Neighbors and Neighborhoods…They Matter!

Neighbors and neighborhoods help to provide us with a sense of community and offer us a safe harbor in an often chaotic world. Because of our neighbors, we are able to garner information and experiences that we would have otherwise missed. COVID made apparent what many of us may have temporarily forgotten: connection with others is essential to our health, both physical and emotional, as individuals… and to the health of our society overall.

Next to our familial relationships, neighborhood relationships are the lynchpin of connection with society. We live, learn, work, and play among the folks that make up our neighborhoods. It is where we share community with others.

To some extent, our own personal actions determine how well and how long we live, but our communal relationships and our physical surroundings play a role as well. Our neighbors can have an incredible impact on our lives by creating spaces where we feel comfortable and safe and in which we can have a sense of pride and belonging.

Good neighborhoods can actually help to shape our overall well-being. Recent studies have shown a strong correlation between strong, healthy communities and their residents’ physical and mental health. When neighborhoods are strong, residents tend to be more willing to work towards common goals together, to share information, and to work together to deter vandalism and other types of crime.

Good neighbors and strong neighborhoods also help to keep us engaged, active, and feeling needed. Healthy communities give us a chance to be of service to others, just as others do the same for us.

Because homeowners who live in healthy communities provide support to each other, our neighbors can help us in myriad ways, including:

1. Increased confidence and self-esteem from a sense of belonging.
2. A greater sense of purpose because we feel useful and needed.
3. Greater resiliency from socializing with neighbors who can help us develop skills that enable us to recover from disappointments and crises.
4. Living longer. Research has shown that loneliness is a risk factor of functional decline, particularly among those who are older. Staying social and connected with others can help to extend the length and quality of our life.

One of our goals at PDS is to make it easier for all of our community members to be great neighbors. Please feel free to reach out if you have any ideas or suggestions that you think would help to make your neighborhood an even better place. In the meantime, you might get some inspiration from our blog which includes articles on ways to show appreciation to community volunteers, how your community can work to discourage vandalism, and ideas for increasing participation in your HOA.