SoCe Socials: What do you call an indoor block party?

Catherine: “What shall we call them? Community conversations? Neighborhood something?”

Dylan: “Hmm, I like something with alliteration.”

A day later…

Catherine: “How about SoCe Socials - like an ice cream social, but for people in our neighborhood?”

And so the name stuck.

We hosted 2 opportunities for neighbors to gather in December, one on a Thursday evening, and one on Saturday morning. We invited all 644 households in the north fourth of SoCe where we have been delivering our newsletter for the last year. The idea of the Socials was simply to get to know some neighbors and find out what skills and hobbies they have, what they could teach someone else, and what they care deeply about. We hosted the Socials in the Community Room at the Child Advocacy Center, which is a wonderful asset and gathering space in our neighborhood!

To set the tone of neighborhood treasures, we invited neighborhood artists to display their pieces, a neighborhood entrepreneur to showcase and talk about her coffee shop endeavor, and a neighborhood nonprofit to share about their programs. We also accepted an offer from one of our neighbors to provide snacks and apple cider for the Socials. So much abundance! This theme continued as we invited neighbors to share with each other about things they could teach someone. We wrote all the skills on post-its and put them on a board. By the end of each gathering the board was full! “I thought [the Social] was very uplifting and we should do more of it! We need to do it more often, especially in the summertime,” commented one SoCean (a new term we made up to describe someone who lives in SoCe).

At the end of each Social, we all looked at the board full of post-it notes with skills and hobbies and dreams of SoCeans. “Looking at these, what can we work on together to make the neighborhood safer and stronger? What themes are there?” Food was definitely a theme; we have several people who love to cook, bake, or grill. We decided on the next steps we can take together: 1. Organize regular neighborhood walks to socialize, exercise, and pick up trash, 2. Help with demolition, remodeling, and cleaning at the soon-to-be Dapper Cat Coffee Shop, and 3. Work on garden projects together, including art for the Funston Neighborhood Garden.

So, lookout 2023! We are ready to work together in SoCe and make our dreams for the neighborhood a reality!