In August of 2004, after two of Joseph Porcelli’s neighbors where violently assaulted, Joseph set out to raise crime prevention awareness in his neighborhood of Jamaica Plain. He had no idea that his desire to increase safety would change the course of his life. At the time, all he knew to do was too keep asking “what should we do next.” That’s how Neighbors for Neighbors stumbled onto our “mechanism to keep people involved after the threat has gone.”

After years of struggling to find a suitable technology to keep our members actively engaged and contributing to each other, we finally discovered ning.com, a social networking platform. Ning makes it possible for our users (neighbors and civil (servants) to communicate and collaborate when they want and around what they wish.

Our network serve as a soundboard for voices and a springboard for action. Neighbors connect to each other and resources (like their Neighborhood Coordinator, Community Service Officer, and nonprofit outreach coordinators) and connect and organize around common interests.