Do you have a good neighbour? Soon, you’ll be able to nominate them for an award

This fall, residents will be able to give props to their great neighbours thanks to The P.O.W.E.R. Group of Whitecourt. P.O.W.E.R. stands for People Of Whitecourt Encouraging Resiliency and comprises stakeholders around the community, including Alberta Health Services, the Town of Whitecourt and the Boys and Girls Club.

Group Chair, Tina Prodaniuk, said they have a new initiative ready to go that has sat on their desks for two years. “We’ve had the Good Neighbour Award done and ready to go, and we’ve been waiting until we could finally launch it. It is funded by the province and the Town of Whitecourt.”

Prodaniuk said the Good Neighbour Award would officially start this fall. “Everyone has a good neighbour, and it’s a great thing to highlight. It’s similar to Communities in Bloom, where you would get a sign on your front yard. We are looking at getting “This is a good neighbour” signs. It’s a feel-good thing we want people to enjoy, and we hope it makes its way around Whitecourt because that’s its purpose.”

An online form, accessible in person at the Whitecourt & District Public Library, will ask residents to nominate a neighbour and explain why they chose them. Residents can then decide if their reason can be made public. “We want to share those stories whenever possible to help inspire others to participate, so we hope that people are ok with sharing their stories.”

Prodaniuk said that the initiative is similar to paying it forward in the drive-thru. “When it happens to you, it makes you feel good and makes you want to do that to someone else. We hope that’s what happens. We hope that people have a lot of good things to say and decide to put pen to paper and make it happen.”

Residents nominated for the award will receive a mug that says, “drink coffee and do good” and a gift card with the intention that they pay it forward or drink coffee with their neighbours. “This is a great way to get to know your neighbours and makes everyone feel good too. It’s a little coffee time to share while sharing with the community that you have good neighbours.”

Another initiative that started this summer, Whitecourt Park Parties, which the P.O.W.E.R. Group is part of, falls in the same line as the Good Neighbour Award. “The Park Parties were super successful. We are putting our thinking caps on for ways that we can make it even better next year. Maybe people can nominate their parks to hold a party or do things like that. We are having fun going through that thought process on the things that we could possibly do next year. Rotary Club has been fantastic. They cooked hot dogs and helped bring people out of their homes. We want to keep that going,” said Prodaniuk.

She said she also helps facilitate the Town of Whitecourt’s Block Party Program, which she said isn’t well used. Each initiative has similarities and is about getting people out in their neighbourhoods, meeting each other, and growing a community in their areas. “If people want to, especially after COVID, because there have been move-outs and move-ins in your neighbourhood, the Block Party Program is a great way to get to know your neighbours. It’s also a crime prevention initiative because it’s good to know who your neighbours are and get that community piece back together.”

Specifically speaking of the Good Neighbour Award, Prodaniuk said she wants to see people saying nice things about each other and shining a light on those who make their neighbourhoods a nice place to live. “I think sometimes we need to be prompted to say nice things, and that’s kind of what it is. It allows people to say something nice and hopefully make them feel good.” The Good Neighbour Award will launch soon and will continue until next summer.

The P.O.W.E.R. Group is always recruiting new members, and Prodaniuk said that being an agency member or stakeholder is not a requirement. “If anybody is interested in joining the POWER group, we are always accepting new people. We are looking for people to come share their ideas on how to bring the community together. Sometimes people don’t think their voices are heard. They can be heard in this group.”

Their primary focus these days is on asset development-related things that encourage residents to be kind to each other and help grow the community. With the Park Parties and Good Neighbour Award, the group is using a neighbourhood-to-neighbourhood approach. “It was very youth-based back in the day, and now we are going by neighbourhoods and the community as a whole,” said Prodaniuk. “We want to ensure we enable and help to a certain point, but we also give them tools. We want a healthy, safe community and make things count when interacting with our youth and everyone we engage with.”