Neighborly Help: We Are Stronger Together

How well do you know your neighbors? In a small town, everyone knows everyone and news quickly spreads like wildfire. A big, anonymous city stands in complete contrast.

I live in an apartment building with 70 people and have hardly seen any of my neighbors more than twice. With many of them, I don't even know if the person lives in my house or not.

Yet living together in one big apartment building can bring many advantages.

Let's go through a few different ways how neighbors can help each other and hopefully inspire you to try out one of our ideas out yourself.

This is how much potential being a good neighbor has:

Help within the apartment building

Our society and its population is getting older and older. Additionally, many children move away from their hometown where their parents are. Suddenly, things that are easy for us, like going shopping or visiting the doctor, become a hurdle. If being totally independent is no longer possible, the only option is often a home, although most old people would prefer to stay in their familiar surroundings.

Is there someone in your house, that you can offer your help to?

The concept of a multi-generation building has many advantages. For example, I often accompanied my neighbor to the doctor and helped her with her shopping, and on other days I had inspiring conversations about all sorts of things, learned new recipes and even once received help while building a shelf.

Helping Your Neighbors and Corona

Especially during COVID-19, "high risk" people are dependent on help when it comes to everyday tasks. And joint balcony concerts or video phone calls can help fight loneliness.

Pet Sitting

Who will take care of my cats when I am on vacation? Who will take the dog for a walk when I have to stay in bed with the flu?

Feeding the neighbor's cat is really not a big effort, but it can help out the owners so much and they can be more flexible in their planning. And if you don't have any pets yourself, it's a great change of pace to have a fluffy roommate or a good reason to take a nice walk.

Flea Markets and Swap Meets

The classic scenario: Drill a little bit more quickly and the drill bit will completely fall apart. Or you might have just bought a new slackline, but apart from two weekend trips a year, it just ends up gathering dust in the closet. If you swap with someone, you can save money, save resources, strengthen the relationship among each other and maybe even get some professional tips directly.
Especially if you live alone, the sharing food is a win-win: Who doesn't want to do something against food waste and at the same time get to know new dishes and recipes?

Community Activities

Doing something together connects people with each other. If everyone gets involved, great projects will be implemented in no time. Putting together a bed, a random piece of furniture or a swap meet can be created within a convivial afternoon. Hidden talents are waiting to be discovered during joint cooking or music evenings and various national cuisines can be presented and enjoyed.

No matter how well your own apartment is secured - you simply feel better if someone checks up on you from time to time. Thanks to a functioning neighborhood assistance system, you can go out in the evening and really relax on vacation. With Whatsapp and other services the neighborly exchange in the house can became even faster and more uncomplicated.

Did I turn off the stove? Did I close the window?

While you are on the road, digital applications can monitor your home and answer these questions for you. In the case of an emergency, your neighbors can be quickly informed and can check the situation for you. One could call it digital neighborhood assistance!

A Neighborhood Provides Variety - and Security

How does having good neighbors affect our lives? When we know our neighbors, we simply feel safer and more comfortable. A little chat in the stairwell sweetens our everyday life and a barbecue together in the backyard creates variety and a sense of community.

Older people in particular, where children have moved away and acquaintances have already passed away, feel less lonely if they live in a lively household community.

But the younger generation also wants company: in a study, almost a third of those surveyed in the youngest age group (14-29 years) said that they would like to have more contact with their neighbors. And since we are talking about studies: American scientists even believe they have found a connection between good neighborhood vibe and a lower risk of heart attacks!

We should stop seeing our neighbors as the ones with the loud music or some random parking lot thieves and instead start to achieve a , connected, more liveable and safer quality of life through sharing and mindfulness.

Helping Your Neighbors Digitally: The App From Livy Protect

Do you already know the Community Function from Livy? With the Livy App, you can connect with your neighbors (or even with friends or family) so that you are never alone in an emergency.

What can the Livy App do to create a good neighborhood?

The Livy App, which is connected to your smart home from Livy Protect, will alert you and your community if smoke develops in your home or unexpected movements are noticed - even if you are on the road or on vacation, for example. This way, your neighbors can come to your aid in an emergency or just check if everything is okay. And you can relax and enjoy your free time.

Who can I connect to the Livy App?

You decide that yourself. For example, add friends or neighbors to your community. You can also assign different roles to each member of your community and thus decide whether they should receive only one notification in case of an alarm or even have access to all of the alarm functions.