The Northern Berkshire Community Coalition spoke on empowering neighborhoods.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Getting to know your neighbors — and improving a neigborhood — may be as simple as brewing a pot of coffee.

Empowering neighborhoods was the topic of this month's Northern Berkshire Community Coalition forum. Executive Director Alan Bashevkin said it is critical for individual's health and the health of the entire community too have strong friendly neighborhoods.

"It really is import for our health and community that we really do find ways to connect with each other, and I think it will get us away from all of this bickering and disagreement if we can connect with each other and understand each other," Bashevkin said. "We can find the middle ground and that is what we want to do."

Coalition member Annie Rodgers led the discussion as an associate of the Northern Berkshire Neighbors, a group that focuses on neighborhood development.

She said the group's main goal is to "create healthy communities ... through strong neighborhoods".

"Neighborhood development does not have to be this very large scary thing where you are organizing and having monthly meetings," Rogers said. "It could be as simple has having real healthy solid relationships with the people you live around."

Sally Sussman of Williamstown, one of five panelists sharing their experiences, spoke of her success in creating more unified neighborhood in Forest Grove.

She said she just decided one week to ask her neighbors to Sunday coffee

"I bought Dunkin' Donuts, I plugged in my coffee pot, and I invited my neighbors in," Sussman said. "It was a huge success, and it didn't provide more than that ... it just hit me it was time to become a neighborhood."

Sussman said the Sunday coffee quickly picked up steam.

"We ended up with a kitchen full of food, great conversation, and people who really care about each other," she said. "If you have that in your back of your mind, and you don't know the people in your neighborhood it's as easy as just plugging in the coffee pot."

Jen Downs is a Brayton Hill resident said she moved to the housing project because she was looking for a neighborhood outside an urban center she could feel a part of.

"We definitely are a community, and we do know our neighbors," Downs said. "It has been fundamental for me to feel part of community. I moved here not knowing anyone, and I am completely plugged."

She said she is part of an action committee that holds a weekly coffee club. She said they advocate for safety in the neighborhood and organize events.

Brayton Hill resident Eric Wilson said Downs' efforts has truly made Brayton Hill a better place. He said it is all about setting a good example.

"You really need to be an example; kids see what you do," Wilson said. "You can't just keep saying it you have to do it."

City Councilor Benjamin Lamb represented a new neighborhood group in the West End.

He said it holds monthly meetings aimed on socialization and creating a "cohesive experience" in the neighborhood. He said the group also works on things such as community service, youth engagement, and "crazy ideas like sharing tools."

"I think making that kind of culture shift from just seeing the people when you walk by to actually being able to say 'hi how are you' and having your dogs not bark at each other because they know each other is great," Lamb said. "Simple things like that make you feel like a whole community."

Shirley Davis spoke on behalf of Bracewell Avenue and her activity in her own neighborhood group, UNO. Davis said she moved to Bracwell 60 years ago.

"In the 1980s it started to get real bad. We were all frustrated, nobody wanted to live there, nobody wanted to rent there," Davis said.

She said she started a group that held crime watches and activities for children.

"It was quite a challenge and every time something good happened, I put it into the paper because if enough people knew, the bad reputation would stop," she said.

The floor then opened up to the audience and their reaction to the panel

Gail Kolis-Sellers said the panelists are role models and people should follow in their footsteps.

"This is what it looks like because we can all say 'engage your neighbors,' but what does that look like?" Kolis-Sellers said. "It becomes OK because other people are doing it so why can’t the rest of us?"

Coalition member Jessica Sweeney said this engagement can be simple.

 "It can be as simple as a smile and a wave," she said. "I think we forget that those little tiny things make a difference in engaging with the people around us."

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