Plan a Block Party for National Night Out

As the founder and president of EBS Security in Jacksonville, FL, I know how important community is. A strong community is a safer community. When you know your neighbors, you keep your community and property safe. Next month is National Night Out, an annual event that takes place the first Tuesday in August.

What is National Night Out?

National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live. National Night Out enhances the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement while bringing back a true sense of community. Furthermore, it provides a great opportunity to bring police and neighbors together under positive circumstances.

Millions of neighbors take part in National Night Out across thousands of communities from all fifty states, U.S. territories and military bases worldwide on the first Tuesday in August (Texas celebrates on the first Tuesday in October). Neighborhoods host block parties, festivals, parades, cookouts and various other community events with safety demonstrations, seminars, youth events, visits from emergency personnel, exhibits and much, much more.

Host a Block Party

Hosting a block party couldn’t be more easy. Grab a couple of your neighbors, the ones who like to help organize things, and get to work planning this yearly community event. It’s not to late either! You’ll need to do some planning but with a little help you should be able to pull it off without a hitch.

Choose the Date

Most communities have their block party on the official National Night Out date of August 7th, but you don’t have to. For some, it might be better to have the block party on the weekend. Check with your neighbors and choose the date that works for most of your community.

Design a Flyer

Let everyone on your block know about the party. The easiest way to do that is to create a flyer and deliver to each neighbor. You can build a flyer from scratch using Word or you can download this handy and free block party flyer template and customize it to your specifics.

Sign Up Sheet

While you’re at it, be sure to create a sign up sheet for your neighbors to leave their contact info including email address and cell phone numbers. It doesn’t have to be fancy, a tablet and pen will suffice.

Food

A pot luck is a great way to go for block parties. That way everyone participates and there’s a wide variety of food options. You can provide a grill or two and neighbors can grill up their own meat or you can designate one of your neighbors for the honor of grill master.

Neighborhood Webpage

Many communities now use Facebook and NextDoor to host their community websites. You can create a private page for those who live on your block. This is a handy place for neighbors to keep up do date on all that is going on in the community.

Other Things to Consider

To keep homes safe and secure, you may want to enforce a bathroom policy of everyone uses their own bathroom. Encourage children to help clean up by providing a prize for those who help. Provide name tags.

A block party is a great way to keep in contact with older neighbors, meet new neighbors and provide a strong sense of community in your neighborhood.