[This blog post originally appeared on PBS MediaShift as well as Huffington Post.]
Mention the Internet, and most people think of the World Wide Web, of reaching out across the globe for news, long-lost friends, or low-price bargains. But in dozens of Vermont towns, residents are using the web to connect with their back-fence neighbors. In an era where national and global information is broadly available online, it seems that few of us know our neighbors and what’s going on down the street.
My name is Michael Wood-Lewis, and my wife, Valerie, and I saw an opportunity four years ago and created Front Porch Forum (FPF) to serve our home region in northwest Vermont. Amazingly, nearly half of the state’s largest city now subscribes to FPF. The sense of community here is thriving and winning national recognition, including a 2010 Knight News Challenge award.
Creating Real Neighbors
It’s astounding what a couple minutes per day of neighborhood news and chatter in a person’s inbox can do. People tell me that they lived on their street for years not knowing a soul. Now, since Front Porch Forum kicked in, those familiar strangers have become real neighbors.
Each neighborhood has its own online space and the whole region is blanketed with a network of more than 100 neighborhood forums. People post about lost pets, block parties, car break-ins, plumber recommendations, helping ailing neighbors, local politics, school plays and much more. All ages partake, from seniors in their 80s seeking community support to stay in their homes to teenagers looking for summer jobs.
In one rural area, people used FPF to find a pair of spooked horses who jumped their fence, then pitched in to build a better enclosure as a gift to the owners. In an urban neighborhood, residents rallied around a mother who was assaulted in the park, and eventually got the city to improve safety conditions there. And in a different community, a young family asked for a couple volunteers to help move their household into new digs across the street — 36 neighbors showed up! Not only was the job done quickly, but now this family knows three dozen people in the surrounding blocks.
“This small family business turns the Internet on its head,” says FPF member and University of Vermont associate dean Susan A. Comerford. “The web offers countless ways to waste time, but Front Porch Forum actually pushes people offline and onto the sidewalks to chat with neighbors, face to face.”
And that leads people to get more involved in their communities, as the chat evolves into action. In one survey, an incredible nine out of ten FPF members report becoming more involved in local issues due to this free service.
“Front Porch Forum is a post-modern return to citizen democracy,” says Comerford. “This may well be the most important advance in community development strategies in decades.”
The Knight News Challenge award will allow us to rebuild FPF’s current proof-of-concept software to better provide for our subscribers. We’ll then expand to all 251 towns in Vermont, and prepare to offer Front Porch Forum to communities outside of Vermont in 2011.
I look forward to reporting on our progress here, and I hope to hear from readers in the comments below or via FPF’s website.
Thoughtful words from Melanie in Burlington…
I am so appreciative of Front Porch Forum. It has consistently worked to help us connect with others regarding community issues and activities important to us. We have used it to coordinate and announce community events. We have given away items, sold items, purchased items, found items to borrow, etc., etc. We got our dog via FPF, we found a used ping-pong table via FPF, and we found quality artisans, technicians and workers via FPF. We have asked questions and found resources via FPF. Thank you so much to everyone who participates, and to the creators…
You are welcome, Mel… and thank you!
From a local Vermont police chief…
Front Porch Forum is a great tool for us and many times we can address issues just by “hearing” the tone of a neighborhood. It is especially helpful as the buzz begins about neighborhood or traffic issues. Having the Corporal be a part of all 20 FPF neighborhood forums in our town is a great asset to us when trying to best serve our community.
Thanks to Melinda Moulton for focusing on Front Porch Forum on her CCTV show last night.
Posted today by Colette…
Just wanted to give a big thank you over the Front Porch Forum to the person who mowed my lawn? I really appreciate it. I’ve been asking around to thank you in person, but I still don’t know who you are! So if it was you, again, thanks very much. 🙂
Empowering nearby neighbors with a simple way to communicate awakens an understanding of the power of being connected to those around us. Today on FPF from longtime homeowner Sue in Burlington…
I want to thank the wonderful neighbors, none of whom I’d ever met, with their generous offers of booster chairs. I could start a little day care restaurant! Just to let you know, I’ve borrowed one from Laurie. And I also want to thank Michael and Front Porch Forum for fostering such great neighborhood spirit.
