We’re constantly connected to our phones, our screens, our social media. But walk into a new neighborhood…and you may not know a single person.
Devin Hughes knows that feeling.
He and his wife recently downsized, moving from the home where they raised four kids to a neighborhood closer to the beach.
“We didn’t know anybodym” Hughes says. “We didn’t know the HOA and we didn’t know where to go or who to call.”
And then came the part he didn’t expect: “No one was come knocking on the door. No one came over and introduced themselves.”
For someone whose professional work centers on workplace culture, connection and belonging…It was a little too familiar.
Devin had heard about the San Diego Chamber of Connection, an organization working to create more opportunities for people to actually meet the people around them.
“We as people, as humans, love to be invited, but we have this little veil over extending the invite,” Executive Director of the San Diego Chamber of Connection, Elizabeth Cox says.
So Devin decided to extend one. He went old school. Knocked on doors. Handed out flyers. Invited his neighbors over.
“Did I think that people might look at me like, what are you doing? yeah…but I did it and said; hey, I’m not selling you anything, we’re just having an event,” Hughes says.
His first event was World Cup soccer themed.
Food, jerseys, a game on TV. People showed up — They were so deep into their event that they even forgot to take pictures.
Then came Mahjong another neighborhood get-together, this time inspired by his wife.
Hughes describes the event: “We had people at the house, playing cards and laughing.”
Now, the change isn’t necessarily loud. It’s a neighbor making eye contact. A good morning. A restaurant recommendation.
“The interactions are again, they're small but micro and they seem benign, but now it just feels a little bit connected to the community.”
The Chamber is now looking for more people to do what Devin did, through its Welcome Committee.
The idea is simple: Sometimes connection starts with something that feels a little awkward. A knock on the door.
“In a world right now that tends to look for all the differences, I would argue we have a lot more in common than we think and we create space and capacity to bring humans together. It's amazing the connections you make in a space like that,” Hughes says.
Applications to join the Chamber of Connection’s Welcome Committee are open through September 25th. Click here to find out more.
