We’d love to welcome aboard our newest ‘Very Neighbourly Organisation’, Nextdoor Australia!
Jennie Sager, Australia’s Country Manager for the world’s largest neighbourhood network, Nextdoor, sat down with us here at Neighbour Day to talk about the synergy between our organisations and how we can work together this Neighbour Day…
Q: For those not yet on the Nextdoor platform, what is it?
Jennie – Nextdoor is the neighbourhood hub for trusted connections and the exchange of helpful information about what is important in your local area. We connect neighbours based on proximity, so our members are connected with real people at real addresses in their suburb and their nearby suburbs. We see neighbours all over Australia lending a helping hand every day and sharing personal recommendations for their favourite local businesses and neighbours for hire. We amplify trust and kindness by encouraging helpfulness and by verifying neighbours, protecting data privacy, and providing caring support.
Q. As the Country Manager what do you love about the relationships you see being formed on Nextdoor?
Jennie: Nextdoor gives people a way to initiate a conversation with someone they don’t know or most likely haven’t met before. What I love is that after the initial conversation on Nextdoor, our members meet up in real life and form true, meaningful connections. The conversation quickly moves from online to offline. I also love that our members are helping each other out constantly and there is a real sense of positivity and kindness on the platform.
For example, we see regular coffee clubs, breakfast and dinner groups, walking groups, chess clubs, and more being organised on Nextdoor. After going through a difficult time in her life, one of our members in Victoria, Delene, found herself searching for community. She’s been hosting a weekly breakfast club since Nextdoor Australia started, and has had as many as 50 people join at one time. I’ve personally attended her breakfast club twice, and she’s even had two couples who fell in love at the breakfast club, one of which is now engaged to be married! We’re not a dating app, but it’s great to see such deep connections form.
Q. Where are you in the world and can anyone join?
Jennie: Nextdoor is the world’s largest neighbourhood network. We are in 11 countries with more than 250,000 neighbourhoods active on the platform. Nextdoor Australia launched a year ago and has grown quickly and deeply nationwide. With members in every state and territory, more than 78% of Australian households sit in a neighbourhood that is already active on Nextdoor. Anyone can join by downloading the Nextdoor app in the Apple App Store or Google Play, or by visiting our website at nextdoor.com.au. It’s free to join!
Q. We understand that kindness is a big part of your value system?
Jennie: Absolutely! Our aim is to cultivate a kinder world where everyone has a neighbourhood they can rely on – to be the online neighbourhood hub for trusted connections. We verify every neighbour’s name and address to make sure you’re talking to a real person in your neighbourhood. We find that this encourages people to behave better online. In fact, we launched something kind the Kindness Reminder in September 2019. This is a pop-up that is served to members that draft a post that is potentially offensive or violates our community guidelines. We found that in early testing, a minimum of 1 out of every 5 posts that were served the Kindness Reminder were edited or deleted.
Q. What is one of the key issues that you see affecting Australian neighbourhoods?
Jennie: A loneliness epidemic is taking over Australia, with one in four Australians reporting feeling lonely three times a week. However, Aussies are using Nextdoor to combat loneliness and to reconnect and form meaningful connections. Technology is contributing to social isolation, but we believe we’ve found a way to use tech for good and help people build stronger communities. This Neighbour Day, we are thrilled to partner with Neighbour Day to celebrate Aussie neighbours who are going above and beyond in their communities and to get neighbours out and about and having a chat with each other!
