Get Involved with Your Neighbors During Hi Neighbor Month

A person pushing a doorbell button.

December is Hi Neighbor Month.

Social connections are important to your personal health preparedness. The relationships we build with others are ties that bind during an emergency. One of the more important social connections you can make is with your neighbors.

The Importance of Neighbors

Neighbors can be an important source of assistance in the days after an emergency. Because they live close—maybe even next door—neighbors might be your first and best option for help after a tornado or during something like a power outage.

Research shows that people who think they’re prepared for disasters often aren’t as prepared as they think. Forty-six percent of people surveyed by FEMA expect to rely heavily on their neighbors for help within the first 72 hours after an emergency.(1)

Yes, ask your neighbors for help if you need it, but—if possible—try to be the helper. The more prepared neighbors are to meet the basic and personal needs of their families on their own, the more resilient the community.

Be a Good Neighbor

There’s no science to being a good neighbor. But there are things you can do to create a feeling of community where you live. Here are some neighborly suggestions on how you can build trust with your neighbors.

  • Introduce yourself. A survey conducted by Pew Research Center in 2018 found that most Americans (57%) knew only some of their neighbors.(2) Starting an initial introduction with neighbors you don’t know can help them and you feel more comfortable about asking for help.
  • Show kindness. Look for small ways you can be kind to your neighbors. For example, offer to watch their house, collect mail, put out trash cans, or water their yard while they are on vacation.(3)
  • Be a responsible pet owner. Use a leash in public and clean up after them properly. Cleaning up after your dog helps to keep the environment clean and reduces the risk of diseases spreading to people and other animals.(4)
  • Lead by example. Pick a regular time to take a walk around the neighborhood. Use your walk to meet new neighbors and model community-minded behaviors, such as picking up trash or litter.(3)

Other simple ways to build goodwill with neighbors include maintaining the exterior of the house and lawn, keeping the noise down, and respecting property lines and personal space.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors

People who live in communities in which members are regularly involved in each other’s lives are more empowered to help one another after an emergency.(5) Here are some ways you can get involved in your community.

  • Offer to help your neighbors, especially older adults and people who live alone or with a disability or chronic disease or rely on electricity-dependent equipment, prepare for emergencies. You can offer to help them collect supplies, sign up for evacuation assistance, and collect and protect important paperwork.
  • Join neighborhood groups on social networking sites.
  • Volunteer with an organization active in disaster, such as your local Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) Unit or Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).
  • Emergency plan with neighbors. Just 13% of respondents to FEMA’s 2021 National Household Survey said they plan with neighbors.(6) But involving trusted neighbors in your emergency action planning can help improve your resilience. At a minimum and if possible, exchange contact information so you can reach each other in an emergency.

Learn more ways to prepare your health for emergencies.

Resources

References

  1. https://www.ready.gov/neighbors
  2. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/05/22/how-urban-suburban-and-rural-residents-interact-with-their-neighbors/
  3. https://www.apachejunctionaz.gov/
  4. https://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/pets/dogs.html
  5. https://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/planning/abc/Pages/community-resilience.aspx
  6. https://fema-community-files.s3.amazonaws.com/2021-National-Household-Survey.pdf

 

Thanks in advance for your questions and comments on this Public Health Matters post. Please note that CDC does not give personal medical advice. If you are concerned you have a disease or condition, talk to your doctor.

Have a question for CDC? CDC-INFO (http://www.cdc.gov/cdc-info) offers live agents by phone and email to help you find the latest, reliable, and science-based health information on more than 750 health topics.

Photographers Capture the Great Outdoors in Miniature Masterpieces

A collage of staged photos created by several Instagram users. The photos use toys and food to recreate scenes in nature.
Following stay-at-home orders, professional and amateur photographers, including (from left) @stevint, @Erinoutdoors (top), @mikerigney (bottom), @Erinoutdoors, @albakerphoto (top), and @Erinoutdoors (bottom), used food, minifigures, and other household items to recreate scenes from nature that they then shared on Instagram with the hashtag #OurGreatIndoors.

