Yamini 00:00
It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood a beautiful day for a neighbor, would you be mine? Good to be mine?
Okay, I promise to not sing again. But make sure you promise that you will always listen to my episodes. Well, if you can that I will be singing again. All right.
In Wayland, we often joke that a good neighbor is the one who says hi from the car. Well, jokes about there are many instances where neighbors have rallied around each other, to help each other. A recent one is the Wayland Carnival, where we supported our girl in her mission to fight cancer. But Pam had the vision to channel the kindness of people through a platform.
The previous episode, we got to know about Pam and her cancer diagnosis, which led to the genesis of a great idea called Neighbor Brigade. In this episode, we will touch upon the details surrounding this organization.
Why do you think America needs Neighbor Brigade, what your connections have, without a doubt, taken this chat off real world connections in our life. In that sense, the Neighbor Brigade provides a platform for real world connections that communities across our country need.
Sue Parente 01:32
People are, you know, running to get the you know, their kids dropped off at the next scheduled thing, or going to run into work and I think, you know, we use social media to stay connected and stay up to date on what’s happening with people. But the physical act of doing something for somebody else is entire, it’s an entirely different level of connection. I think that’s where we need a little bit of help, you know, and I think technology can help us do that, right. That’s where we need, you know, just to help being able to insert more of that in our lives and that was something that was so important to Pam, is she knew it wasn’t just about the recipients.
Yamini 02:18
So there you have it, it’s not just the recipient who are benefiting, the volunteers get to experience the joy and satisfaction of being able to help others.
Sue Parente 02:28
It is simply beautiful, it is really about just connecting one neighbor with another when one’s in need, and there’s no money changes hands, it’s purely doing a kindness for somebody in your neighborhood. And, you know, you never know when you may be in that situation yourself and you might need that, you know, we all want to be able to help when somebody is going through something. But it’s so hard to know, you could have somebody two doors down, that’s experiencing a hardship or suffering from something, but you don’t know or if you do know, you don’t know how to help and Neighbor Brigade solves those two issues.
Yamini 03:12
So we know about the purpose now and the issues it solves. How about services? Are they for long? Can the neighbors help you for longer times?
Sue Parente 03:27
So that’s what’s special, I think about the Neighbor Brigade mission. It’s not set up to provide sustained ongoing support, it’s really about helping individuals and families in sudden crisis, deal with that period of time where they have to maybe adjust to a new normal, or they just have to get through, you know, what is that really hard, concentrated time.
So say somebody is going through treatments for cancer, you know, and that’s, you know, a three, maybe six month period. But then we try to get them sort of safely to the other side. If there’s a situation where it looks like a family, maybe there was an accident or something that happened and they are in sudden crisis because of that, we’ll help them for a matter of months, until and then if it looks like they’re going to need ongoing care that then we refer them to services that can help them from there on out.
Yamini 04:31
(in bracket) Okay, the first time I met Sue, when I was talking to her and recording this space, I remember that she had a lot of small stories in between the stories like the backstories and I could not help myself include them in the episodes because I know that you all will love listening to these because these are anecdotes, these are stories from the past and you know these are a blast because once you listen to them, you’re like Oh, okay. That makes sense.
Sue Parente 05:03
The volunteers are eager to help, they’re eager for opportunities to help. You know, it sounds, it reminds me a little bit when my husband and I were first married, we lived in Connecticut, lived in a small town. He was a volunteer fireman, because they didn’t have enough resources for a fire department. He had the training and he had all the gear. But he never got the call, right. He was so frustrated by that and I think it’s the same thing with volunteers, you know, we sign up, because we want to help.
Everybody understands when somebody is, you know, in a tough spot, and needs a little bit of help and support. So I think when there are situations that come up like that, people are saying, absolutely. Now, you know, or if there’s, you know, somebody who’s had a house fire, everybody wants to chime, you know, chip in and say, Okay, what do they need, and so we’ll do a drive, or we’ll, we’ll do whatever is needed to help that family or individual in that crisis.
Yamini 06:02
What’s in a name, that which we call a rose by any other name which smell as sweet, said Shakespeare. But actually leaving off the organization mattered. Even with the name, the team wanted to be empowering. Let’s hear the story behind naming.
