NeighborsForNeighbors.org Connect, Communicate, and Collaborate in your neighborhood!
Neighborhood-centric online social networks to connect people to others who live, work, and serve in the same neighborhood. Our networks provide a mechanism that makes it possible for participants to connect, communicate, and collaborate around common interests.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Joseph
Last Name
Porcelli
Organization
NeighborsForNeighbors.org
Country
Are you an individual between the ages of 18 and 35 who would like to apply for a nine month Young Champions Program mentored by an Ashoka Fellow?
No
Section 2: About Your Organization
Organization Name
NeighborsForNeighbors.org
Organization Website
Organization Phone
857-222-4420
Organization Address
81 Wareham Street, Boston, MA 02118
Organization Country
The information you provide here will be used to fill in any parts of your profile that have been left blank, such as interests, organization information, and website. No contact information will be made public. Please uncheck here if you do not want this to happen..
Your idea
Name Your Project
NeighborsForNeighbors.org Connect, Communicate, and Collaborate in your neighborhood!
Country your work focuses on
Describe Your Idea
Neighborhood-centric online social networks to connect people to others who live, work, and serve in the same neighborhood. Our networks provide a mechanism that makes it possible for participants to connect, communicate, and collaborate around common interests.
Website URL
Innovation
What makes your idea unique?
Most residents do not know of or interact with more than a few of their neighbors or civil servants. They are unaware of established community and government resources and do not know of mechanisms of how to connect, communicate, and collaborate. As a result, they are left frustrated, apathetic and unlikely to act or advocate for themselves or each other. Nor do they feel vested in the neighborhood where they live.
Demand for municipal and social services are on the rise, while resources to finance and deliver these services are scarce. It is this disparity that leaves needs and expectations unmet and opportunities for trust and collaboration unfulfilled.
Our mission is to activate the citizenry by connecting people who live, work, and serve in the same neighborhood and provide tools for them to communicate and to collaborate around common interests.
We envision neighborhoods where residents know the names of their neighbors and those who serve them. A place where they are safe, happy, have access to services and share resources, and feel motivated to proactively contribute to each other’s quality of life.
We operate neighbor-centric online social networks to connect people to others who live, work, and serve in the same neighborhood. Our networks provide a mechanism that makes it possible for participants to connect, communicate, and collaborate around common interests.
The pilot network in the neighborhood of Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood in Boston, now boasts 1,600+ members. Members have organized 140 groups, posted over 280 blog posts, 980 photos, and 580 events. The network enjoys over 6,500 visitors each month who view an average of 4.5 pages and stay for 3 min and 20 seconds per visit. In Boston, there are now social networks for each neighborhood.
Municipal personnel such as city liaisons enrich the networks including police officers and non-profit program coordinators.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
No
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What impact have you had?
Approximately 250 words left (2000 characters).
Problem
Approximately 150 words left (1200 characters).
Actions
Approximately 150 words left (1200 characters).
Results
Approximately 150 words left (1200 characters).
What will it take for your project to be successful over the next three years? Please address each year separately, if possible.
Approximately 300 words left (2400 characters).
What would prevent your project from being a success?
Approximately 250 words left (2000 characters).
How many people will your project serve annually?
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Does your project seek to have an impact on public policy?
Sustainability
What stage is your project in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Is your organization a
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
If yes, provide organization name.
Neighbors For Neighbors, Inc.
How long has this organization been operating?
Does your organization have a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board?
Yes
Does your organization have a non-monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have a non-monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have a non-monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how these partnerships are critical to the success of your innovation.
On October 24, 2009, Mayor Thomas Menino, Police Commissioner Ed. Davis, and Joseph Porcelli, our Chief Executive Neighbor, announced a formal partnership where Boston Police Captains, Community Service Officers, and Neighborhood Coordinators from the Mayor's Office will be using our networks to engage their constituents – our members.
What are the three most important actions needed to grow your initiative or organization?
We need to secure capital to hire staff, purchase equipment, and cover operational expenses. Capital is also needed to expand and share our model with other cities that could benefit from these services.
We need develop communications and engagement strategy to teach our member what they can do and how they can do it on our network to have their visions become action for the community.
We need to continue to pursue and formalize partnerships with other municipalities to earn revenue to sustain our operation and full our on mission in other municipalities.
The Story
What was the defining moment that you led to this innovation?
In August of 2004, after two of my neighbors where violently assaulted, I set out to raise crime prevention awareness in my neighborhood. I had no idea that his desire to increase safety would change the course of my life how technology can used by neighborhoods to solve problems and facilitate grass roots innovation. At the time, all I knew to do was too keep asking “what should we do next?” That’s how Neighbors for Neighbors stumbled onto our “mechanism to keep people involved after the threat has gone.”
Today, Neighbors for Neighbors, Inc., is a federally recognized 501c3. In Jamaica Plain, our efforts have brought together thousands of residents, inspired the creation and promotion of over 140 social activity clubs and service projects, and have linked neighbors to over 100 local non-profits. Our “flagship product”, the neighborhood-centric Social Network for Jamaica Plain enjoys over 1,600 members with over 40,000 page views per month by over 8,000 unique visitors.
After years of struggling to find a suitable technology to keep our members actively engaged and contributing to each other between events, we finally discovered Ning.com, a social networking platform. Ning makes it possible for our users (neighbors) to be organizers and simultaneously removes us as bottlenecks.
Currently, we’re providing and managing 18 networks, one for each of Boston’s neighborhoods. The networks serve as a neighborhood-centric soundboard for voices and a springboard for action. Neighbors connect to each other and resources (like their Neighborhood Coordinator, Community Service Officer, and nonprofit outreach coordinators) and discover and organize around common interests (like biking, planting trees, addressing crime, and helping those in need).
Tell us about the social innovator behind this idea.
Joseph is an online and offline community builder committed to connect, support, and inspire people, organizations, and government to realize the difference they can make when they take action, work together, and leverage social media. Over the last 10 years, Joseph has worked as a Senior Associate for a CRM consulting firm where he provided consulting and training services, and substantially increased new and referral business four-fold. Working as a Program Coordinator for the Boston Police Department, he created new programmatic organizing models that contributed to a resulted in double-digit decreases in crime while simultaneously doubling program participation. Joseph directed Online Operations and Partnerships for the ServiceNation legislative campaign that tripled funding for Americorps. Currently Joseph serves as the Chief Executive Neighbor at NeighborsForNeighbors.org which operates the nation’s first neighborhood-centric urban social networks, connecting and empowering thousands of Bostonians and those who serve them, to increase interaction, grass roots innovation, and problem solving capacity.
Joseph is also co-founder and organizer of The Mug Project (winner of Mayor Menino’s 2009 Green Residential Waste Reduction Champion Award) and founder and organizer of The Nametag Project which resulted in 19,000 people wearing a nametag for a day in 2007 and Nametag Day at Fenway Park in July 14, 2007.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
If through another, please provide the name of the organization or company
Brian Reich
 | 113 weeks agoBre Booren said: I also think this is a good idea and could you specifically link it to maternal health somehow? If you made it a network of maternal ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 117 weeks agoJake Miller said: Interesting website, however, does it offer anything that facebook or other social networking sites aren't able to offer? Also, what ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 124 weeks agoJoseph Porcelli updated this Competition Entry. |
| 124 weeks agoJoseph Porcelli submitted this idea. |
