Neighbor announcements

Neighborhood Mini-Grant Already Being Awarded

A story on KY3 provided the grant program being offered by Greene County MU Extension for neighborhoods. The story did not say these grants were only for pilot neighborhoods so we get lots of calls!

The extension council agreed to expand the number of grants given as long as the application came from a Greene County neighborhood, involved at least two neighbors, and was payment for actual expenses.

Here are the applications approved to date:

Millstone Crossing, Springfield

Neighborhood party and networking event.

Mission Hills

Cul-de-sacs picnic with food trucks.

Thousand Oaks, Springfield

Neighborhood block party.

Woodfield Park, Springfield

Ice cream social for neighborhood.

Saint Andrews, Springfield

Meet your neighbor party.

Stoney Creek Estates, Republic

Prizes for "I Love America" kids parade.

Town & Country Estates, Springfield

During week of Sept. 28 — Neighborhood event with a shred truck set up.

Vintage Hills, Springfield

Halloween event: chili cookoff in clubhouse and neighborhood stations passing out candy to the kids as part of a haunted trail!

Delaware Neighborhood, Springfield

Ice cream social with prizes.

See the engaged neighbor page on extension website for a link to the grant application.

Halloween is a Very Good Neighboring Opportunity

No holiday brings the neighbors and their children outside like Halloween. In fact, it will bring many of them to your front door!

I recently interviewed Chris McKinney of Columbia, Mo. He worked to get residents of his neighborhood motivated to set up driveway treat stations. In just one year it turned their neighborhood in to “the place to go” for Halloween.

Here are some other ideas on ways to get your neighborhood engaged at Halloween.

1. Roast marshmallows and make S’mores with a fire pit on the front driveway. Fun and pretty 2. Create a Trick-or-Treater warm-up station.

Think warm drinks with this one. 3. Decorate spooky cookies. Kids basically decorate their own treat! 4. Grill up burgers and hotdogs for adults that are out with their kids and set up some harvestthemed yard games for the kids that stop. 5. Paint pumpkins. Let the kids have a heyday. 6. Halloween Movie Night. Project on your garage door or a screen and provide chairs or drinks for people who stop and watch. 7. Serve some chili to those stopping by your house. Or maybe just a good soup. 8. Decorate your car trunk and set on the driveway or near the sidewalk to hand out candy and interact with your neighbors.

Pilot neighborhoods can get $250 grants for this type of project. But every neighborhood needs sparkplug. Spread the word among your neighbors and encourage them to up their game this year!

Learning Neighboring Examples on Facebook Page

Follow our “Becoming An Engaged Neighbor” page on Facebook for regular examples of neighboring across the Midwest. Learn from the examples of others. See the impact neighboring can make on your quality of life. Also be the first to learn about local neighboring classes and events and grants offered by MU Extension

Receive Neighboring Overview Packet

Complete a short questionnaire to receive our popular 100-plus page informational packet about the neighboring program (including a literature review) sent to you by email as a PDF. 10 questions on this survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/EngagedNeighborOverview or at https://extension.missouri.edu/counties/greene/neighboring-project