Mel Allen, long-time editor of Yankee Magazine, recently addressed a gathering at Shelburne Farms in Vermont about the importance of local community. I was touched to learn about this piece of his talk…
This September, Yankee marks 75 years. In the publishing world, that’s a pretty big deal. At the heart of what Yankee has written about has always been sense of place — always community.
There hasn’t been a more important story for Yankee over the years than this one: keeping place alive, keeping communities vibrant. And that doesn’t happen without people who care, and people who understand that all of our lives are better when we belong to a place that we care about.
The wonderful Vermont writer Bill McKibben wrote a story in a recent Yankee about the Front Porch Forum, which, as you know, has its roots right here in Burlington. We called it “Making Good Neighbors.” He told about how, through the vision of a few and the power of the Internet, so many of Burlington’s neighborhoods became linked, as if by a town crier who reached out to all. And we received a letter from a South Burlington woman that we published in our new summer issue.
“In my neighborhood,” she wrote, “it enabled us to rally around a young mother who was dying. Because of her illness, she and her husband hadn’t gotten to know many people. With Front Porch Forum, however, we were able to arrange for someone to prepare dinner for this family and deliver it every night for two months before she died, and for several weeks after the funeral. Through Front Porch Forum the family also received a steady stream of cards and notes, and practical help with dog walking, errands, and driving the kids to after-school activities.
“What struck me most,” the writer continued, “was the number of neighbors who expressed appreciation that Front Porch Forum had enabled them to participate in helping this family at a time of profound need. Most people want to be neighborly, but we no longer have the local institutions and the time to do it the way we used to. FPF is a modern community-building tool that has admirably filled the need in the fortunate neighborhoods that have access to it. Many thanks for running the story.”
From Shannon in #BTV #VT…
I am leaving Vermont for a while and regret to close my Front Porch Forum account, but need to simplify my inbox a little. The forum has been great to me, helping me get employment, give and receive all sorts of goods, and keep in tune with what’s happening around me. I will rejoin when I come back! Thanks you for all your great work, keep it up, and I’ll be looking to spread the love FPF has shared with me wherever i may land next 🙂
We get the most lovely “close my account” notes at FPF. Bon voyage Shannon!
From Katie’s posting in her neighborhood Front Porch Forum today…
I’m real jazzed up about a recent FPF interaction I had and I would like to share it with my lovely neighbors. I was recently in need of a bike trailer, so I posted the request to FPF, and got a number of solid replies. (Thanks to all for that!) One woman, Julie, replied that she had an old bike trailer I could have. Have! When I came to get it she told me that she had had it sitting in her garage for a long time, unsure of what to do with it. Enter FPF. Now she has more garage space, I’ve got a bike trailer, and yesterday I took my compost down to the Intervale and did three loads of laundry SANS CAR!! Thanks to Julie, FPF, and all you grand neighbors.
Other benefits… now Katie has met several more of her nearby neighbors, which helps to weave the fabric of community. Along the same lines, all of her neighbors who read FPF got to share in this exchange… a lovely shot in the arm.
Wow! We’re shocked and amazed to find Front Porch Forum among the dozen 2010 Knight News Challenge award winners (out of 2,400 applicants worldwide). I’m sitting at the announcement now, held at MIT in Cambridge, MA. More later. Here’s the news release, and some additional coverage in New York Times, Huffington Post, Seven Days, etc.
Thanks to FPF’s 19,000 subscribing households, to our many supporters, and to the Knight Foundation.
Here’s a video clip of the Knight News Challenge announcement (at 17:20 and at 52:25), including some images about Front Porch Forum.
And here’s a much shorter video clip about FPF from Knight…
Knight News Challenge: Front Porch Forum from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.
Ghost of Midnight is an online journal about fostering community within neighborhoods, with a special focus on Front Porch Forum (FPF). My wife, Valerie, and I founded FPF in 2006... read more