FOUND A BLOCK CIRCLE — starter kit

📄 Print this kit (PDF, letter, black-and-white-safe)

A block circle is roughly ten households on a stretch of street, meeting because they chose to — doing whatever the block actually needs. This circle belongs to your block. It answers to no one else.

Kids welcome. Food shared. Nobody pays.

The doorstep card

Copy this, print it, or just say it. About sixty words:

Hi — I’m your neighbour from [address/cross-street]. I’m starting a small circle for our stretch of the street — just us, maybe ten households, meeting once to see what we’d like to do together. No dues, no sign-up beyond showing up. Kids welcome, food shared, nobody pays. We’re meeting [day/time] at [porch / lobby / park]. Come if you can — even for ten minutes.

What to hand them along with the words: a slip of paper with the date, time, and place written on it, and a way to reach you (a phone number or a door they can knock on). Nothing else. No form, no app, no list to sign.

Knock on 10 doors. That’s the whole ask.

Before the first meeting

Pick a spot that’s already yours to use — a porch, a lobby, a stretch of sidewalk, a nearby park bench. You don’t need permission from anyone to gather on your own street.

As you knock, think about who you’re inviting, not just how many. Mixed beats matched:

• the elder who’s lived here decades and remembers what the block used to be
• the newcomer who arrived last year and doesn’t know anyone yet
• the skeptic who thinks this kind of thing never goes anywhere
• the teenager who’s usually the only one who notices what’s actually broken

A circle of ten people who are all alike learns nothing it didn’t already know. A circle of ten who are different from each other is where the good ideas come from.

The first meeting — 60 minutes

10 min — Welcome and names. Go around. First name, how long on the block, one word for how you’re feeling today. That’s it — no agenda item is more important than everyone knowing who’s in the room.

15 min — Map the block. As a group, name: - 3 things that are broken (a light out, a dangerous corner, a lonely neighbour) - 3 things that are beautiful (a garden, a porch that always waves, a tree everyone loves) - 1 door that belongs to a natural connector — the person who already knows everyone, whether or not they were in the room tonight

Write it down. This list is the circle’s first asset.

20 min — Pick ONE small thing. From everything named, choose one thing this circle can do this month — something doable without asking anyone’s permission. Fix the light, plant the garden, check in on the lonely neighbour, throw a potluck. Small and real beats big and stalled. Name who’s doing what before you close this part.

3 min — Harvest. See below. Every person, three sentences.

12 min — Close. Set the next date. Name who’s hosting next time. Name who’s learning to steward — see Succession, below. Then stop on time; a circle that always runs long is a circle people start dreading.

Keeping it alive

Meet monthly — or whatever rhythm the block actually wants; monthly is a reasonable default, not a rule.

If the circle grows past about fifteen people, split into two circles rather than trying to hold one crowd. A block circle is a trust-sized unit; it works because everyone can actually know everyone. Two circles of ten know each other. One circle of twenty-five is a meeting.

The circle keeps its own contact list — names, numbers, whatever the block wants to track. That list belongs to the block. This kit never asks to see it, collect it, or centralize it anywhere. No form on this page, no QR code anywhere in this kit, asks for that list. It’s yours; keep it on paper, in a phone, in a shared note — wherever your block trusts it to live.

Money, conflict, and safety

Money. If the circle ever collects anything — for a potluck, a repair, a supply run — collect only for that one named purpose, and spend it the same week. Never let the circle hold a standing fund. A circle with no treasury has nothing to fight over. If something ever needs more than one evening’s collection can cover, that’s a sign to plug into an existing accountable group — a community foundation, a registered charity — rather than the circle trying to run a bank account it was never built to hold safely.

Conflict. Disagreements are normal on any street. Handle them the way you’d want a good neighbour to handle them: talk it through directly first. If it needs more than that, bring in a second trusted person from the circle. The circle sets its own house rules for what it needs and doesn’t need — that’s its right.

Safety. If someone is genuinely causing harm, the response is graduated, and it stays with this circle: 1. A private word first. 2. If that doesn’t resolve it, a second trusted person joins the conversation. 3. If it’s still not resolved, a temporary step back from the circle’s gatherings — decided by the circle itself. 4. Only as a last resort: removal, decided by this circle alone.

This circle never keeps a blacklist that follows anyone to another circle, another block, or anywhere else. What happens here, the circle handles here.

Succession, from day one

Whoever hosts the first meeting names, out loud, who they’re already training to take over hosting. This isn’t a formality — it’s how the circle survives its first host getting busy, moving, or just needing a break.

Twenty minutes a week is a full contribution. Nobody needs to run everything to matter here. Resting is a legitimate rung too — a circle that never lets anyone step back will burn out the person holding it together.

The harvest sheet

Every meeting ends with the same three-minute harvest. Each person, one line each:

• VISION — “Toronto in 2030 should ___”
• COMPLAINT — “What’s broken?” (cross-streets optional)
• NOMINATION — a neighbourhood superhero: someone on this block doing more than anyone notices

One link, printed once on the sheet: unitetolove.ca/harvest

If the online form isn’t live yet, the paper is the record — nothing is lost.

Only the aggregate ever travels beyond the block: how many households were reached, how many meetings held, how many harvest items collected. Not names, not who said what.

Translate this kit

Translate this kit — a one-page translation is itself a civic act. Priority languages (per the multilingual program, pending census confirmation): Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi, Urdu, Tagalog, Spanish, Tamil, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, Vietnamese, Arabic, Farsi, Bengali. Send translations through the same link.

A free, open kit. Copy it, change it, translate it, make it yours. — uniteTOlove.ca