At H&R Block, we love to help people. For millions of Americans each tax season, that means helping them gain financial confidence. By helping them get their best outcome at tax time, we’re often helping them gain confidence about their finances for the rest of the year. But at the heart of how we help our clients is through conversations. Literally more than 12 million hours of conversations with our tax experts each year. We discuss major events that happened in their lives, from getting married, to having a baby, to buying a home or changing jobs. And we’ve witnessed first-hand the power of these conversations and the connections they can build between people. 

Conversations and forming community connections are the focus of our new community impact platform, Make Every Block Better. As part of this effort, we have joined forces with several national partners, including the neighborhood hub, Nextdoor, which believes change starts with each of us opening our front doors and extending a hand to initiate a connection with the people nearest to us: our neighbors. They see every day how neighbors turn to Nextdoor to break the ice, meet new neighbors, and then turn those online relationships into real world friendships.

Together, H&R Block and Nextdoor recently announced a nationwide search for neighborhood improvement projects that will ultimately foster conversations among neighbors and build sustainable connections. It may be a neighborhood cleanup, building a playground or community garden, or even getting together to share a meal. We are asking you to help identify and nominate deserving projects. Nominate your neighborhood project through Nextdoor’s mobile app or website, or directly on the nomination website. 

We know our society desperately needs more face-to-face conversations. Meaningful conversations are key to building impactful relationships with one another. Belonging is a universal need, and in every corner of the world today, people are yearning to feel more connected with real people in real places in real ways. A 2020 study by insurance company Cigna revealed that only three out of five people surveyed considered themselves lonely. According to Pew Research Center, 70% of Americans living in the suburbs don’t know their neighbors. No matter the culprit, the impacts of loneliness are serious. Studies show the health effects of loneliness are as lethal as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

America, please help us identify the projects that can reverse this trajectory of isolation. Help us create more conversations and connections by creating a park, building a bench, planting a garden or cleaning up a vacant lot.

We know that by building more authentic connections, we can stop the patterns of retreating into disconnected lives that unravels the social fabric of our communities. We can all play a role to Make Every Block Better. We hope you will join us. Visit hrbnextdoor.com