Editor's note: This column discusses sensitive topics such as sexual assault.
Conversation is perhaps the most powerful tool we as humans have. The simple act of speaking with our neighbors increases trust, community security and our own feelings of self-worth.
Last week, I attended the Good Neighbor Initiative Cookout at Chapel Hill’s Hargraves Community Center. Like many college students, I was attracted by the free food and opportunity to catch up with some of my more-involved friends. What I did not realize, however, was just how connected I would feel to the greater Chapel Hill community.
By the end of the evening, I had gleaned wisdom from the town’s elders, played a round of impromptu wiffle ball with local elementary students and line danced with old friends from class, new friends from the barbershop and even one of my computer science professors!
I undoubtedly had plenty of fun, but research compiled by the Center for Community Health and Development at the University of Kansas suggests that the neighborhood interaction facilitated by the cookout produced benefits extending far beyond that singular event.
One of the most important outcomes of increased neighborhood interaction is greater community security. If we know our neighbors well enough to say “hello” in the mornings, we feel physically and psychologically safer, both at home and wandering the streets. Humans have a tendency to preferentially help those they know over mere strangers, and studies have shown that bystanders are more likely to intervene if the victim is a friend.
Today in Chapel Hill we can no longer take the safety of our community for granted. After this month’s sexual assault at Shortbread Lofts, many women are already relying on friends and neighbors to better ensure their safety. The means take different forms — sending a confirmation text at the end of the night, walking friends home or posting safety alerts on the Wildfire app — but their roots all lie in trust for the people we know in our communities.
To be clear, however, I want to avoid the implication that barbecues can fully mitigate sexual assault. Moreover, community connectedness cannot serve as a complete replacement for responsive and respectful law enforcement. But community cohesion, or the simple act of getting to know and trust your neighbors, has been linked to reductions in crime.
Community security is strengthened by positive neighborhood interaction, and more secure communities make it possible for increased high-quality interactions with our neighbors. This reinforcing cycle is facilitated by the creation and maintenance of trust.