In observance of National Preparedness Month, the Center for Preparedness and Response (CPR) will publish posts in September that highlight ways people and organizations are helping to “create community” where they live.

This student-authored post is published by CPR in partnership with Medill News Service and the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of CPR or CDC.

When outdoor photographers stay indoors, anything can happen. A climb across pancake mountaintops drenched in maple syrup. A trek through baking soda snow in rosemary winter wonderlands. A paddle down huckleberry rivers in ice cream sundae canyons.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, photographers are having to find new outlets for their creativity. Some have turned to crafting miniature landscapes modeled after the great outdoors.

These mini masterpieces are catching the attention of thousands on social media and inspiring both professional and amateur photographers to try creating tiny worlds of their own. The trend first started with one photographer’s curiosity and creativity.

As a full-time travel photographer, Erin Sullivan (@Erinoutdoors on Instagram) spent about a third of her time on the road. When travel shut down in February, Sullivan found a new way to bring the great outdoors into her Los Angeles apartment.

“When I was little and couldn’t fall asleep at night, I used to imagine little adventures under my sheets,” Sullivan said. “I would look at the scale of things and imagine, ‘what if I could shrink myself and go on an adventure here.’”

Following stay-at-home orders, Sullivan thought about how to push herself creatively and stay connected to travel without leaving her apartment. She challenged herself to create believable outdoor scenes using household items and model train figurines.

Sullivan’s creative process began with a rough sketch of the landscape. Next, she headed to the pantry to find foods or recognizable objects, and finally put it all together into one flavorful photo.

“The landscapes do not necessarily replicate the exact place, but the feeling or emotions I had when I was there,” Sullivan said.

Following her first miniature photograph in March, Sullivan challenged viewers to create their own indoor adventure with the hashtag #OurGreatIndoors. Since then, her Instagram following has nearly tripled.

With attention from across the globe, little did she know these miniature figure photographs would change her world in a big way.

Inspired by Sullivan, Stevin Tuchiwsky (@stevint) staged miniature outdoor landscapes from his home in Calgary, Alberta. The #OurGreatIndoors post challenged him to replicate some of his past outdoor photographs of Banff National Park, Cape Breton Island, and the Silfra dive site.

Tuchiwsky’s favorite miniature figure photographs captured a deep-sea dive from his bathtub. With his camera protected in a fish tank, he built the scene with rocks from a nearby river and toweling from his linen cabinet.

“One of the best parts of photographing the miniature figurines was getting creative and improvising with what I had around the house,” said Tuchiwsky, a civil-engineer technologist and outdoor lifestyle photography hobbyist.

The miniature photograph recreated a visit to Iceland and brought back a lot of memories for him. “Especially during the pandemic, people can use creativity and the outdoors as an outlet to alleviate stress and showcase their inner selves through art,” Tuchiwsky said.

Miniature figure photography also brought back memories for Al Baker (@albakerphoto), a freelance landscape photographer in Las Vegas. Sullivan’s photographs resurfaced childhood memories of building model baseball stadiums, and he decided to give the #OurGreatIndoors challenge a try.

For Baker’s favorite photograph, the creative process began with gathering and crafting each element in the mini-scape. He tried to get as detailed as possible, even searching for a toy whale that was to scale with the miniature diver.

When it was time to shoot, Baker set up the tripod and camera and used a telephoto lens to adjust the depth of field and compress the background. With the frame positioned, Baker goes back and forth between the camera and the scene to place figurines.

“My favorite part is making the scenes as realistic as possible and when I finish the photo, my imagination just comes to life,” Baker said.

For Mike Rigney (@mikerigney) a marine engineer and outdoor photography hobbyist, the creative process involved less planning and more experimenting.

Living on a boat in San Diego didn’t offer much space for his miniature landscape photography with all the props and tiny figures. But after messing around with bubble wrap packaging remnants, Rigney found inspiration to create one of his favorite miniature photographs of a Mendenhall ice cave.