Sue Parente 06:26
What do you know, happened when Pam said, Well, you know, we need to really make this, you know, a real thing. You know, she, she wanted to shoot, I think she wanted to keep the name angels, but there were a whole bunch of, you know, kind of copyright issues and things like that with that.
So, you know, we’ve been through a whole naming exercise and, you know, came up with the Neighbor Brigade, and which, to us felt like it was very empowering, right, it was about, you know, having a group together, almost like having your small little army that was there, ready to help you in and then it was officially launched on in May of 2010 and May and Mother’s Day had a very special relevance and meaning for Pam, because that’s when she had gotten her first diagnosis of cancer. It was right on that Mother’s Day, weekend holiday, launched in 2010, as Neighbor Brigade, there were nine chapters already, you know, I mean, that tells you something that without, you know, any kind of effort put against it. There were nine chapters, oh, Bedford, was one of the early ones and continues to be an incredibly strong and vibrant chapter and you know what my favorite part is about that one of her daughters who lives in South Boston has started our first South Boston chapter, and loved that.
Yamini 07:56
(In bracket)After all, the groundwork, Neighbor Brigade now provides a variety of services to the families in need. How inspiring is that? customizing care, for each and every family, all through volunteer acts of kindness.
Sue Parente 08:13
A lot of times, it depends on what the family needs, you know, it’s very tailored to what’s going on with that family or individual. So, meals are a big one, because you know, that’s so hard, people can’t get to the store, they can’t cook, they can’t, you know, it’s just too much. So meals are a big one, delivering meals. It really is, I think that’s the number one, and then rides to medical appointments, often people cannot ride that drive themselves.
So and if they’ve got a spouse that’s working, cannot take all that time out to get them back and forth to doctor’s appointments. So that’s another, another big one. We have processes and processes in place that make that a safe, a safe process, right background checks, Cori forms, all those kinds of things. Then it’s other things like dog walking. Now sometimes we forget about our pets. But you know, if somebody is not feeling well, they’re not going to be able to, to get out walk their pet. So that’s something that volunteers often really, really enjoy doing.
Particularly if you’re not somebody who you know relishes making a meal. That’s how you can get involved to. Oh, I should say to that when there are some great stories about people who have done the delivering or giving rides to medical appointments. Some really great friendships have sparked up between the recipient and the driver. Because you have that time in the car you get to know each other, you tell stories.
Regular just chores or running errands, yard work. Sometimes people can’t get to cutting their lawn or and that’s a great way to get kids involved too is if somebody is we suffering and they can’t get to all these things. You know, bring your kids out and help shovel their driveway. The recipients are so, so thrilled and really appreciative really appreciate it because it’s just something they can’t get to and these are the things that make them feel like life is still somewhat normal.
Yamini 10:25
As it turns out, when you start an organization, naming is the easiest part. The real work starts off with naming the issue of using the right technology, scaling your template, recruiting the right team, doing the paperwork, and doing it quickly, the right business plan all come to the fore. Even more important for Pam and Sue, was to make starting a new chapter replicable so that it could scale with ease.
Sue Parente 10:58I think Pam, because she came out of the technology arena and her brother Paul, who serves on the board with us has a technology background, I think she recognized right away that technology could be the solution in making this process so much more efficient and effective.
So when Wayland Angels started, the organization was using a calendaring tool called lots of helping hands, which was great, because it enabled people to go in sign up, see what the needs where it was very efficient. But as the organization grew, it became clear that we needed a platform that was going to be able to scale, you know, across towns across state lines, you know, all of that and, you know, we started to have 1000s of volunteers within our network.
I mean, in Wayland alone, we have over 300 volunteers. So, you know, we needed a platform that could handle that kind of volume. So we were able to transition to one that I think that was about a two year process. I think it was a two year process, because we had to make sure that we had all the naming rights.
We had to get, you know, insurance in place, we had to get, you know, all of our, you know, proper paperwork, waivers, you know, handbooks, all of those things. So that, you know, we were launching this organization in a proper way, and in a way that was sustainable, and that could be replicated easily, right, across different chapters. And we had some training manuals put in place so that a start up of a chapter can be really efficient.
