VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION

Speaker 1:
Hi, I’m Jay Height here at Shepherd community. And it’s our plan to re neighbor the hood. You say, “Jay, what does that mean?” In the United States today only 31% of people know their neighbors. That’s a great loss and a detriment to all of our communities. If we don’t know who our neighbor is, the Bible commands us to love our neighbor and you can’t love someone you don’t know. And for us here at Shepherd community, we deal with lots of challenges in our community and our neighbors are doing great things to help each other but we want to intensify that and grow that. We want to re neighbor the hood. We want to help that every block has a champion on it. And that person is connecting with their neighbors.

Speaker 1:
And building this web that says, this is the neighborhood where you want to live. This is a neighborhood that’s safe. We’re not going to put up with the violence. We’re not going to put up with the trash. We’re not going to put up with these abandoned homes. But instead of focusing on the trash or on the home, we’re going to focus on the relationship. And so going forward, you’re going to hear more about this plan to re neighbor the hood, to build community. For Jane and I, we have had a blessing this last year, as we’ve got to know some of our neighbors in a deeper way, delivering food to their houses and standing on their porches, socially distance with mask and talking and praying with each other. It’s been a special year. We’ve got to make deeper friendships, and that needs to happen throughout our community, throughout our neighborhood.

Speaker 1:
I’m not satisfied with 31% of folks knowing their neighbor. I want it to be a hundred percent. And I want to change this neighborhood together. It is the patient of Shepherd to re neighbor the hood. It’s the work each and every day that the great staff and volunteers are doing, but we’ve got to do more. In the days and weeks and years ahead, we have a lot of work. And together we’re going to do that. We know that if we can connect people, that’s going to help us in addressing the mental health issues of our neighbors for many of them. We know that loneliness, ravages our neighbors, as it does folks all over the world. COVID has only made that worse, but we can reconnect and build those relationships that will bring life back and help us re neighbor the hood. That’s our plan and the road to recovery. Won’t you join us?