However, in some cases, the places exist only in his imagination. “As a photographer, these miniatures are an opportunity to take photos exactly how I want to and ‘travel’ to places I’ve never been before,” Rigney said.

For many photographers, miniature landscape photography is a great way to practice mindfulness.

Dr. Don (DJ) Stanley (@djstanleyphoto), a chiropractor in Moorpark, Calif., said both hobbies and the outdoors are very supportive of emotional and mental health, which is especially important during the pandemic. Outdoor experiences have health benefits such as lowering anxiety, lowering blood pressure, and improving overall wellness, Stanley said.

“The healing aspect of the outdoors is very prevalent and meaningful in my life,” Dr. Stanley said. “Even though I am not accessing the outdoors as much as I did before the pandemic, I am still able to connect with both nature and creativity through my photography.”

This trend is even starting to positively impact businesses that sell model figurines. In the model railroad industry, sales typically slow down over the summer and peak during the holiday season. But over the past few months, both experienced modelers and newcomers to the hobby have had more time to channel their creativity while in quarantine.

Paul Christel, co-owner of a model railroading business, said online sales tripled in March and April this year. Another online model train retailer store estimated quadruple sales compared to all summer seasons prior and sold more in April than any other Christmas season.

The model figurine business will likely continue to grow since many photographers said they plan to work on their miniature masterpieces, even after they return to traveling.

Sullivan said she hopes the miniature figurines can tag along on her adventures and add to her travel photography. But right now, she has some ideas that she’ll revisit when she’s ready … or hungry for more.

Home Health Program Seeks to Improve Access to Support Services, Information

A male paramedic performs a health check outside on a man sitting in a chair.
Paramedics bring visual and educational materials and equipment to check patients’ vitals, conduct blood tests, and administer EKGs during Mobile Integrated Healthcare Program home visits. This photo was taken in 2016 before the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo credit: JOHN STARKS/DAILY HERALD, 2016)

In observance of National Preparedness Month, the Center for Preparedness and Response (CPR) will publish posts in September that highlight ways people and organizations are helping to “create community” where they live.

This student-authored post is published by CPR in partnership with Medill News Service and the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of CPR or CDC.

Paramedics in Elgin, Ill., stop at the home of an elderly man who was recently discharged from the hospital for uncontrolled diabetes. They first check the man’s vitals, including blood pressure and blood sugar levels, and then review information about his condition and treatment plan with him.

As part of the Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH) Program at Advocate Sherman Hospital, a free support program offered primarily to elderly patients with chronic diseases who need additional home health support, these paramedics are helping to narrow the health literacy gap.

Paramedics use weekly one-on-one home visits to help optimize health outcomes among community residents whose low levels of health literacy could put them at increased risk of getting COVID-19. CDC defines health literacy as an individual’s ability to understand basic health information and services to make informed health decisions.

Beyond providing sources of information, MIH paramedics bring a personal touch, serving as an additional support system for patients. This is part of the reason why Sara Larson, a nurse at Elgin Family Physicians, refers patients to the program.

“This program makes patients feel like someone cares about them,” said Larson. “It makes a big difference to see patients’ realities in their homes and adapt their care accordingly.”

Home visits are also opportunities for patients to review their health information and ask questions outside of the hospital, she added.

MIH works with patients who have been hospitalized at least once for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, asthma, pneumonia, or heart failure. It is the only hospital-based paramedicine program in the state.

Tina Link, manager of community outreach at Advocate Sherman and MIH program director, said the program was started to reduce the number of visits to emergency departments for issues that could be managed at home. Issues such as getting prescription refills and not knowing what medication to take.

“There’s a knowledge deficit,” she said. “Some patients don’t know where to go or who to ask. But they know the hospital is open and someone will take care of them.”

Paramedics teach patients how to navigate the health care system so they can understand their conditions and make informed decisions about their care. The goal of the program is to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions and decrease costs.

Last year, MIH successfully lowered hospital readmission rates for their program participants by 58%, according to data provided by Advocate Sherman.