Yamini 12:52
All of this reminds me so much of my experience at a startup in Toronto, long time back. Take a listen, this is entrepreneurship one on one. I am not kidding. Pams courage and determination to get it done is remarkable.
Sue Parente 13:08
You know, Pam was very, I thought really smart and deliberate about the way she went about setting this up. I mean, she had been a professional for years, and had worked for a large tech consulting firm. So she was you know, she had a lot on the ball.
One of the first things that she did was that she recruited a couple of, you know, smart, experienced people to help her. One was a man from her church, Waynd Fisher. It was a businessman, semi retired. But he was the first official board member for Neighbor Brigade. He really helped her set up a business plan and, you know, in a way, and then Victoria Jones, who is another Wayland resident, whose background is in helping nonprofits and helping them find that initial development funding. You know, she was just fantastic and counseling Pam, and how to do that, and how to build a board and really set things up in a way that was professional and sustainable.
Somebody we haven’t talked about, is our current executive director, Polly Mendoza. She is so awesome. I can’t even tell you I’m really inspired by her and it’s a great joy to work with her. You know, she’s somebody who, you know, luckily became available to work with us. When we were going through transition with executive directors, and she had come from Colorado. She had started a very successful nonprofit in Colorado that was taking care of children with special needs and she moved back here, because she grew up here and she wanted to be closer to her family as she was raising her kids.
Yamini 15:08
When you do good, like genuinely good work without asking for anything in return, people usually take notice and they did notice the incredible idea and the execution of Neighbor Brigade.
Sue Parente 15:20
That did start with the Globewest, they did a brief story on pan and how neighbor brigade started. But then the globe picked it up several times multiple times. We’ve had multiple stories on Pam’s run., because there’s something about this story and the individual stories of the recipients of what they’re going through that everybody can relate to, it does not matter, you know, socio economic standing. It doesn’t matter which town you’re in, it doesn’t you no matter if you are single, or married, or have a family, everybody can relate to something like that happening.
Unfortunately, I don’t know anybody who hasn’t been touched by cancer, who hasn’t had family members touched by cancer and so people understand the need. I think it makes people feel very hopeful that there’s an organization that is enabling.
Yamini 16:26
Pam entrepreneurship one on one continues, it’s one thing to have an idea, but when the rubber hits the road, it’s the robust processes within the organization that give it resilience with two site, recipient and volunteers in play. It’s very easy for things to go wrong, you know, ever had a bad Uber experience. If that is possible in a simple two sided platform like Uber, the stakes are just so much higher and more sensitive in this case. But Pam and Sue had the vision and wisdom to put significant guardrails around training legal and privacy in place.
Sue Parente 17:07
It’s very, very important to have processes and procedures in place that ensure the safety and well being of everybody involved, the recipients of the help, and also the volunteers. So we’ve worked with, you know, wonderful legal counsel, that helped us develop information, forms that when when somebody agrees to receive help from neighbor Brigade, that they understand that these are neighbors, right, who will be performing these acts of kindness, and they have to agree to that. Then I think it’s also a very trusted, you know, network to draw from.
But we have in place a volunteer handbook that volunteers must read and acknowledge that they’ve read, we have safety guidelines around food handling, that’s correct, so that everybody is aware of allergies, or, you know, food preferences.
One of the other things that I think is really smart about the way Neighbor Brigade operates is that, you know, maintaining the privacy, and the dignity of the people who they help is, first and foremost. So they don’t ever want somebody who just needs a little bit of help at this time to feel that they are, you know, are indebted, or that they have to greet and entertain the people who drop off, you know, their dinner or anything.
So they’ve put smart processes in place, like having a cooler that set up outside the person’s home, so that the meal can be set in there with some, you know, instructions, very often more often than not a really kind of encouraging note from the person who’s delivering it. Then that way the recipient can, you know, go and retrieve the dinner whenever they’re comfortable whenever they want and they don’t really have to, you know, agreed to chat if they don’t want to.
Yamini 19:13
And yet, even with all the planning, thinking and executing you do, starting something from the ground also requires a lot of improvisation and figuring it out along the way. Because challenges you could have never thought of will show up and you have to deal with them. Right.
