The purpose of the Social Street is to promote socialization between neighbors resident in the same street in order to build relationships, to interchange needs, to share expertise and knowledges, to implement common interest projects, with common benefits from a closer social interaction.
To reach this zero cost objective, without opening new sites or platforms, Social Street makes use of the creation of Facebook closed groups.

How we in via Fondazza started our “Social Street”

Step1: creating a Facebook closed group.

The first step is to set up a closed group starting from your personal FB profile: to be found by Facebook searching engine it is important that the name of your group follows the format
“Resident in …STREET or SQUARE NAME – CITY – social street”.
The group should be closed to protect members privacy.
Privacy setting can be managed by the founder who can decide whether or not to authorize all posts in automatic or to moderate/approve them: because the social street spirit does not include the idea of a “boss” the second option is not recommended.
Founder is in such a way the moderator who provided directions to proposal and ideas but should not be the absolute leader of the group. Social Street model should be as much democratic as possible and “sharing” is the basis of this trend. Of course some specific decisions requiring a fast and slim and approach, can be taken without previous shared discussion.
This is the reason why we recommend the creation of a sort of “board of directors” including the group owner and other 4-5 people. Considering Facebook is the main element of Social Street, the founder of th group will open closed private chats with the “board of directors” to take fast decisions.
Some members could join the group for reason other than the social scope, i.e. for specific advertising: it will be founder’s decision to permit it (in the case it could be useful for the community) or not and it this case to decide to remove it.
It is possible that at the beginning the founder has no idea about the other members of the group in order to choose the board of directors members: the choice will be postponed. The most important is to start.

Step 2: Advertising the Group

Once you have created your Facebook group, you can advertise it with a A4 poster indicating the newborn group name, the goal of socializing, affixing some copies in the most visible and legal area of your street; you could put in mailboxes or under the doors; to contact shop owner explaining them the scope of the initiative and asking them to expose your poster. Huge goals are not requested. The success of Social Street is no based on the number of the members of the group: in fact paradoxically, we experienced that smaller groups work better than larger ones because of higher interaction and mutual understanding. At this stage, commercial activities in the street can be involved proposing agreements that could( be beneficial for both them and the community (discount for residents, more costumers for the business).

Step 3: Group Management

Fed the group with a minimum of contents and ideas. Not always the group is able to auto produce ideas. Both founder and members have to stimulate group activity even with small initiatives. For example, in our group of residents in Fondazza street in Bologna, photo albums with terraces normally not visible from the street as well as for exchanged items were created.. These are just examples considering a wide range of possibilities as to create the own path hash tang on Instagram and upload photos for Via Fondazza is #fondazziani.

Consider that Social Street should not become a job for anyone, doesn’t have to be a disproportionate effort but a pleasure. Facebook allows you to interact with others at any time but the most important aspect is the possibility to share experiences, needs, proposals: and this can lead, in turn, to the creation of “sub-groups” based on affinities. Are you a musician? With Social Street you can easily check if other people in your street share your passion for music.

Once you will have at least 30 people in your group who, maybe, don’t know each other but are living in the same street, they will be able trough the group to solve problems and needs and maybe to support the beginning of new friendships: well, at this point you can say that your Social Street has been successfully activated.

Step 4: From Virtual to Real life

The most interesting part of Social Street is represented by the fact that starting on virtual basis (just because you physically don’t know your neighbors), can be turned in real life experience. Within the Facebook Group you can create group events in order to have face to face meeting with your group members! What are you waiting for? There is no need for private spaces or rooms to be rent: there are squares, gardens or the members’ apartments to use for your meetings. Remember that to go on with Social Street there is no need of financial investments but only willingness to interact with your neighbors!