How to start a neighborhood group chat

A template for community building

View all templates here.

When we moved to our new home this past December, we met a few of the neighbors on our block here and there, but I was itching to accelerate the process of nesting into our neighborhood. So I wrote up a flier inviting people to a WhatsApp group, printed out a stack of copies, and went door-to-door with my toddler dropping them in mailboxes. Forty people eagerly joined, and now we have a thriving culture of grabbing each others’ packages, sharing ingredients, and asking for advice.

A nice bonus: neighbors started going out of their way to introduce themselves to me when they saw me outdoors. (I also keep a running Notes app doc where I jot down the names of people I meet and how I met them.)

Not sure where to start? Here is what our flier said:

[Name of neighborhood or block WhatsApp group]

Hi Neighbors!

If we haven’t met, my name is [name] — I moved to [address] [length of time] ago along with my partner, dog, and two kids. I just wanted to let you know that I’ve created an informal block WhatsApp group. My hope is that this will serve as a way to stay connected and foster community within our little neighborhood. For example:

• Organizing social gatherings

• Borrowing or sharing items (tools, appliances, ingredients etc.)

• Sharing important updates about the block

• Asking for and lending support

• Recommending local services

If this is something that interests you, these are some ways you can join:

• Scan the attached QR code or visit [easily typeable url] from your phone

• Text me at [phone number] and I’ll add you

If you aren’t sure how to access WhatsApp, feel free to text/call me or knock on our door. We’ll be very happy to help you out!

[name]

[phone number] | [address]

Some additional tips:

• Grab the invite url from your group chat platform of choice (we used WhatsApp) and generate a QR code for the flier for easier scanning. There are no shortage of free QR code generators: here’s one.

• For people who might not be as familiar with QR codes, try to include an easy to type url. I dropped the invite link into tinyurl to make a link that included our block name.

• For people who are less familiar with technology, offer help getting them set up.

• If possible, make invites to the group open and add the invite url to the group description for easy access.

• Once neighbors start rolling in, encourage people to introduce themselves (with pictures, if they feel comfortable). Because WhatsApp doesn’t let new people who join the group see past messages, I also pasted the intro messages into a Google Doc and added that to the group description for latecomers.

View the full post with more tips and templates for befriending neighbors and beneighboring friends: