Neighboring 101: Building Connection One Story at a Time

 

What if one of the best tools for building stronger neighborhoods isn't a big event, a new program or even a community meeting? What if it is a good story?

That idea will be at the heart of the next Neighboring 101 session on Thursday, September 24, 2026, at 12 noon Central, when we welcome Dawn Arrington for Session 88 of our ongoing conversation about the art and skill of neighboring.

Dawn understands that stories do more than entertain us. They help us see ourselves, understand others and discover what we have in common.

In 2018, she founded Comics at the Corner, a literacy nonprofit that uses culturally relevant comic books to promote reading in traditionally underinvested communities. Through pop-up book fairs, reading nooks in local businesses and other creative approaches, Dawn uses storytelling to create opportunities for connection while helping young people discover the joy of reading.

Her work is rooted in a simple but powerful idea: people deserve to see themselves in the stories they read.

But Dawn's work with stories is also about something bigger than literacy. It is about belonging.

Stories Can Weave a Neighborhood Together

Every neighborhood is filled with stories.

There are stories about the people who live there, the families who came before them, the businesses on the corner, the children growing up there and the people quietly doing things every day to make the neighborhood better.

The challenge is that we often don't know those stories.

And when we don't know one another's stories, it is easier to remain strangers.

Storytelling gives us another way to cross that distance.

When we become curious about someone's story, we begin to see the person behind the front door, across the driveway or down the street. Stories create opportunities for conversation. Conversation creates familiarity. Familiarity can grow into trust. And trust is one of the foundations of a strong neighborhood.

That is neighboring.

From Stories to Community Building

Dawn brings another important perspective to our Neighboring 101 conversation through her work as Neighborhood Network Specialist for the City of Shaker Heights, Ohio.

There, she supports the Moreland Neighborhood Network using Community Network Building and Asset-Based Community Development strategies.

Both approaches begin from a perspective I appreciate: communities already possess tremendous assets.

Those assets include organizations, businesses, institutions and physical spaces. But some of the most important assets are people—their relationships, experiences, skills, passions and stories.

Good community development isn't simply about asking, What's wrong here?

It also asks: Who lives here? What do they care about? What gifts do they have? What stories do they carry? And how can we connect those assets?

Those are questions every neighborhood can begin asking.

Start With Curiosity

One reason I am excited to have Dawn join Neighboring 101 is that her work demonstrates that neighboring does not have to begin with something complicated.

It can begin with curiosity.

Ask someone about where they grew up. Ask an older neighbor what the neighborhood used to be like. Ask a child about their favorite book or comic. Ask the owner of a neighborhood business why they chose to open there. Ask a longtime resident about the people who shaped the community.

Then do something increasingly rare: Listen.

Every time we learn another person's story, that person becomes a little less of a stranger.

And perhaps that is one of the great opportunities before us as neighbors. We don't need to manufacture community from scratch. Much of what we need is already around us.

Sometimes we simply need to discover the stories next door.

Join Us September 24

Neighboring 101 is a monthly online program where we talk with leaders from across the United States who are finding creative ways to strengthen neighborhoods and build human connection.

Our goal is to discover practical ideas that individuals, organizations and communities can use to make neighboring part of community and personal development.

For Session 88 on September 24, Dawn Arrington will help us explore what can happen when storytelling, literacy, representation and neighborhood development come together.

If you care about neighboring, literacy, community development, belonging or simply finding better ways to connect people, I think you will find something useful in this conversation.

Join us at 12 noon Central on Thursday, September 24, 2026.

Come for the stories.

And perhaps leave thinking differently about the stories waiting to be discovered in your own neighborhood.

WRITTEN BY

David L. Burton

For more information, visit the Engaged Neighbor website. Take our pledge and become part of a movement! Or subscribe to our newsletter. Access some of the research documents written by David Burton, the author of this blog. Or better yet, purchase one of his books off Amazon. Contact David L. Burton via email at dburton541@yahoo.