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Elgin Community Network

Block Parties

Block Parties build better social networks than Facebook

👉👉 If you already know you are interested in planning a Block Party, skip directly to the

toolkit⁠

. 👈👈

If you’re not sure about Block Parties, here are our FAQs:

🤔Why plan a Block Party?

The news paints a frightening picture of the USA, whether it’s corruption, scandal, polarization, mental health challenges, privacy infringements, automation, outsourcing, wealth inequality, racial injustice, gender bias, environmental degradation, spiritual vacuum, loneliness, or any combination of issues.

Our country needs to heal.

We need to start at the foundation: we need to re-build our social infrastructure, city-by-city, town-by-town.

Let’s start with neighbors meeting neighbors.

From here, neighbors can get to know each other, develop relationships, and build trust.

You can be a catalyst - by throwing safe, welcoming, and fun block parties as we transition out of COVID-19 social distancing.

⁠

Join the nationwide movement to bring the country back together.

Click on the triangle to the left to expand to see what equally excellent reasons have motivated people to host block parties in the past.

To get to know your neighbors.

To increase the sense of belonging in your neighborhood and city.

To organize a city-sponsored group such as Neighborhood Watch or a Neighborhood Association.

To learn about your neighborhood's history.

To start a tradition of getting together at least once a year.

To promote networking relationships among neighbors.

To establish friendships.

To increase neighborhood safety and resiliency.

To provide a great opportunity to invite a city council member, school principal, or city staff member to your neighborhood

To have fun.

What is a Block Party?

- a party for all the residents of a block or neighborhood, typically held on a closed-off city street.

Since the days of World War I, US Americans have been throwing block parties as a way to commemorate a special event or to simply have fun.

🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️Am I qualified to plan a Block Party?

You are qualified if you answer ‘yes’ to the following questions:

Are you interested in planning a Block Party?

Do you have neighbors?

Are you willing to follow City of Elgin rules? (you can find out more details in our

Block Party Toolkit⁠

, but spoiler alert: the main focus is no alcohol on public sidewalks, no loud music late at night, and due to COVID-19 restrictions, no more than 50 attendees at one time)

Then you are good to go! People in apartments, houses, caravan parks, and without a house have hosted great parties. We know people who have lived in a neighborhood for generations and who are new, who have thrown great parties. We know people who are first time party hosts and who are super experienced event planners who have organized great parties.

You can do it. We are here to help if you have any doubts. And if you don’t have any doubts, maybe you could

mentor⁠

somebody else.

🤼Can I plan with friends?

Yes!! We highly encourage you to collaborate with your neighbors to plan the Block Party together. We have created our

Block Party Toolkit⁠

precisely to help you collaborate with less emails and less time.

💪How much effort does it take to plan a Block Party?

It all depends! As suggested above, we highly encourage you to collaborate with your neighbors to plan the Block Party together - team work makes the dream work 😎.

After all, a good Block Party is when more people show up. What better way to get more people to show up than (co-)creating an inclusive event? And what better way to create an inclusive event than to include people from different backgrounds in the planning?

We help make collaborating easier through our

Block Party Toolkit⁠

. So you can spend more time enjoying the party, while we help you remember the details.

😳I love the cause, but for [insert-reason-here], I don’t think I’m the best fit to plan a Block Party.

We appreciate your honesty and care, thank you for continuing to read this far!

As mentioned above, we think it’s best to plan with neighbors. Is there someone in your neighborhood you’d recommend or would want to work with? We suggest reaching out to them - you can even just share the URL of this website. Many people love to be invited to support their community - and we suspect the people you’re thinking of would be thrilled to receive your nudge. If you prefer, you can reach out to us at

elgin@ourcelium.co⁠

with your recommendation, and we’d be delighted to reach out directly on your behalf (or anonymously, just let us know)😁

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