{"id":13337,"date":"2019-04-12T15:47:04","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T05:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/neighbourday.org\/?p=13337"},"modified":"2021-10-27T13:30:48","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T03:30:48","slug":"and-that-was-neighbour-day-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.relationships.org.au\/and-that-was-neighbour-day-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"And that was Neighbour Day 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sam Robinson, Neighbour Day Campaign Manager<\/p>\n

It was a huge year for Neighbour Day in 2019, with communities from all corners of Australia participating in variety of neighbourly events, from garage sales to street libraries to barbeques, parties, and even street art installations.<\/p>\n

The theme for Neighbour Day this year was:\u00a0Loneliness: what neighbours can do to create connections<\/em>\u00a0and Australia has done a fantastic job of doing just that. We would like to say thank you to all our Very Neighbourly Organisations and our amazing ambassadors, who helped to make Neighbour Day a success.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to share with you some of the highlights of this year\u2019s Neighbour Day.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s most well-known Neighbours get behind Neighbour Day<\/h3>\n

One of Neighbour Day\u2019s Very Neighbourly Organisations, R U OK? caught up with their ambassador and Ramsay Street favourite, Rob Mills, for Neighbour Day this year. Rob suggests that being neighbourly might seem daunting for some of us, but a small gesture can go a long way.<\/p>\n

He says creating strong connections is as simple as \u201cbeing community minded. Thinking of others, and being a good person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dementia Australia and their ambassador, Takaya Honda, also used Neighbour Day to shine a light on the loneliness suffered by people living with dementia, who often become socially isolated as a result of their illness.<\/p>\n

Through their support program,\u00a0Dementia Friendly<\/a>, Dementia Australia is seeking to educate the public on the disease and how best to reach out to sufferers, to help improve their quality of life, because as Takaya says \u201ceveryone deserves good neighbours.\u201d<\/p>\n

State emergency and the importance of neighbours<\/h3>\n

This year the Victoria State Emergency Service (VICSES), Country Fire Authority (CFA), and the Red Cross united with Relationships Australia, to celebrate Neighbour Day and encourage communities across the state to build healthy relationships with others who live in their community.<\/p>\n

They issued a Neighbour Day challenge to all SES, CFA and Red Cross members in Victoria with the chance to win one of 15 Bunnings vouchers valued at $200 each, and kindly sponsored by PDF Food Services<\/p>\n

The challenge was simple.<\/p>\n

Do something with your neighbours, or anything neighbourly on Sunday March 31 \u2013 and share (photo, video, story) on social media tagging their agency.<\/p>\n

We know that creating a positive relationship with your neighbour, and having an understanding of who could be vulnerable during an emergency, may help save lives.<\/p>\n

A big thanks to these three organisations for the very neighbourly work they do every day of the year \u2013 including Neighbour Day!<\/p>\n

Healthy Tasmania Neighbour Day Challenge<\/h3>\n

For the second year running, the Department of Health in Tasmania teamed up with Relationships Australia Tasmania for their annual Healthy Tasmania Community Challenge. The challenge encouraged people to reach out to those around them to create well-connected communities, by either hosting or attending a registered Neighbour Day event on March 31st.<\/p>\n

Entrants had the opportunity to win either $1,000 or $5,000 for their region (North, North West and South) by simply registering their Neighbour Day event and in 500 words or less describing:<\/p>\n