Neighbor Care: Where Relationships Transform Lives

October 26

When you join us in connecting with our communities’ marginalized neighbors, you’ll witness something that defies easy explanation: equally and inherently worthy people—caregivers and children—devastated by cold, transactional, and unjust systems. Because of fear and shame, you’re as unlikely to see inside what it’s like to be in their lives as you are to see inside their dilapidated homes. If they have one.

But there’s another story unfolding alongside the devastation. It’s a story about what becomes possible when we move from transactional charity to relational care.

Beyond Transaction: An Ecosystem of Care

Recognizing the shallow nature and diminished effects of transactional support, GMJ Neighbor Care starts by creating connection with one equally and inherently worthy person at a time. We listen—not to measure or advise or judge, but to see and understand each person’s values, perspective, and needs.

Just being authentically present, listening, centering and affirming the humanity of a beloved who has been systematically disenfranchised reduces the inflammation of being forced to live on the edge. As our ability to see and care for each other in relationship strengthens, our minds and hearts function better. Purpose and meaning become easier to discern. The contrast between healthy relationships and unhealthy attachments becomes more clear.

A Living Network, Not a Program

GMJ Neighbor Care is an ecosystem—individuals with varying degrees of privilege, trauma, and grace, present in each other’s lives through varying levels of relationships.

Some neighbors lean in as Neighbor Care Neighbors (what other organizations call “volunteers”). These neighbors may have “more” privilege than others in our system of care. But as they seek to live the unifying and universal values that drive Green Mountain Justice, Neighbor Care Neighbors recognize that while the neighbors we serve may have “less” privilege, they and their needs are absolutely equal to ourselves and all others.

Neighbor Care Neighbors’ spirits are called to expend their own privilege through the kind of generosity of resources and presence that generates equitable relationships and just communities.

The Third Space: Our Neighbors’ Table

We know that caring relationships between neighbors honor our interdependence and mutuality. At GMJ, we also bring those relationships into a “third space,” where a plurality of individual lifestances and life-stages, cultures and their norms, and experiences and needs come together around our Neighbors’ Table.

Acknowledging the power of Love as the universal centering force, no neighbor is left on the margins. Connecting with each other through that which transcends, those who gather around our Neighbors’ Table find themselves exactly where they are meant to be: on sacred ground, in beloved community, assembled only with the intent to be in Love and see and care for one another.

What Transformation Looks Like

The results of our model in action are seen in a variety of ways. Isolated neighbors feel more connected with genuine care and support. Relationships between people open channels of generative conversation, change, and individual transformation.

At a more concrete level, empowered by Love, relationship, and advocacy:
Families are sheltered and housed
Children and grandparents no longer go hungry every week
A single parent has one less thing to worry about because GMJ helped repair the family’s car or helped her buy winter clothes
A child’s or partner’s birthday is celebrated instead of dreaded

Here are real snapshots from one week in our Neighbor Care ecosystem, made possible through the power of relationships, mutuality, and GMJ support:

After two years of living in a single motel room with her three kids while working two jobs, JB moved into an apartment
M landed a good part-time job AND successfully had her criminal record sealed
JH was able to go through with a critical surgery he’d needed for a long time
M & E’s appeal to have their unjust eviction overturned was successful, so they will be moving out of their truck and into an apartment in two weeks
Feeling overwhelmed by the loss of his partner and financial obstacles, K now has neighbors that listen and support him, and a great plan to escape intersectional impoverishment
D, a young person with serious cognitive impairment due to years of domestic abuse, joined our network—his whole disability check only covers his room rent

We are honored to be a part of these equally and inherently valued lives, regardless of ultimate outcomes. Given our culture’s conditionality, beloved community has to be created person by person, moment by moment, generous action by generous action.

Operating at the Edge of Chaos

Our work is informed by complexity theory, particularly what’s known as the “edge of chaos”—that narrow space between complete order and complete disorder where meaningful transformation emerges. We embrace the inherent unpredictability of street ministry work, recognizing that rigid programs often miss people where they are.

This approach allows us to:

Build authentic connections rather than impose solutions
Respond to actual rather than assumed needs
Adapt to changing conditions
Maintain hope in uncertain times
Center the agency and wisdom of those most affected

Caring for our neighbors does not mean bad things won’t happen. But it means that when they do, no one faces them alone. And it means that the possibilities for transformation—personal, relational, and systemic—remain alive.

Join the Network

Serving as a Neighbor Care Neighbor is not for everyone, which is one reason we curate our volunteer list mindfully. But if you feel called to help end the relational poverty and isolation at the core of our culture’s problems right now, and potentially make a real difference in someone’s life, we invite you to connect with us.

Being a Neighbor Care Neighbor means:

Providing authentic relational connection, not just transactional help
Developing skills in deep listening and coming-alongside presence
Being comfortable with discomfort and uncertainty
Centering the needs and inherent worthiness of our marginalized neighbors
Working collaboratively with trusted service providers in our network

We see our demonstration of Neighbor Care as a fractal that can be replicated in communities and congregations. GMJ welcomes organizations to become institutional co-conspirators of justice—stakeholders with us in collaborations that work closely together, spreading like the mycelia of our growing network of care.

Support the Work

Every donation directly enables:

The relational infrastructure that makes transformation possible
Groceries, gas cards, and emergency assistance for families in crisis
Transportation support to critical appointments
Auto repairs that keep families mobile
Emergency housing assistance

Your financial support helps us maintain the relationships and rapid-response capacity that characterizes proximity-based ministry. Unlike traditional programs with high overhead, your gifts go directly to meeting immediate needs while building long-term relationships.

Ready to Become a Neighbor Care Neighbor, an Institutional Stakeholder, or Donor Partner?

Visit Green Mountain Justice. Contact us. Become a Donating partner.

We’re building beloved community, one relationship at a time. Join us.

Green Mountain Justice is a 501(c)(3) Vermont Community Justice Ministry guided by the unifying, universal values of Interdependence • Love • Justice • Equity • Transformation • Generosity • Pluralism