Sue Parente 19:30
You know what one of the challenges that the organization faces and this is an interesting sort of social challenge, I think is that is encouraging people to ask for help when they need it.
It but they just feel like they can’t they don’t want to be a burden. They should be able to handle this themselves and it’s such a shame because when people do let others help them, they’re really giving those other people a gift. They don’t realize it, but they really are.
So getting people to change their mindset a little bit, you know, and sometimes it has to do with privacy, too. Not everybody wants, you know, everyone to know if they’re, they’re going through something, but the truth is, we all do at some point in our lives. As neighbors, you know, what are we doing, if we can’t help each other.
There are a couple of there, there are a couple of issues, you know, one, for especially for new chapters that are starting up, sometimes it can be hard for them to get the word out, yeah, it can be hard to get the get the word out, you know, so it takes a lot of work with the different organizations within a town, maybe, you know, maybe Council on Aging, the school groups, very oftentimes schools that know first, when a family is going through something, you know, oftentimes it’s the school nurse who will know if a family is struggling or going through something, you know, the different religious organizations.
Sue Parente 21:04
So it takes going out and helping them understand that this is a service that’s available within our town and spreading the word is really important, a lot of times the local papers are very, very good about giving us giving us a little space so that we can make people aware almost like a public service.
Sometimes the religious organizations will put something in their materials, we have a very good relationship with Emerson hospital, and Emerson hospital will often provide information about Neighbor Brigade to their patients, you know, as they’re going home, Oh, you’ve got a chapter in your town, did you know that here’s how it works, here’s more information about it.
So there are a number of ways that we reach out and really try to make people aware of it. Sometimes it’s the local, you know, TV station that will have the chapter leaders on and we’ll talk with him about it and that’s how people come to know about it. But then what happens is when a few people start to know about it, it becomes word of mouth, word of mouth.
So most often what happens is when a family is struck with something suddenly right, so this is about helping people in sudden crisis, right, who really aren’t prepared and really need help. Often what happens is, when a family has something like that happened to them, a friend will say, Have you heard about this organization? We have it in our town? I really think it could help, you know, would you like me to reach out on your behalf, or maybe a family member will reach out to the chapter leader and say, this is what we have going on and then the chapter leader, you know, steps into action and makes it happen.
Yamini 22:41
So how can we help them, help this organization? No money, no mission, say Sue, but there’s more to it.
Sue Parente 22:49
You know, I always say, you know, no money, no mission, right, you’ve got to have resources to make this operate, otherwise, it goes away, really. We need to have a small staff of people who keep this running, right, who helped the new chapters get up and running who do some training, who manage the technology, who are, you know, sort of keep all our processes safe and working, and especially as the organization grows.
Also to help us spread the word, you know that takes some resources to spread the word. So, we have what I think is a very, you know, kind of modest budget compared to many other nonprofits. But we do need those resources to keep us going and to keep it spreading.
So there are a number of ways that people can help, you know, depending on what they want to do and what they can do. You know, one is, you can look to see if there’s a chapter in your town, and you can sign up to volunteer, which is super easy, and doesn’t cost you anything, and you know, it’s just putting yourself on the list to help when you can.
The other thing is, if you don’t have a chapter in your town, but would like to start one and become a chapter leader, that’s also something that you know, we have gotten really good at figuring out how to do and can help people do that. So becoming a chapter leader or also being a donor and you can go online to neighborbrigade.org and make a donation you can get involved in Pam’s run you can run you know and raise money through running at Pam’s run.
Those are the those are the sustaining resources because we don’t take any fee for services, right? Because it’s connecting volunteer volunteers to the recipients. So we have to raise funds every year to keep this going. So that’s how people can get in.
Yamini 25:02
You may find it unusual or maybe not. But there are times when people are lonely and they’re sick, and they’re in need. They not only want the services, but want you to sit down and ask about their day.
Sue Parente 25:17
Because I have to tell you that any family that I have dropped a meal off before or visited, you know, sometimes one of the asks is to just, sort of check in and maybe spend an hour or two sitting with somebody who can’t get out of the house because of what they’re going through.
