Neighborhood Village Project with Savannah Kruger

Rebuilding the village, one knock at a time

Two and a half years ago, Savannah Kruger moved into a neighborhood in Boulder, Colorado, looked around, and asked a simple question: why aren’t these people talking to each other?

What started as door-to-door introductions has become the Neighborhood Village Project — a growing movement, a free cohort-based course, and an emerging body of practice for turning fearful, atomized streets back into villages. Over 120 alumni. 22 neighborhoods in Boulder alone. Participants as far away as Perth.

The method is deceptively simple: train “first movers” — one per block — to show up with patient, unconditional love and slowly build the connective tissue their street is missing. Potlucks. Walks. Real friendship. No apps. No programming. And crucially: not organizing a neighborhood for people, but empowering people to share their own gifts with the neighbors they already have.

Savannah frames this as both a cultural lever and a spiritual practice. Her reflection on working across difference — practicing that this person was once a tiny, vulnerable baby — is one of the most quietly radical things said in our assemblies all year. And her point about including “the old white man who loves to golf” as part of the revolution will stick with you.

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Savannah Kruger is the founder of the Neighborhood Village Project, based in Boulder, Colorado. This session was recorded at the OpenCivics Bi-Weekly Network Assembly on March 4, 2026.

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