro-local neighborhood gatherings is important for us to have resilient families, both parents and children. 

There are four key ways that knowing your neighbors contributes to our resilience, including neighborhood free play (unstructured, child-led), opportunities to find jobs, more trusted adults in kids' lives, and a network of support for parental well-being. More on each below:

Neighborhood free play (unstructured, child-led):

• Real-life experience (and off of technology) 

• Outside time

• Memories, adventure, and joy

• Social, physical, and emotional skill building (negotiation, cooperation, empathy, confidence, and decision-making for starters)

• Executive function development

• Agency and an internal locus of control (fights depression and anxiety)

• Resilience for life

• It’s FREE, and there’s no need for parents to drive them anywhere

Opportunities to find jobs 

• For tweens, teens, and even young adults

• Babysitting, yard work, pet sitting, or even networking 

• Builds their capability, competency, and confidence

• They learn they have value, can add value, and they matter

• They can fill a need

• They feel belonging and connected to neighbors

More adults in kids' lives

• Gives kids examples of what it means to be an adult outside the one or two they witness in their own home

• Learn there are other ways of living and being in the world

• Another trusted adult

• Person they can walk or run to for support 

• All key for child’s healthy development, confidence, and resilience

Parental well-being and support

• Helps parents build the village we need to raise our children

• Offers a network of support 

• Parents are not ok - stretched thin, burnt out, and stressed.

• If parents aren’t ok, kids can’t be– as a child’s well-being rests firmly on a parent’s well-being

• Less financial stress as not paying for sports

• Minimizes driving to all activities

Shape the future that you want for our children by taking action right where you live and organize a neighborhood block party. What we do now decides our collective future.

You and your kids need you to do this.