Hello ,

As we prepare to welcome a new year, we’re taking time to reflect on all that 2024 has brought with it. This year, we built partnerships, expanded our team, hosted in-person, virtual, and hybrid events, and took part in some very special collaborations. We are continually inspired by everyone who makes up the Hey Neighbour Collective – without you, the work we do to better understand the intricacies of building social connections and resilience in multi-unit housing would not be possible. 

While the year may be coming to a close, 2025 will bring lots to look forward to! In this newsletter, we’ll share details on our upcoming national training workshop series, what our newest research assistant is working on, recent media features, and some exciting updates from our partners. It’s chock-full; we hope you can find time to digest it at a slow pace, perhaps over your morning coffee or afternoon cup of tea. 

We’re grateful for a year of growth, collaboration, and connection. Wherever the end of 2024 finds you, we hope connecting with your colleagues, friends, loved ones, neighbours, and pets is part of your journey. 

Wishing you a joyful, refreshing, and engaged new year ahead.

Warmly,

The Hey Neighbour Collective team

We're gearing up for an exciting 2025

Building Social Connections in practice

We’re teaming up with Happy Cities and Renewable Cities to host three online workshops for planners to gain practical tools to unlock the social potential of multi-unit housing. These workshops will tackle two fundamental questions:

1. What design principles and strategies can enhance social wellbeing in multi-unit housing?
2. How can planners design and implement policy to enable these social features while maintaining affordability?

The workshops are designed as a series, with each workshop building on the previous sessions. During each session, participants will hear from guest speakers, engage in small breakout group discussions, and connect with planners and professionals across Canada. 

There are only 24 of 100 ‘live seats’ left for these workshops - so don’t delay if you’re interested!

Fostering community in times of crisis

Hey Neighbour Collective featured in The Narwhal

Our co-directors Michelle Hoar and Stacy Barter were recently interviewed by Mandy Catron for The Narwhal. This article highlights the idea that social connectedness and knowing our neighbours are not just "nice to haves," rather, they are urgent necessities in order for us to find belonging, build collective solutions, and manifest resilience in the face of the many existing and emerging complex problems our world faces. We need to shift how we perceive asking for help, especially from our neighbours, and normalize building such connections and relationships. As explained by Michelle, "In times of polycrisis we need solutions that solve multiple problems at once."

Reframing climate action as health action

Climate Action Dialogue - Human Health and Well-being

Our project director, Michelle Hoar, participated in the Metro Vancouver Climate Action Dialogue on Human Health and Well-being to highlight the role of housing as vital infrastructure for climate action, social connection, and well-being. In this video, Michelle joins an inspiring panel featuring Chris McLeod, Laurie Bates-Frymel, and Melissa Lem​ to discuss how proactive strategies—such as urban planning, equitable greenspace access, workforce adaptation, and emergency response planning—can address extreme weather impacts while creating jobs, promoting equity, and reducing healthcare costs.

In Michelle's words, "we don't just need to adapt to the problems that we have created...we need to work together to mitigate, to build solutions, and to push governments to do more."

Bringing together a global community

Webinar recap: Design tools to support wellbeing in multi-unit housing with Happy Cities and Hey Neighbour Collective

On October 3rd, 2024, we hosted Housing That Connects Us #4: Design Tools to Support Wellbeing, as part of the Building Social Connections project in partnership with Happy Cities and Simon Fraser University’s Department of Gerontology. Over 200 participants joined from all around the world for a conversation on the applications of sociable design guidelines in multi-unit housing. During this webinar, we were thrilled to receive interest in helping to translate the toolkit into Farsi, Japanese, German, French, Chinese, and Korean. We were blown away by this outpouring of engagement and are already brainstorming ways to make this a reality in 2025. 

The webinar recording and additional materials are now available.

We have an exciting new addition to the team!

Jean talks about the importance of qualitative research and why he writes poetry.

Jean Paul Ramírez Echavarría, our newest graduate research assistant, shares the power of qualitative research in understanding the human experience. In this interview, Jean Paul explains what it means, and what it takes, to be a qualitative researcher. He also describes the importance of physical space in shaping our sense of belonging, and how this realization led him to the work he does today. 

“Qualitative research is especially important in social sciences because most of the information you receive from people cannot be measured with numbers. Qualitative analysis is a great way to “listen” to what people have to say.”

From our partners and others

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!

Hey Neighbour Collective at Housing Central

A huge thank you to the Aboriginal Housing Management Association (AHMA), the BC Non-Profit Housing Association (BCNPHA), and the Co-operative Housing Federation of BC (CHF BC) for inviting us to speak and attend such an inspiring, engaging, and informative conference! It was a privilege to be amongst so many like-minded individuals and organizations at Housing Central 2024. You can take a look at the presentation by Michelle Hoar and Madeleine Hebert from HNC’s long-time partner, Happy Cities, below.

Building stronger communities through thoughtful design

“Our team at LandlordBC was pleased to feature the Building Social Connections Toolkit in a recent issue of The Key magazine. This article highlights valuable strategies for creating tenant-friendly spaces, and we’re glad to share it with our members, many of whom will find it useful as they look for best practices to foster community in their buildings. As landlords, we know how crucial our homes are in helping tenants build relationships and feel part of a community.

The Building Social Connections Toolkit provides practical, actionable strategies that can help create more inclusive, welcoming environments for residents. We’re excited to see how these design principles can support tenant wellbeing and contribute to the long-term success of multi-unit housing.

LandlordBC has been a proud partner and funder of the Hey Neighbour Collective since it started in 2019.”

Become a MiniVillage Volunteer!

If you are currently living in the Vancouver area and are passionate about community building, you could be a great fit for the Minivillage team! Minivillage is a social-purpose tech startup focused on building local support networks through resident community coordinators, an online platform and in-person gatherings. We are all about connecting communities and empowering neighbours to support one another.

As a Minivillage Volunteer, you’ll work with resident Community Coordinators or directly with the Minivillage team. Your main role will be to assist in planning, organizing, and marketing fun and inclusive events that bring residents together in non-profit, multi-unit buildings in Vancouver.

Register by December 20^th!

Connect with Hey Neighbour Collective