Safer Together
If you would like to host a block party, or just find out more, click here to leave your name, and we can chat!
Safer Together
SJNA's Safer Together project was started with the support of the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM) under its Community Resilience and Capacity Building program.
Through Safer Together, SJNA helps folks in St. Johns organize block parties in different areas of St. Johns. Safer Block Parties always have food, fun activities for adults and kids, and music. They also feature a short presentation on safety and resilience, and we invite folks in the neighborhood to create a phone list, and take home a "Pocket Prep", a pocket size booklet full of information about disaster resilience.
Above all, we encourage you and your neighbors to get to know each other better. Knowing neighbors has been shown to be one of the keys to getting through catastrophes like the threats we face in St. Johns, which include earthquake, fire, and gas farm leakage. We are working closely with the St Johns NET (Neighborhood Emergency Team).
We appreciate the support of the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management - PBEM - for supporting us to find innovative ways to make our response to disasters more inclusive and decentralized.
We are carrying out Safer Together in close coordination with our friends on the St. Johns NET team, citizen volunteers who have been especially trained to help out when disasters strike.
Sometimes the city might not be able to help us and then we'll have to help ourselves.
Block parties are a place to meet new people.
We didn't used to worry about killer heat in St.Johns, but things have changed.
Food is a central element of any good block party!
We might not think about fires spreading but St. Johns has a lot of trees and wooden houses.
All Ages!
Everyone needs to be safe, and everyone needs human contact.
Safer Together empowers neighbors to take care of each other.
Find out about hosting a block party
St. Johns folks have held 60 block parties with Safer Together support. We are just starting to schedule them for 2025. While the beautiful days of late spring and early Fall are great for block parties, we've had them as early as March and as late as October.
What kind of people host block parties? Hosts are people who are willing to do a little extra to make their neighborhood an even better place to live, and they know that everyone feels the same way. Please think about hosting a Safer Together block party!
We want to make it easy for you, and we have prepared a number of materials for hosts:
A short guide to hosting that covers everything you need to do, with a time line.
Sound systems and tables, canopies, trash cans, and a good music rig.
A bouncy castle
A simple form to get a street closure permit from PBOT. We have all the barricades and signage you need.
A table where people can sign up for a phone tree and for the SJNA and StJohnsNET mailing lists.
We'll present a fun and engaging ten minute talk on disaster resilience.
Finally, we'll work with you to understand your neighborhood and tailor the block party to the folks who are going to be there - we will have games for kids, and we can present in Spanish as well as English. It all depends on what you want and need.
Click on the button below to leave your contact information and we'll get back to you within three days or so!