The previous coordinator of Meet Your Neighbours, Nicola Wyeth – has, after a fantastic ten years of involvement as a volunteer and then as coordinator, moved to a permanent role at Harpenden Town Council and we all owe huge thanks for all her energy and determination. “It is amazing to look back and see what has been achieved in that decade” said Lesley Flowers, the SSA Trustee who leads on the project.
Nicola says “I have met many, many lovely people across St Albans District and it has given me huge joy to see communities strengthened and friendships between neighbours forged because of street gatherings. I am looking forward to maintaining my connection to the Meet Your Neighbours projects via the Advisory Group and other activities.”
The roots of the current Meet Your Neighbours initiative are a Transition St Albans Community event in 2014. After five years of lobbying to make it possible, and volunteering by Lesley and Nicola, Nicola became the project’s first co-ordinator in 2018, supported by seed funding from Playing Out CIC. We then set up the 2019 Playing Out trial with eleven streets in partnership with St Albans City and District Council. Since then Nicola has supported more than 40 streets to run Playing Out sessions and well over 100 streets to hold street parties….. Read more about our ten year journey in this blog.