August 6, 2008
Organize A Neighborhood Block Party and Meet Your Neighbors
neighborhood block party
There are tons of great reasons to get to know your neighbors. Aside from the “can I borrow an egg?” type of reasons there is the issue of safety. Children should know who they can turn to in their neighborhood in case of an emergency. Also if everyone in the neighborhood knows each other, it will make it a lot easier to spot when there are strangers lurking around.
I know what you’re saying, “I wouldn’t even know where to begin in organizing a neighborhood block party”. No worries. I’m going to tell you some basic things that need to get done in order to organize a neighborhood block party.
Meet the neighbors at your neighborhood party
Start A Neighborhood Block Party Committee
There are a lot of things that go into organizing a neighborhood block party and to make sure that everything runs smoothly it would probably be a good idea to start a neighborhood block party committee.
- Committee could be made up of several households
- Hold organization meetings
- Choose one member to be the main contact
- Assign different roles like: publicity, invitations, clean up, permits, activity coordinator, menu coordinator
Survey The Neighborhood
Not everyone is going to agree with a date that is picked but if you send each household a questionnaire that will allow them to pick between several dates, you can then choose the most popular date.
You can also survey the neighborhood to find out what type of menu people would be interested in. Would everyone just like to bring a dish and beverages with them to share with others or would they like to just kick in money the night of to be able to eat and drink all they like?
Entertainment/Activities
The type of entertainment you can get depends on what type of permits you were able to secure from your city or town and what type of money your neighbors were willing to kick in for entertainment (if any).
Some possible choices:
- Hire A Band
- Set Up Karaoke
- Set Up A Sound System
- Organize some contests – eating contest, dancing contest, three legged race, potato sack race… stuff like that
- Hire a face painter or clown for children’s entertainment
However you choose to organize your block party, you should give yourself a minimum of two months to get all the plans set and secure all of the funds needed to make your neighborhood block party go off without a hitch.
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Eric Nagel
08/07/2008 at 11:20 am
Funny you should write about this – our block party is in a week – right after I get back from Boston. My poor wife will be scrambling at the last minute to get things together while I’m away!
deb niehuus
12/26/2008 at 6:15 pm
What do you do if you currently live in an area of a city that is overrun with drug activity, poverty, domestic violence alcohol abuse, thefts, child abuse/neglect … and various and sundry crimes and (as one police officer put it) “scumbag” activities?
Should one forge ahead anyway and hopefully one of the invitations will land in the hands of someone outside this ilk? It’s pretty bad but there are pockets of good, law-abiding types. I’m thinking if I were to actually attempt to throw a block party, it could possibly jar some of these individuals into better behaviors and possibly better social outcomes. Or, it could get me killed, if not seriously maligned. Any thoughts? (no joke here!)