Neighbours Every Day

Reducing loneliness one community at a time

Neighbours Every Day (NED) formerly Neighbour Day is a year-round national campaign hosted by Relationships Australia that encourages communities to connect with each other to increase belonging and to reduce loneliness. In Tasmania, NED is led by us at RA Tas.

The campaign began on the mainland after the founder was moved by a story of an elderly lady Elsie Brown’s death, where it took two years for her passing to be noticed due to her social isolation. NED was created to reduce isolation in our communities and find ways to promote connection and belonging. The campaign has a National Day of Action, referred to as Neighbour Day, which happens every year on the last Sunday in March. This year it was held on Sunday 26 March.

NED was created to reduce isolation in our communities and find ways to promote connection and belonging.

We partnered with Healthy Tasmania to launch grants where communities could apply for up to $2,000 to support neighbourly activities that create social connections and address loneliness in their community.

The grants were advertised at a grassroots level, targeting neighbourhood community group pages on Facebook, Neighbourhood Houses, Rotary Clubs, Probus Clubs, Men’s Sheds, councils, community service organisations and more.

We received over 120 applications, each with different stories to tell on how the grant money would create social connections and belonging in their communities. Due to the overwhelming response, Healthy Tasmania doubled the funding pool from the initial $30,000 to $60,000.

There were 35 successful grant recipients who were able to implement neighbourly activities ranging from barbeques, community gardens, movie nights, gala days and skateboarding sessions.

The feedback received from grantees was overwhelmingly positive, with many expressing that the events served as the beginning of new friendships and the strengthening of existing ones, which will continue to grow post-event. The feedback highlighted that the positive social impacts of the events extended beyond attendees, with volunteers and organisers also reaping the social benefits.

The event created a space for neighbours to connect and it was lovely to see a mixture of age groups and quite a lot of people that were new to the area who may not have had the opportunity to meet before. The night was largely a social event and many new connections were made, phone numbers exchanged, and people have since caught up separately. There was significant enthusiasm for the community pizza nights to become a regular event and plans are in place for additional events like a clothes swap, a mid-winter feast/Christmas in July potluck dinner.

Grant Recipient – Gardners Bay Community Hub

This format for bringing retired/semi-retired men together for a meal and chat has a very significant effect on men’s well-being. Quite a number of the guests are living on their own due to the loss of their spouse and they all confirmed this event was just what they needed. For many of them, there are very limited opportunities to meet up with old friends and colleagues. If they are not that inclined to initiate meetups themselves (many men fit this category) then their social contact can be limited to family, some close friends and perhaps a local sporting club / community organisation. This event provides reconnection with old work colleagues and the subsequent revisiting of old times, events, and stories. Our hope is that these reconnections can then lead to them contacting each other to arrange meetups, golf games, etc. An example that came to light were 2 men that had played sport together back in the 50’s / 60’s, worked on their respective farms for many years (approximately 10 miles apart) and then retired. Both had intended to look each other up, but never got around to it. This event got them together. Another element of this event is the community support in regard to donations of food items, assisting on the day, etc. A great way to bring community together.

Grant Recipient – Men’s Long Lunch