But every, every time I’ve participated, that family, or that individual, is forever special to me. I mean, that’s, what it does. You know, you always think you drive past that house, oh, there’s, there’s my family. There’s my special family, yeah, and it’s great, it completely changes the way you look at your neighborhood, you know, I mean, I have really fantastic neighbors, right on my block, who I’ve raised my kids with, and so they’re really close friends, right. So they’re the natural ones that something happened, I would know, I’d be able to help them. But that only extends to maybe a block, right and this makes the whole town feel that way for me.
Yamini 26:26
So what’s needed to get footprint? Now, you might be wondering, as easy the value proposition is, and of course, that has been responsible for a Neighbor Brigade organic growth, it is not always easy to get a chapter up and running and sometimes chapter can go solo as well.
Sue Parente 26:42
If they’ve really spread through word of mouth. So somebody will be helped here in Massachusetts, and a family member of that person or family hears about it, and says, I’ve got to start it in my town. So we have two chapters just outside of Seattle, then we have one in New Jersey, and one in Connecticut, and one in Rhode Island.
So I think it’s a model that works, for sure and our challenge is to take what we’ve seen regionally work and really try to spread it and my personal hope is that there will be an organization or a brand or somebody who will recognize how uniquely special this organization is, and really helped to make it spread nationally.
We’ve had a chapter or two who have decided not to be part of the bigger network, right, who have said, You know what, I’m just gonna focus on this town and we’re gonna kind of do our own thing. Right? And Pam’s whole vision was get out, we just want neighbors to be able to help their neighbors, right. I mean, that was really what it was all about. The thing that we’ve found, however, is that for it to be sustainable, in towns, it’s really helpful to be part of the network, because we can help with that succession planning and we, you know, we have the wherewithal and the processes in place and the resources because you really do want to make sure that things are done properly and appropriately with the right sort of legal and insurance you know, resources in place.
So that’s so that’s what I would say but you know, there are some towns that say, you know what, we can do this and we can do this well, and that’s great, you know, more power to him.
Yamini 28:50
Pam’s legacy lives on through the neighbor brigade. It also does to another community event in Wayland, Pam’s Run. It’s not only a way to remember Pam’s legacy, but also a way to support this wonderful organization. So if you’re a neighboring towns of Wayland, it is a great cause to run for.
Pam’s Run is such a fantastic event. It has the most fantastic vibe of any event that I go to throughout the year, people come together and it is the volunteers, it’s the chapter leaders, recipients.
Sue Parente 29:24
I’m not a runner, but I just love it. I love coming because I can I can walk it if I want to. Everyone is so happy to be there. They’re so happy to be there because they know it’s about their communities, their families.
It’s a great time to remember Pam and the original vision that she brought. It was her sister’ I believe Joanna, well, I take that back. Initially, it was Pam’s idea, she always wanted to do a run. She had envisioned maybe a turkey trot or something around Thanksgiving and every time she would bring it up to me, I be like, but it turned out to be a brilliant idea and also a brilliant way to remember her legacy.
So her sister, Joanna, is chairs it each year and does a beautiful, beautiful job with fantastic help from her co chair, Jamie who’s Pam’s nice. It’s very professionally run. We have great prizes for the winners, we have winners in different categories, to 10k and a 5k and the course is beautiful run through Wayland neighborhoods. It’s just a really, really great event.
Yamini 30:44
Pam left, but left us with a big blessing. I’m sure she’s watching over this organization and events and all the people who are exchanging this kindness today through Neighbor Brigade.
Sue Parente 30:58
Every time we have Pam’s Run, I always say alright, you know, everybody’s doing their part. But I’m like, Pam, your parts and every year it’s really beautiful. So she does her part.
Yamini 31:10
Oh, yes. By the way, I’m running Pam’s run. And if you’re around and you’ve registered for the race on October 28, come say hi. I don’t know if I’m going to walk it or run in but I will be there. So I hope after this episode, you’re all pumped up to sign up for Neighbor Brigade or maybe even start a chapter in your town, if there isn’t one.
I was thinking the neighborhood song from Miss Rogers in the beginning. If you don’t want to hear me sing. Don’t forget to rate review and subscribe to this podcast and also, don’t go anywhere because we are coming with a bomb of a finale episode.
As Mr. Rogers says, When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news. My mother would say to me, look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping tell them it’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood a beautiful day for a neighbor.