Partner highlight: No help needed, we’re Canadian!
Building Resilient Neighbourhoods demonstrates how to work through common attitudes and resistances toward neighbourly helping.
One of the most important learnings from Building Resilient Neighbourhood’s Neighbours Helping Neighbours (NHN) pilot was that connecting is an easy first step for residents to make, but engaging in mutual support requires a bigger leap.
Many residents said that Canada’s dominant culture of celebrating and normalizing individualism contributed to creating feelings of discomfort around asking for or offering help to others. Some residents reported feeling more comfortable offering help than asking for it, while others felt uncomfortable with both—asking felt like exposing vulnerability and imposing upon another, while offering felt like they were implying the other person was less capable.
Fortunately, delivery partners and resident-leaders found ways to shift these attitudes and move neighbour groups more comfortably towards engaging in mutual support activities and projects.
Read on to learn more about what strategies were the most effective.