The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the importance of this program. Both the elderly and patients with certain underlying medical conditions are at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19, according to CDC.

“Especially with COVID-19, we don’t want people in the hospital who don’t need to be here,” said Jill League, community wellness coordinator at Advocate Sherman, who actively oversees the MIH program. “We want our patients to know how to control their condition so that they can stay home, stay healthy, and have a better quality of life.”

In the five years since the program’s establishment, Link and League agree this year is one of the most impactful. After the onset of the pandemic in March, they said they immediately integrated COVID-19 information into MIH’s curriculum. Paramedics cover COVID-19 signs and symptoms, safety guidelines, and how to self-quarantine.

Program participants have been responsive to this mission. Link said she has noticed patients becoming more conscious of their health and behaviors. They acknowledge that their medical history may put them at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 and are eager to work with the paramedics to better understand their health.

“COVID-19 does not just target a certain population,” said Link. “It’s new for everyone and we’re all at risk, so we’re all in this together.” The universality of the pandemic encouraged patients not only to keep themselves healthy but also to protect their neighbors.

MIH has navigated the barriers of limited mobility and uncertainty this summer to offer patients safe, personalized health care in their own homes. Paramedics wear appropriate personal protective equipment and follow proper hygiene protocols between home visits, as recommended by the CDC.

Advocate Sherman’s intervention has not only successfully improved health literacy in Elgin but also has bridged together providers and patients to shape a resilient, well-informed community during these unprecedented times.

Hero Hobbyist: Student Prints Face Shields for Special Education Organization

Boy holds up a face shield he made on a 3D printer

In observance of National Preparedness Month, the Center for Preparedness and Response (CPR) will publish posts in September that highlight ways people and organizations are helping to “create community” where they live.

This student-authored post is published by CPR in partnership with Medill News Service and the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of CPR or CDC.

Twelve-year-old Vince Radlicz quickly morphed his 3D printer into a face shield-maker in March, spurred by the needs of a neighbor and nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

As cases continued to rise, he didn’t rest until hundreds of his creations had been delivered to hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care facilities across the city and its suburbs free of charge.

“Some of them went as far as California. It kind of snowballed after we first started doing it,” said Vince. He added that it felt amazing to help people just by doing something he loves.

An incoming seventh-grader at South Middle School in Arlington Heights, Vince received the printer as a Christmas gift two years ago and quickly honed his 3D skills through an assortment of projects ranging from making miniature cars to game pieces.

“One time Vince made some game pieces for a game that allowed only four players,” recalled his mother, Donna Radlicz. “We have six people in our family, and he made two more sets of game pieces so the whole family could play.”

Now he makes only plastic face shields that cover the whole face, protecting health care workers and anyone else who uses them (in combination with a mask) from not only spreading germs but also from exposure to germs from others.

This summer, the Northwest Suburban Special Education Organization (NSSEO) joined that list of clients and asked him to make an additional 100 face shields for staff and students at their various partner schools to wear once classes begin in the fall.

Most people with disabilities are not inherently at increased risk of becoming infected with or having severe illness from COVID-19. According to CDC, however, the risk might be increased for people who have limited mobility or who cannot avoid coming into close contact with others who may be infected, as well as for people who have trouble understanding information or practicing preventative measures like handwashing and social distancing.

“Some students are in wheelchairs, some are in diapers, and some need assistance with feeding,” said NSSEO assistant superintendent Julie Jilek. “We’re looking at using face shields in combination with face masks to provide that little extra protection when we do have to break that barrier to work with students.”

NSSEO superintendent Judy Hackett said her organization has provided programming in Illinois for more than 50 years to students with severe disabilities that occur in less than 1% of students in the U.S. Unfortunately because these students’ needs are so significant, it’s sometimes difficult for educators to maintain the 6-foot social distancing that is recommended during the pandemic, she said.

Many of those students might also have compromised immune systems. Hackett said the organization always strives to provide a safe learning environment, but the pandemic has “put an accent mark on the fragility of life” and emphasized how important it is to customize safety measures to each student’s needs.

