Connecting Neighbors
The Role of Settlement Houses in Building Social Bonds Within Communities
Prudence Brown, Kitty Barnes
2001
Connecting Neighbors is the fifth in a series of reports produced by United Neighborhood Houses of New York (UNH) and Chapin Hall on the role of the modern settlement house in building community in New York City neighborhoods. The report profiles programs participating in the Neighbors-to-Neighbors Community-Building project. Neighbors-to-Neighbors participant programs, selected from among those nominated by member houses to UHN, were ones that fostered:
1) Relationships among participants rather than the traditional relationships between settlement house staff members and participants, including those among peers, across generations, within families, across different racial/ethnic groups, and so forth 2) Relationships that serve a discernable function, such as providing support, knowledge, or skills and that form the basis for mutual helping, spiritual/cultural enrichment, productive inter-group relations, advocacy and social action, or some other function for the individual, family or community 3) Relationships that are likely to endure or have some consequence beyond the immediate moment, that can be called on when an individual needs information, assistance, or when neighbors need to band together for a common cause.
Programs profiled represent included those in four of New York's five boroughs and served populations across a wide age range. Bracketing the profiles are sections on the Neighbors-to-Neighbors project design, on neighbor-to-neighbor relationships, the role of settlement houses in fostering relationships among neighbors, and a conclusion.