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Making community connections is at the core of what we’re trying to do over here. So when I stumbled across this zine, I had to share.

Here are a few we’ve done or regularly do:

12. Help carry groceries. This is just a nice thing to do.

19. Share knowledge. Know how to change a bike tire? Offer your services and a do-it-yourself lesson.

31. Organize a group activity. Perhaps a local library or community center has something that will fit. Picking up trash in a park or high-use area is a good go-to.

32. Picking up trash, generally, is a good way to meet neighbors. People notice.

36. Sell lemonade. Or give it away. You can raise money for a neighborhood cause.

37. Sell stuff. Who doesn’t like to browse a bundle of miscellaneous stuff?

40. Give things away for free. Free fridges, stores, and libraries are excellent, but anything useful in a box could get people to stop by.

50. Just hang out — with food and music edition. Some call this a party.

Regular readers of our newsletter will already know this, but we’re adding a mural to Haywood Street!

For years, there has been a long cinder block retainer wall (pictured above) along Haywood at the corner of Lenoir. It’s never been much to look at — just the occasional weed or piece of trash stuffed into its cracks — so we’ve decided to give it a bit of color. Here’s our design:

Cool, right?

The city and RPD have already come out and pressure washed the wall in preparation for paint. We’ve also picked up paint and brushes and all sorts of other supplies from Home Depot — over $400 worth of stuff (generously made possible by the city’s Arts fund) — and made some much-needed repairs to the wall.

So what’s next? That’s where you come in.

Given that this is a community art project, we need volunteers. We’re looking for as many people as we can get to come out and help us put paint up on the wall and add some much-needed color to this little corner of Haywood and Lenoir.

Don’t worry — it’s going to be fun and easy. No art skills required! We’ll show you which colors to use and where to put them so you can make your mark on the neighborhood.

Here’s a little FAQ:

Where is it?

We’re painting the mural on the cinder block retaining wall on Haywood and Lenoir.

When is it?

March 29th! We’ll start around 10am and continue until whenever we get it done! You’re welcome to come for all of it or some of it. Whatever works!

What will I do?

To make it easy, we plan on priming and painting the background color ourselves, then outlining the shapes and letters for everyone. So we’ll just need people who can fill them in! As long as you can hold a paintbrush, you’re all good!

Are kids welcome?

They sure are!

Where do I sign up?

While you don’t need to sign up to volunteer, adding your name to our list will help us plan out the day. Just head on over here to enter your email!

We’ve got a little trial run food pantry going on! Inspired by our neighbors on Martin St. (who raised over $19,000 for the NC Food Bank through their efforts!), we’ve put out some bins and filled them with things we think the neighborhood might need: sandwiches, canned items, noodles, warm clothing, and so forth.

Right now, we have bins in front of the empty lot on Haywood and Candor. We’ll be monitoring these and restocking as needed while we take note of what people are looking for. In the new year, the plan is to take this information and choose a location for a more permanent little neighborhood pantry.

In the meantime, if you’d like to help out with these bins, here’s how you can contribute:

• Stop by and drop in any donations you may have! We’re looking for your standard non-perishable items, but would also love cold weather clothing or anything else you think would be helpful.
• Send a donation via Venmo to @HaywoodCommunity! We’ll use that money to purchase new bin items as needed.

For more info about the pantry, including a list of suggested items, check out our flyer — which we also encourage you to share with others!

More questions? Useful suggestions? Interest in helping out more? Reach out to Alex Ford or Kinsley Gerks.

I’m not sure how most community groups begin, but ours had a very organic start. A few of us recognized some problems we wanted to address and started having conversations, then larger meetings after that. Before long, we had a regular group getting together, a name for ourselves, and a long list of ideas.

In fact, maybe even too many ideas. While stagnation and disinterest is one way community efforts die, decision paralysis is another. If you have everyone wanting to do something different, nothing will ever get done. So we realized that we needed to give our group a unifying focus. If we really want to be a real, positive force in our community, we all have to be on the same page.

We needed a mission.

So we got together and talked about it. While we have variety of goals — addressing food insecurity, promoting community safety, honoring neighborhood history, organizing arts and cultural activities — what we agreed stood behind all of our efforts was the idea of togetherness. We want to help create opportunities for people to talk, connect, and build relationships. We want to build community.

This led us to our mission:

We seek to create a more connected community that serves the needs of everyone who calls Haywood and the surrounding neighborhood home.

Alongside this, we built out a vision for where we want to go:

A strong community support network that helps neighbors feel more connected to each other. A neighborhood where everyone has the freedom and ability to thrive.

And to really round this out and help define what we’re doing, we wrote down how we plan on accomplishing all of this:

• Build stronger social connections between neighbors.
• Increase communication and coordination between neighbors, organizations, businesses, and the government.
• Connect people to the resources, information, and services they need.
• Create opportunities to contribute to the community.
• Help create a safer and more livable community.

Maybe these are all small things. Words and intentions are great, but what really matters is the action that follows. Nevertheless, we don’t believe any of this is just a gesture. Instead, we hope that by defining what we want to do and hope to accomplish, we are building a more solid foundation for all that will come.

Stay tuned.

I realized I’ve been writing about how we’re restructuring our community group in our newsletter (sign up for it using the form to the left!), but haven’t said anything on here. Well, let’s change that.

We began this group because we saw a need to bring the community together, raise awareness about certain issues, and give a long neglected corner of Raleigh more of a voice. But beyond these general aims — and our focus on pulling off our first big neighborhood event — we hadn’t given our group a whole lot of structure. Now that the Haywood Hustle & Hoedown is all wrapped up though, we thought it was time.

So during our September general meeting, a group of us got together to discuss how we want to keep things moving forward over the next few months (and even years). In other words, we talked about the big question on everyone’s minds: What’s next?

A lot of ideas, it turns out. Too many. So we decided to put some form to this energy and organize ourselves into what we’re calling clubs and committees. After discussing neighborhood and community needs, weighing those against our own particular strengths and interests, and taking into account what the group itself was in a position to do, here’s what we came up with:

🎨 Arts & Culture Club: This committee is focused on beautification projects of all sorts. Near-term projects include a mural on Haywood St. and local gardening opportunities.

⁠🍊 Special Projects: This committee is involved in a number of initiatives, such as food insecurity and supporting the unhoused. Definitely an immediate need for this work!

⁠🗞️ Communications and Marketing: This is what our newsletter is all about! But this committee is also looking at new ways to get the word out and engage the community.

⁠📋 Strategic Planning & Engagement: This committee is working on organizing the many other ideas floating around in order to figure out priorities and set up the larger community group for long-term success. Kind of meta, but necessary!

Several of these clubs and committees have already met and started making plans, which we’re excited to start sharing with y’all. We think this is going to be a great way to keep our goals as an organization focused and realistic while still meeting the needs of the wider community.

As always, we’re looking for more volunteers! All of these committees are open to anyone who wants to be involved. If you want to contribute or are just curious to learn more info, go ahead and fill out the contact form on our website.

Stay tuned for more information soon!

Gray skies didn’t keep us away! This past Saturday, the crew still came out to pick up trash and clean up Haywood and the surrounding streets! We filled up several bags and buckets and had a great time doing it!

Even better was the chance to meet our neighbors and talk about all that we’re doing for the community. We even got some new volunteers out with us — something I was particularly impressed about given the weather. Just goes to show the energy we have around here.

Next neighborhood cleanup is scheduled for Saturday, October 25th, 9am. Meet us at 515 Haywood!