Get Ready for Neighbour Day 27th March 2022

Have you heard of Neighbour Day? The inaugural Neighbour Day launched in Melbourne in 2003 as an opportunity to “check on your neighbour”. Andrew Heslop, who continues to be a key Neighbour Day Ambassador, brought about the initial concept of Neighbour Day after the remains of an elderly woman were found inside her suburban home. Mrs Elsie Brown lay deceased for two years, forgotten by her neighbours, friends and family.

Neighbour Day began in recognition of the impact loneliness, and lack of social connection has broadly on an individual, as well as community.

Relationships Australia became the custodian of Neighbour Day in 2014 and the day has since grown into an ongoing, year -round social connection campaign that seeks to address loneliness across Australia.

Independent evaluations show that people who get involved in Neighbour Day experience improvements to their mental health and wellbeing and reduced feelings of loneliness. Some key outcomes of the independent evaluations show:

• as a result of the support networks fostered by Neighbour Day, respondents reported improvements to mental health and wellbeing (2020 report)
• respondent’s levels of loneliness show statistically significant reductions six months on from Neighbour Day (2020 report)
• Neighbour Day creates enhanced perceptions of their neighbourhood environment – evaluations show a significant positive change in perceptions of their neighbourhood quality after involvement in the campaign (2019 report)
• Neighbour Day improves people’s sense of belonging - evaluations show a significant positive change in sense of belonging after involvement in the campaign (2019 report).

You can get involved in Neighbour Day by hosting an event to draw your neighbours together. This might be something as simple as a morning or afternoon tea where everyone brings something to share. Find out more here: https://neighbourday.org/get-involved/

• Topics:

• Community
• People