Social Connection Campaign
NEKO voted on “Social Isolation” as an Issue at our May 2023 Membership Assembly, reframed to Social Connection.
Over the decades, our collective social fabric has slowly unraveled. Exacerbated by many disasters: Poverty, Opioid Crisis, Global Pandemic, Climate Disasters. People are being pushed to work more for less pay, and everyday bills and expenses continue to grow. Families are unable to spend time in their community, and church groups, social clubs, and communal spaces are finding it harder to maintain volunteers and services.
Relationship building is a critical foundation to NEKO’s Purpose and Theory of Change.
We believe everyone has the right to:
- Access to their community and connections to their neighbors.
- Transportation.
- Public, democratic, shared spaces.
- Food.
We envision:
- Building Relationships regardless of perceived differences.
- Elders who cared for our children, worked our lands, built our roads and this place deserve to stay in their communities and live with dignity and respect.
- Intergenerational, multi-racial connection and shared learning.
- Local mutual aid networks.
Proposed action:
- Reliable, affordable and robust transportation solutions.
- Community hubs for climate resilience, community meals, mutual aid, and defiance – ways we take care of one another’s basic needs – including the need for food and good conversation.
- Strengthened neighbor-to-neighbor connections to strengthen community networks.
The Barton Hub
In 2023, NEKO went door-to-door among 6 low-income and senior housing facilities and neighborhoods in Barton and Orleans to ask 411 residents (25% of the population) what they saw as the key opportunities and challenges in their villages. We worked in partnership with the Center for an Agricultural Economy (CAE), the Barton Community Giving Garden (BCGG), the Working Communities Challenge initiative (WCC), and teams of local leaders to listen to the concerns and aspirations of our neighbors. Of those interviewed, 70% of Barton residents named the return of the Barton Senior Meal site – which had closed during the pandemic – among their most pressing concerns and emphasized its importance to the social fabric of the community.
Over 50% of those individuals – many of whom live within walking distance of the meal site – said transportation was a barrier to congregating. In both villages, over 60% of residents named community events and transportation as antidotes to the social isolation they experience, and we heard first-hand accounts of how Barton-area residents used to be connected to one another by 3 community meals – all of which thrived before the pandemic, and two of which have been recently revived but struggle due to decreased participation and volunteer support.
With the information we have gained from listening to our neighbors, we are convening Barton leaders and organizations to integrate a local transportation route, food pantry, and family friendly events into the revived community meal at the Barton Memorial Building.
