Good Neighbours
Neighbours Every Day!
The inaugural Neighbour Day was launched in Melbourne in 2003, as an opportunity to 'check on your neighbour'.
In 2014 Relationships Australia became the custodian of Neighbour Day and have grown it into an ongoing, year-round social connection campaign that seeks to address loneliness across Australia.
This year's theme of Neighbours Every Day is an evolution of the day into a year-round campaign, with a dedicated day-of-action celebrated annually on the last Sunday of March.
As the leading social connection campaign in Australia, Neighbours Every Day continues to grow and support Australians to build respectful and sustainable relationships with those around them. A broad range of individuals and organisations continue to actively show support for Neighbours Every Day and these collaborations have greatly contributed to community awareness and a sustained reduction in loneliness.
Over the years, our community have told us that they like ‘Neighbour Day’ because it enables them to build connections with their neighbours and try something neighbourly without feeling intrusive.
While Neighbour Day is officially celebrated on the last Sunday in March each year, the purpose is to raise awareness of the importance of social connection to makes us feel better, help prevent loneliness and isolation, and encourage people to make meaningful connections that last beyond the day itself.
This year we have collaborated with local businesses including: Port Plaza Shopping Centre, The Pear Café, The Heart of Semaphore Café, The Baristro Café, Northeast Community House, PAE Libraries and Lefevre Stadium to bring you a series of FREE events and activities to help promote community connections.
For more information and contact details for each event visit the Neighbour Day What's On page or contact Jan Angelo on 8405 6010.
Happy to Chat benches
We are working on a new pilot project to help tackle loneliness and improve the wellbeing of residents and you can help us!
Social isolation is an issue we can all help to fight by making sure we are creating an inclusive, compassionate and positive community.
The ‘Happy to Chat’ bench concept is very simple, but we need your help to make it work. Each bench has a welcoming sign on it that reads: ‘Happy to Chat: Sit Here If You Don’t Mind Someone Stopping to Say Hello’.
We hope the signs help break down the invisible social barriers that sometimes exist between people who are sharing the common space of a bench. Making the effort to stop and say ‘hello’ could make a huge positive difference to both your and their day.” 😊
By providing a platform for people to support one another and offer genuine connection we can increase empathy, reducing the rate of loneliness and boosting the level of healthy conversation that happens in our community. The benches provide everyone with an opportunity to take a little time out, meet someone new and gain insight into other peoples’ experiences. Everyone has a story to tell and taking just 10 minutes to share with someone, might just be the highlight of their day.
Look out for our volunteer chatters who will be attending the benches at certain times for even more opportunities to chat!!
Currently the benches are situated at:
Wednesday*
Port Adelaide Plaza - 10am to 11am
Port Adelaide Library - 11.15am to 12.15pm
Thursday*
Port Adelaide Plaza – 1.30pm to 2.30pm
*Subject to change
If you would like to see the origins of our happy to chat benches, watch this Ted Talk video and hear how one woman took a simple idea and how this idea has spread throughout various locations across the world, including PAE.
If the project proves to be popular, we will look to roll out further locations over the coming months. For further information please contact: Health& Wellbeing Coordinator on jan.angelo@cityofpae.sa.gov.au or 8405 6010 for an informal chat.
Stories from my neighbourhood
Take a look at our ‘Stories from our Neighbourhood Films’ below for inspiration on how local people are creating connections.
They are some lovely stories about good neighbours in PAE.