Using his own 3D printer and one borrowed from the Arlington Heights Memorial Library where his mother works, Vince first 3D-printed a frame for each of the face shields. The rest of the construction had to be done by hand. In a makeshift assembly line strewn across his family’s kitchen counter, he hole-punched clear plastic sheets from an office supply store, snapped them into place on each frame, and fastened everything together with two rubber bands around the back.

Nearly a month had passed by the time Vince finished the 100th face shield for NSSEO, but he was modest about the undertaking.

“A lot of it is automatic, so we don’t really have to do half of the work,” he said.

When he first began making face shields, it took three hours to 3D-print each frame. After a few tweaks, he’s now able to churn one out in a third of that time.

Joy Borkowski, a nurse from the Miner School in Arlington Heights—one of NSSEO’s programs—reached out to Vince’s family to request face shields after she saw a post in their town’s Facebook group. Though she had never met Vince, some of the students within Vince’s school district go to her school.

“I think it was a little closer to home for him to know that some of the face shields were for kids with disabilities in his own neighborhood,” she said.

Borkowski said that Vince refused payment for his work, despite several attempts to convince him otherwise. He donated any money that did find its way to him, including what NSSEO gave him to cover the cost of materials, to Mount Sinai Hospital to provide lunches for the staff.

Borkowski, who has sewed nearly 3,300 masks herself during the pandemic, is not one to take no for an answer, however. As a personal thank-you, she gave Vince a homemade face mask with the logo of his favorite baseball team—the Chicago Cubs.

Along with the completed face shields Vince sent to NSSEO in August, Vince included a handwritten note with directions and a small diagram showing how to wear them.

“We find him to be a great inspiration,” said Hackett. “We spend much of our time and emphasis on helping students find their voice, passion, and life’s work . . . and Vince shows that in his work ethic at such a young age.”

Jilek added that her organization struggled to find reasonably priced personal protective equipment that would arrive before the start of school. She said it was particularly challenging because school districts across the country were trying to buy the same items at the same time.

That is until they met Vince.

“The pandemic has been devastating to so many families who have lost loved ones, and to our economy,” said Hackett. “But there are silver linings in people like Vince who have stepped up and said, ‘How can I help others in my community during this?’”

Give & Take Bins Serve as Small-Scale Food Pantries

A person reaches into a plastic bin filled with nonperishable food and other supplies

In observance of National Preparedness Month, the Center for Preparedness and Response (CPR) will publish posts in September that highlight ways people and organizations are helping to “create community” where they live.

This student-authored post is published by CPR in partnership with Medill News Service and the Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of CPR or CDC.

Customers stared at Beatriz Echeverría in the grocery store. She filled her cart with vegetable oil, rice, beans, and other foods, conscious of looking like a hoarder stocking up to weather the pandemic. By the time she and her son, Nacho Pavón, piled all their goods into their car, the haul filled the trunk.

But they weren’t hoarding. Echeverría and her son were redistributing the items around the city of Evanston, just north of Chicago, through a system of mini-food pantries housed in boxes called Give and Take Bins.

“This is a good, practical thing that you can do in your spare time,” said Echeverría, an Evanston resident. “You know it’s effective because you’re actually filling the bins and you’re actually going to the store to get the food.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down much of the country in March, Evanston neighbors and activists created the network of bins to support growing needs in the community. These weather-proof containers placed on porches, in yards, and at schools are filled by volunteers who donate food, cleaning supplies, menstrual products, and other necessities. Anyone may take items from the box, free of charge.

Evanston, like Chicago, is located in Cook County, where more than one in 10 people were food insecure before the pandemic, according to 2018 data from Feeding America. Food insecurity spiked nationwide, however, as a result of COVID-19. Relative to predicted rates for March, food insecurity doubled in April and tripled in households with children, reported an analysis from the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University.

“I feel like the need is there,” said Stephanie Mendoza, a facilitator of the Give and Take Bins program. “There’s a huge need.”

