The Good Neighbor Project is a community safety program created by Madison Police Officer Emily Samson in 2017. It replaced the city-wide neighborhood watch program and focuses on community-building and neighbor/police partnerships. The program has since been adopted by police departments in other communities in our area and in other states including a very successful program in Davenport, Iowa.
You can find a Good Neighbor Project Starter Kit on MPD’s Good Neighbor Project webpage.
The Good Neighbor Project focuses on the 3 Cs: Connect, Communicate and Come Together. For some ideas for activities and events you can do with several neighbors or an entire neighborhood check out the “Come Together” handout here.
MPD also has a Neighborhood Resource Trailer that residents can rent for free for special events. It includes tables and chairs, a grill, a serving platform and even a microphone, speaker and dry erase board.
To get to know some of the police officers who serve your neighborhood, you can reach out to your MPD police district and invite an officer to attend or speak at a neighborhood meeting. Or you can gather a small group of neighbors together at your home or theirs and have a Fireside Five-Oh with officers.
The key idea of the Good Neighbor Project is that when we get to know the people who live, work and serve in our neighborhoods, we have a stronger sense of belonging and we care about each other. And that makes our neighborhoods safer. It also makes it easier to work together when problems or emergencies arise, or when we are looking for people to help us create new ideas or projects that can help make our community better.
For more information on starting a Good Neighbor Project you can check out the MPD’s Good Neighbor Project webpage.