A Frome Story...
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My mum has always said to me neighbours are so important, they are like best friends, as they are always there and probably the first person you go to in emergency. In October when our neighbour, Mary, first asked to join a neighbourly group we did not take a moment to say yes. My partner and I recently moved to Frome and we did not know anyone in the area so we could not believe our luck to join the Transition Street and build a new network.
We meet 6 of our neighbours every few weeks to discuss a topic on how we can improve our street and act more like a community, we always come up with some great ideas. One of these ideas has been as simple as asking in our What's App Group if anyone has any equipment we can borrow rather than going out to buy new stuff. This is so easy and a simple solution, currently our neighbours are charging their cordless vacuum so we can clean our car tomorrow saving us having to go out and buy a new one. We have loved these meetings, mainly because we are getting to know and developed friendship with our neighbours but also slightly because we get to be noisy at our neighbours' house decoration!
I am really excited to see what we can achieve in this transition street, mainly our grand plans of creating a community garden in the front of our homes. Not being that green fingered myself this would be a lovely chance for me to learn a new skill from my neighbours. For me, the main benefit of being part of this group is getting know our neighbours and being able to call them friends. I recently had to rely on the group when my dog, Patrick, pulled me over and badly damaged my knee, leaving me unable to walk or drive and my partner was away as well! I put a message on the What's App group asking for help with Patrick and everyone offered to support me however they could. This really made me feel cared for and part of something. To me this is what being part of community means, leaning on people in your time of need, and them helping no questions asked. I look forward to seeing how we transition over the next few months and what we achieve!
-Maria
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