Give Something Back: Learn about Ways to Improve Your Neighborhood

Spending your whole life surrounded by strangers is not how life is supposed to be. Your neighborhood is where your home is, so why not make it equally pleasant outdoors and in? People strongly react to selfless initiative and kindness – the world can be a much better place if we’d all just give it a little push towards that common goal.

But, where to begin when it has so much work to be done? Well, with small things – of course, because no one expect you to change the world overnight, nor should you.

 

Step #1: Mindset Change

If you want to change the world, you have got to start with changing yourself – that is how the internal change will be able to go outside and play.

Be a Nice Neighbor

Every great idea started with nothing more than a thought and good will, and there’s nothing more you need. My suggestion is to start with sincerity – the very next time you say good morning to your next door neighbor, you should actually wish that they do have a good morning. And when you ask how they’ve been, try to listen to them.

Politeness doesn’t cost you a dime, but at the same time it’s priceless. Within a very short period of time people around you will start treating you and others with kind of politeness that you inspire.

Advocate Harmony

Everyone is preoccupied with their daily activities and only the rare few among us actually stop and smell the flowers. Your very next step is reminding them how beauty is everywhere and that they only need a second to spot it.

A good deed inspires another one, so giving your neighbor a hand when they are trying to take groceries in will make their day and they will have enough positivity in them to do something nice for others. So, open doors to your neighbors and have them over for a meal. Harmony really isn’t difficult to achieve and it’s great to begin building it with a hot tasty meal.

 

Step #2: Take Action

Now, it’s time to take control and place it in your neighborhood’s hands.

Help Others Build Their Homes

Start with something simple like changing a lightbulb or cleaning the gutters. Once you make a more personal bond with your neighbor(s), why not help them improve their house? As a matter of fact, you should have your season home cleaning the same day and help each other out with tasks that are a bit more difficult.

Support Elders

Those who most need your politeness and who will very much appreciate you giving them a hand are the wisest in your neighborhood, who knew the world before you were even born – senior citizens.

It’s a great idea to have everyone in the neighborhood have a senior buddy and give them at least half an hour of their time on daily basis by helping them with chores or simply having a cup of coffee with them. Loneliness is not a very good life companion, so you can be sure your thoughtfulness will mean the world to them.

Special Care for Special Needs

If there are any people with special needs in your neighborhood, you should do your very best to ease their lives and help them adapt – it’s their world to and they should feel like it. A family that has someone who requires special treatment needs all the help that they can get, and you should first educate yourself and those around you about how to assist them.

Grow Your Own Food

There are so many benefits of this neighborhood activity that I don’t really know where to start. Growing your own food will significantly affect your bills, and even cut them in half. When you serve your very own veggies you grew with care to your family, you’re absolutely sure that they are eating healthy meals. Having the whole neighborhood do the same will create a very harmonious environment where people can exchange advice and tips and help each other with gardens.

My suggestion is to introduce this activity to children as well – by learning to take care of their food, they will also learn a lot of things about environment and nutrition. This is not that a difficult project to conduct, but it’s a huge movement – just imagine what our world would look like if every neighborhood will follow this green movement too.

Enormous amounts of foods are being wasted while others stay hungry. This is one of the things that are really wrong with the world and need to be dealt with – naturally, starting on a small scale. By making a schedule in which every person in your neighborhood would collect leftover food and drive it to the nearest homeless shelter would make an important difference, without really taking too much time.

 

Step #3: Think Bigger

Once your neighborhood becomes a kind, safe environment in which everyone is willing to contribute, you should move things on a bigger scale.

Organize Events

By organizing different types of events you’ll be able to move things to another level. You should perhaps start with raising awareness – perhaps having a seminar about environment. This is something everyone can attend and it can improve the growing your own food project. Charity events that raise money by selling children’s crafts is an excellent way to and it will also include everyone. Your options are practically limitless – you only need a good start.

Upgrade Your Neighborhood

If there are any holes in your streets – fix them, if there are work to be done on your neighborhood’s playground – do it, if you think your environment lacks in street art – create it.

I’m sure one thing popped in your mind right now – money. Projects like that can’t be done without funds and that’s a fact, but it’s not like you can’t do anything about it – quite the contrary. My suggestion is to start by browsing through fundraising software reviews and find out what is your best option. I’ve already mentioned how people strongly react to selfless initiative, and making a world a better place is a cause people will be glad to contribute to.

Help Out Local Institutions

Schools, hospitals and local communities are always in need of assistance – there are so many ongoing project they are trying to conduct successfully and not enough funds to hire extra people. There is an obvious solution for this – volunteering.

You shouldn’t forget about orphanages, nursing homes and shelters for homeless. A simple act of kindness and some of your time will be of a huge significance for people in these institutions – knowing that people in the outside world actually care for them will be an amazing boost. You never know; you might even change someone life by simply talking to them. 

Your neighborhood and the world don’t have to be a scary and lonely place to live in. Creating a safe environment and a harmonious community is something we should all strive for. Each individual on our planet can do great things with the right kind of inspiration, so why not provide it for them?