Writing

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 lots of family road trips happening this weekend and all summer, which is GREAT, as they are an easy opportunity to build connection and prevent loneliness in our own families, especially with our tweens and teens!

This week is Loneliness Awareness Week and it’s time to talk about loneliness – what it is/isn’t, the unhelpful and baseless stigma that it holds, and, of course, what we can do about it.

We are only just beginning to realize that human connection needs to be a priority in our daily lives. Our next step, right alongside that, is to understand play as a priority, not just as an opportunity for connection, but as critical to the well-being of children, teens, and adults.

Madness. It’s not just for March anymore – it’s for May too. “May-cember,” as it’s now referred to, is jam-packed with joyful but schedule-disrupting and time-consuming end-of-school-year concerts, field/sports days, graduations, and celebrations.

I’ve heard from so many of you that you absolutely love the idea of getting together with your neighbors, but you haven’t organized a block party (micro-local neighborhood gathering) yet. It’s important to get curious about what’s getting in the way of you hosting one, so you can know you’re not alone in what’s holding you back, but that these are hurdles that you can absolutely overcome.

In the end, it is our relationships that mean the most in our lives, but our burnout-guaranteed pace of life and digital exhaustion get in the way of us making time for clubs, activities, and even our friends. This perpetual busyness and lack of participation in clubs and groups is not only impacting our mortality, but threatening our democracy.

In honor of America’s 250th birthday, Block Party USA, my tool to help families and our nation, is launching American Summer — a nationwide call to revive the forgotten tradition of neighborhood block parties, from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend, with a special focus on July 3rd, 4th, and America’s Potluck on July 5th.

Despite the name, Block Party USA is not just about block parties. Our focus is micro-local neighborhood gatherings (you can see how that would be a little too wordy for a website name 😉). These neighborhood gatherings take all different forms.