What We’re Building
We live closer to one another than ever before, yet many of us feel alone. The “village” that once shaped everyday life — where people knew their neighbours and looked out for one another — is slowly fading. Social isolation is not only difficult emotionally; it has real health impacts, comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Beyond well-being, we need each other in very practical ways — from small favours, like borrowing a cup of sugar or picking up mail, to real-life emergencies, when neighbours are often the first to respond. Formal services and institutions play an important role, but they have limits — they cannot replace the care, immediacy, and trust that come from people who live nearby.
Good Neighbour Kitsilano was created to bring a little bit of that “village” back into city life. By creating simple opportunities and sharing practical tools, it helps neighbours connect in small, everyday ways — the kind that, over time, turn a place into a community.
Our Story
Good Neighbour Kitsilano is inspired by the vision of the world where every neighbour is a friend. Good Neighbour’s founder, Ksenia, grew up in a small town in Siberia, where she knew all her neighbours in the city apartment building. It was customary to knock on neighbours’ doors to borrow a cup of sugar or a few roubles until the payday.
During summers spent at dacha (village), Ksenia would be making friends with all the neighbouring babushkas (grandmas), soliciting sweet treats and macaroni lunches. And, generally, people would connect more readily with each other, and the sense of community was palpable.
When Ksenia moved to Canada at the age of 17, the first thing that struck her is how people kept to themselves and minded their own business. She knew something didn’t feel right.
This is when she started pursuing community building: from organizing random acts of kindness, coordinating COVID mutual support group, leading various Neighbourhood Small Grant Projects, to now, more formally – Good Neighbour Kitsilano, the initiative to build a connected, caring and resilient neighbourhood. Ksenia believes that the real change starts at home, with people, families, neighbours, communities coming together.
Get Involved
We are inviting you to contribute to the movement and embark on a journey of creating a world, where every neighbour is a friend. Where we care for a stranger as our own, saying with our words and actions: “I see you. You matter. You belong. You are loved.” What a wonderful world this would be. Let’s create it. Together!