Hello,

With September comes fresh starts, in the form of work, school, or new projects. After a restful summer, we're excited to kick off our newly revamped eNewsletter, filled with many updates and announcements from HNC and our partners. 

First, we’re proud to be working with Building Resilient Neighbourhoods on ‘Neighbours Helping Neighbours,’ an intergenerational collaborative initiative that brings neighbours together to meet, do fun activities, and learn about simple ways to look out for and assist one another. Check out our feature interview with Molly Rose, the program coordinator, to learn more.

We recently launched our Building Social Connections Toolkit, created in collaboration with long-time partner Happy Cities. This toolkit is designed for policymakers, planners, designers, and community members to build and advocate for more socially connected, inclusive communities. You can read more about the toolkit below. 

We’re also excited to introduce some new faces to the HNC team, and to share some updates from our partners. You can read all of this below. 

Thank you for tuning in!

Warmly,

The Hey Neighbour Collective team

‘Neighbours Helping Neighbours’ builds relationships that foster mutual support

Everyone appreciates having a neighbour they can easily ask for a simple favour or whom they can call on in an emergency. Neighbours are always close by, and so they are uniquely positioned to create communities of mutual support!  

Unfortunately, neighbours often don’t know each other well enough to feel comfortable reaching out. Neighbours Helping Neighbours is a collaborative initiative that brings neighbours together to meet, do fun activities, and learn about simple ways they can look out for and assist one another.

Learn more about Neighbours Helping Neighbours through our interview with program coordinator Molly Rose.

Building Social Connections: Toolbox of design actions to nurture wellbeing in multi-unit housing

Over 2023 and 2024, Hey Neighbour Collective, Happy Cities and researchers from Simon Fraser University’s Department of Gerontology collaborated with five local municipalities and one First Nation to co-create new policies to encourage inclusive, sociable multi-unit housing design.

Building on the learnings from this project, Happy Cities and Hey Neighbour Collective have published a new design toolkit of evidence-based strategies for nurturing social well-being in multi-unit housing.

The design areas are broken down into four toolboxes: 

1. Social building edges
2. Social circulation
3. Social amenities
4. Social homes

Stay tuned for more updates and resources as we roll out the launch of this toolkit.

Join Hey Neighbour Collective and Happy Cities for a dynamic conversation about this toolkit on Thursday, October 3^rd from 10-11 AM PST. Register at Eventbrite, below.

Interviews with our team

We’ve been lucky to welcome several new faces to the Hey Neighbour team. Tara recently joined us as our new Strategic Communications Specialist, and Olivia and Sreya joined us as spring/summer research assistants! Get to know these rock stars in our in-depth interviews.

Tara Fernando - Strategic Communications Specialist

"Slowly, I realized that being able to communicate something to someone else was what I loved to do. When more people understand important research, we can affect meaningful change."

Olivia Tomlinson - Research Assistant

"For some survey participants, our interactions were the most significant social engagement they'd have all day, so it was an opportunity to have a real human connection. That felt special!"

Sreya Ajay - Research Assistant

"Our qualitative data involves analyzing a lot of written comments and descriptive responses. It's very interesting and I feel it gives more depth to the numbers (the 'quantitative' data)."

In the news

Mitigating loneliness and isolation by building social and neighbourly connections play an increasingly important role in climate resilience

Co-written by Leanne Sawatzky (Interim executive director of SFU Renewable Cities), Michelle Hoar (project director of Hey Neighbour Collective) and Lauren Vincent (associate director of the SFU Action on Climate Team).

This op-ed, originally published in the Vancouver Sun, examines how we can make our communities safer, especially in the presence of extreme temperatures, like heat domes. Forming strong social and neighbourly connections play an increasingly important role in climate resilience - knowing when to check in, offer help, or receive help from your neighbours can be life-saving. 

Looking ahead, how can we build homes to accommodate our growing population, while addressing the interconnected challenges of social isolation, climate change, and an aging population? How can we ensure homes and neighbourhoods effectively mitigate risks?

From our partners

We’re a collective impact project composed of many partners. Learn more about them here and read on for some recent, exciting projects they’ve been working on!

“The most valuable aspect of Connect & Prepare [has been] getting people thinking of their neighbours as resources in an emergency.” - Participating Housing Operator

Connect & Prepare Helps Housing Operators

Community-based organizations delivered Building Resilient Neighbourhood’s Connect & Prepare program to groups of resident-neighbours in ten market and non-market multi-unit rental buildings in Vancouver, New Westminster, and North Vancouver in 2022-23. The workshop series brings residents together to forge social connections and collaborate on shared emergency preparedness priorities. The housing operators that participated reported seeing beneficial impacts—not only for their residents, but also for themselves as landlords and building managers.

Read the full story on the impacts of Connect & Prepare for Housing Operators. 

Shared spaces can be designed to nurture social connection, trust, and belonging for diverse residents—photo by Happy Cities.

A new policy solution to build happier, healthier multi-unit housing

Port Moody recently became one of the first municipalities in B.C. to adopt an incentive-based policy that specifically supports social wellbeing for residents in multi-unit housing. Happy Cities worked with the City to develop the new Social Well-being Design Guidelines, which include incentives and guidance for social design features throughout all areas of a building—including hallways, entrances, parking, courtyards, and more. The Guidelines were adopted by Council in June 2024. The Guidelines—along with other inspiring policy examples—are featured in a recent case studies report by Happy Cities and Hey Neighbour Collective. 

Happy Cities and Hey Neighbour Collective held workshops in 2023-2024 with six Metro Vancouver jurisdictions, as part of our “Building Social Connections” project to support them in shifting policy in a similar direction. Learn more about the project below.

Photo by Brightside Community Homes Foundation.

Brightside Community Homes Foundation breaks ground on Sunrise Village

Brightside Community Homes Foundation broke ground on the long-awaited Sunrise Village redevelopment in Hastings-Sunrise, thanks in large part to cooperation across all levels of government that contributed funding support. The 146 homes opening in 2027 at Sunrise Village will offer genuinely affordable rental options in a multi-generational community of families, independent-living seniors, and people with disabilities. Sunrise Village is being constructed to Passive House certification standards, offering sector-leading zero-carbon energy efficiency and true affordability for renters in the community. 

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