About Involving All Neighbors

The idea for Involving All Neighbors was sparked by a question someone asked at a community meeting in 1994. Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods had brought together neighborhood activists to discuss how to build self-sufficient neighborhood organizations that reflect the diversity of the people who live there.

Someone asked our director, "What does the Department of Neighborhoods do to encourage persons with developmental disabilities to get involved in neighborhood life?" A man seldom at a loss for words, he for once was stumped.

That question challenged all of us to look at how well our walk matched our talk. How did we reach out, not just to people with disabilities, but to all those who were not already involved or included in their neighborhoods?

We decided to use this challenge as an opportunity to take another step toward our goal of helping neighborhoods to become genuine communities. We created a program called Involving All Neighbors, and used it to explore different ways we could welcome and involve people who otherwise might not participate in their neighborhoods.

Involving All Neighbors is unique. It is strategically placed within an agency that has a mission to build community, so the Department of Neighborhoods is a natural vehicle for building inclusive neighborhoods. The Department of Neighborhoods works with a network of over 300 neighborhood organizations, and, at any given time, is involved with hundreds of community events. Opportunities for building inclusion are always at hand.

We worked with our Neighborhood Services Centers scattered around Seattle, to find opportunities to involve more people in neighborhood life. We used our Neighborhood Matching Fund, which provides grants to community projects, to challenge organizers to come up with ideas to include even more people in their neighborhood projects. And we worked with staff in other Department of Neighborhoods programs - including neighborhood planning and P-Patch community gardens, and other City programs such as Block Watch organizations, graffiti paint-outs, tree plantings, and neighborhood cleanups - to investigate ways that more people, including those with disabilities, could join those activities.

Involving All Neighbors went to work to design a course of action. The following beliefs have been the foundation of this work:

• Everyone has a gift to offer and a contribution to make to their neighborhood and the people around them.
  
  
• Neighborhoods grow stronger and everyone benefits when people share individual gifts, abilities, and talents.
  
  
• Neighborhoods are inclusive and welcoming when they invite and embrace the unique and diverse contributions of all neighbors.

We have been working on the Involving All Neighbors program for the last five years, and our work continues today. This Web site shares a few stories about our experience, as well as some of the strategies that we have used to help build inclusive neighborhoods here in Seattle. But this work is never done. When people come together to build a stronger and more inclusive community, they will have their own stories and will learn, and re-learn, their own lessons. We hope you'll join us as well, by sharing your stories and experiences with us.