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What’s the best story you’ve heard about the benefits of community sharing? There are so many! One of my favourite stories is from Marie who has used Streetbank for a few different things, including giving a hi-fi away and helping someone to restring a guitar. Marie’s son is autistic and his favourite thing to do is to fast-forward and rewind video tapes, which takes a bit of a toll on the machine and the videos. So she put a call out for videos and has been given loads – it has restored her faith in her community. When people join Streetbank and have a positive experience of their neighbours, it changes their perception of their community. Is there anything we can learn from Streetbank about loving the neighbours we have who don’t live so nearby? I think there are two main things; the first is environmental. If you think about buying an electric drill, made somewhere half way across the world, and all the
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© Streetbank
Community is the hope for our nation; to live in community is cheaper, good for the environment and means you connect with those around you energy that is required to produce and transport that to you, it’s enormous. Borrowing an electric drill generates zero carbon emissions. The second thing is that it gives you a taste for giving. There’s a pleasure in lending or giving something to somebody and seeing the response, and that encourages us to be more generous generally and live more openly. What would you say to someone thinking ‘this won’t work where I live’? In life, most of the best things involve a little bit of risk. Getting to know a neighbour takes a small risk, but I see it paying off richly time and time again. Start by just smiling at your neighbour – you might be surprised at how great they are.
Check out streetbank.com and share what you have to offer. You might gain more than you expect.
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