An espresso-making bike will cruise through Akinsdale Tuesday as part of a new conference on how to strengthen neighbourhoods.
About 50 people from across the province will be at St. Albert’s Red Willow Place next Thursday and Friday for the inaugural Neighbourhood Connectors Extravaganza conference.
Organized by the City of St. Albert, the conference is meant to bring people together to share ideas and resources on how neighbours can connect with each other, said Angie Dedrick, the city’s neighbourhood development co-ordinator.
St. Albert’s social master plan says that residents value this city’s sense of community, and you get that sense by connecting with your neighbours, Dedrick said.
“We know connected neighbourhoods are more welcoming, they’re more inclusive, and ultimately our communities are safer when we know one another.”
The two-day conference will start with rapid-fire PechaKucha-style presentations from attendees to share their stories of neighbouring, Dedrick said. Friday will have formal talks by herself and other experts on how to create stronger communities.
Speaker Rick Abma will be in town Tuesday ahead of the conference with his famous espresso bike, which is a tricycle outfitted with a generator, umbrella, and working espresso machine, Dedrick said. He’ll be holding a free coffee party with community leaders in Akinsdale for an outdoor espresso party to help them bring people together.
“It’s really cool,” Dedrick said of the bike.
“I want one for St. Albert!”
Getting right neighbourly
Abma is a self-described missionary and author of the book Neighbouring for Life. For the last six years, he’s been organizing community gatherings throughout Alberta to help neighbours reconnect with each other.“We have lost the art of having community in our backyards,” he said, which he blamed on a combination of affluence and selfishness. That loss of community has led to social isolation, insecurity, and crime.
Several years ago, Abma said he rallied his neighbourhood to help a local man fix his roof. Impressed by how the event brought people together, he started organizing barbecue and later coffee events across the province as a way to get people together, and founded the Good Neighbour Coffee Co. – a fair-trade co-op that gets its beans from missionaries in the Honduras.
“Coffee is a platform for people connecting even if they don’t drink it,” Abma said.
Abma said he provides free coffee through the espresso bike so community leaders can gather a crowd. He also encourages people to send him their stories of neighbourhood connections so he can print them on his coffee bags.
Howard Lawrence of Abundant Community Edmonton will be at the conference to speak about block connectors, who are designated residents who meet everyone in a region, keep track of common interests, and organize community events. He’ll also talk about the importance of block parties or block socials.
“The block social is to neighbours what Thanksgiving dinner is to families,” he said, in that they draw people closer together.
“You’re supporting a social unit.”
Dedrick will speak on St. Albert’s block party program, which aims to hold 200 such events this year, and the city's efforts to create a network of block connectors similar to the ones Lawrence established in Edmonton.
Abma said he’s heard many powerful stories of neighbouring in the last few years, such as the 82-year-old who found out one of this neighbours was an old classmate and the couple in Lacombe who lost everything when their house burned down.
“In 14 minutes, all these neighbours were out there with everything they needed.”
The conference is $35 for St. Albert residents and $80 for everyone else, Dedrick said.
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