The existing need grew as COVID-19 shut down some local food pantries run by seniors, a population that is at increased risk for severe illness from the virus. Some people couldn’t go to grocery stores, and those who could often encountered empty shelves, said Michele Hays, another program facilitator.

The Give and Take Bins were a “more nimble way” to get food and other necessities to neighbors in need, Hays said. Volunteers spread the word about these bins through a Facebook page that Mendoza advertised in local parenting, COVID-19 support, and Latinx Facebook groups. There’s also a Google map showing all the bins’ locations, and a QR code to the map is placed on some of the bins.

To find out what items people most needed, Hays conducted an informal poll in her mutual aid group and came up with a list of suggested donations. Volunteers may print that list and attach it to the bins. Now, with about 25 boxes placed around the city, a box is within “at least a few blocks’ walking distances for just about most people,” Mendoza said. Based on census data, Hays suggested locations for new bins, such as near the parking lot of the local high school.

Anyone may fill the bins; anyone may take from the bins. Volunteers emphasize stocking bins with culturally specific foods in certain areas.

“We would buy, I don’t know, like Sazonador, which is a typical Latin American seasoning. We would buy pinto beans. We would buy things that were very specific of certain groups,” Echeverría said. “People, if given a chance, they’ll take the foods they’re used to.”

While there’s a large need for food, Mendoza said the items that disappear quickest from the bin on her front porch are menstrual products, soap, and toilet paper. These can’t be bought with a SNAP card or Illinois Link card, and they’re often not found at food pantries, either.

“Folks who get food stamps can’t use that money to buy cleaning supplies. They can only use it for food,” said Alyce Barry, a volunteer who manages a box near her home.

Barry recalls starting a bin as soon as she heard about them. Though Hays said she’s received reports that bins are being used less, Barry said her bin is seeing more traffic now than it did earlier this year. She wishes, however, that there was a way to know for sure what the individuals using her bin need, rather than being so distant.

“Before the pandemic, I was of the opinion that ways like this of helping the community weren’t a very good idea because they are so detached,” Barry said. “Racism and a lot of other social ills are the results of people who have being distant from the people who don’t, and this is just another way of being distant. But unfortunately, with the pandemic, that all changed.”

Volunteers also keep their distance to respect the privacy of their neighbors who use the boxes. Barry hasn’t spoken to anyone who uses her bin, because she doesn’t want to embarrass them. Mendoza once saw a family taking items from her bin as she was arriving home, but she said she kept driving down the street as if the house wasn’t hers.

Hays and Mendoza said this program has grown “organically,” fueled by the passion, generosity, and ingenuity of volunteers and community members who often solve problems without supervision to keep everything running smoothly. They insist the program doesn’t require a lot of central coordination and that it’s easy to participate in something like this.

“Anybody can do it. You don’t even have to be in Evanston,” Hays said. “You can do it wherever you are just with stuff that you have in-house — whatever the bin is that you have in your basement that you store stuff in.”

Once boxes are set up, volunteers don’t even need extra income to be what Hays and Mendoza call a “box fairy,” or someone who fills a bin with donations, unbeknownst to the facilitators.

“To be a box fairy, you don’t even necessarily have to buy things, you can just go around and take stuff out of the [bins] that are full and put them into the ones that are empty,” Hays said.

The Give and Take Bins program isn’t without its flaws — occasionally, bins go missing and have to be replaced. Most bins hold only non-perishables, though there are a couple of coolers. Fresh food placed in the bins often spoils, and volunteers remove those items.

Still, the bins are having an impact: They continue to be emptied — and filled. Volunteers see the impact in small ways. Hays met a man at the local homelessness organization drop-in center and he said he had used the box at her house. Once, her neighbor came over to take a few things as she was filling the bin. Someone wrote a thank-you note on a torn-off corner of a shopping bag and left it in a box.

In early July, Mendoza’s children left some chalk on her front steps. When she went outside, she noticed someone had written a chalk message on the lid of her bin: “Gracias.” Finding that, she said, was “just heartwarming.”