One Neighborhood Decision Eventually Led to City Council For one NLA Grad

Small decisions can lead to big changes.

Many times this is a positive changes although I have seen negative examples, where people's negative choices become a slow fade into something bad.

But in this case it is positive.

Meet Justin Shaw. Justin is one of two council members for Ward 1 (my Ward) in Republic, Mo.

Justin is also a graduate of Neighborhood Leadership Academy.

He shared how efforts to make neighbor connections have impacted his life at a recent Republic City Council meeting.

Read here how one simple decision, led to another, and then another, and then another, and another, and now he is serving on city council.

This is the transcribed discuss and testimony from the Republic City Council meeting on Tuesday May 7, 2024. This confirms the difference that NLA can make in a person's life and in a community. 

Council asked for an update on the neighboring project. They gave me five minutes. I had submitted a written report. When I was done, this happened:

Mayor Franklin: Do we have any other questions from council? Any discussion?

Justin: Yes, I've got a little bit if I could, Mr. Mayor?

Mayor Franklin: Absolutely.

Justin: I met David at the Owen Park neighborhood event that he didn't discuss here, but it's in the packet that he sent us. That was my first experience with any sort of community involvement. I wasn't active in the community. But I got a flier and went to this neighborhood event. It was at that event, where I originally got involved in Rooting Republic, my first volunteer experience. Members were there organizing neighbors to do some work and handing out plants. So I joined that group. I loved it so much, I signed up to also volunteer at Have-A-Blast. Now, bounce house security wasn't quite as fulfilling, [laughter] but I'm still very active with Rooting Republic.

It's from that event I learned about and got involved in the Neighborhood Leadership Academy. My project there is how I found out about the Little Free Library project in Republic, which now I'm also a member of. It's through all of these experiences that I found out about upcoming vacancies on this city council, and I decided to run. If it weren't for that neighborhood event in Owen Park, then I wouldn't be sitting here today. David, thank you. David is working hard to connect neighbors and for me it made a big difference. Thank you to the extension council funding support too. It's really made a difference for me, and I'm happy that I can help.

Mayor Franklin: Thank you, Justin. Thanks for sharing that.

David: That's a perfect example of neighbor connections. It sounds strange to some, but as a nation, we're very disconnected in that area, and the majority of people don't even know the names of their neighbors. When you do help them learn the names and use the names, you're creating an atmosphere where they can increase their sense of belonging. When they have more of a sense of belonging, this is the type of thing that happens. They are more prone to service, they are more prone to engagement in the community, to take on civic roles, and that's really what we want to see happen.

It happens in small increments. If you remember from your physics class in high school, small incremental changes over a long period of time lead to a big change. We've seen some of the stats that were on your report about Republic. We've seen some small changes in the percentage of people in the Republic that say that they know the names of their neighbors, but it has been a slow and steady increase. Over time, that will pay great dividends, with examples like that, residents will feel more connected and as result be more involved.

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Contact the blog author, David L. Burton at dburton541@yahoo.com.