Jim Hawk

BY LESLIE LACHANCE

Ithink it would be amazing if we had neighborhoods in East Nashville, all over the city actually, that had wildflower corridors, and it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Creating these alleyways as a nice place to walk, where you can feel good and enjoy the flowers, makes a city a better place to live. We’re taking care of our pollinators, the bees, the birds, creating habitat, which is so important. We can’t live without our pollinators.” —Jim Hawk

This wildflower vision is one of many that arise from the thousands of neighborhood conversations Hawk facilities across the city in his role as executive director of Neighbor2Neighbor, a local non-profit that advocates for better neighborhoods through civic engagement. The organization is small but mighty, powered by a paid staff of two and a solid volunteer-base of neighbors and community leaders who seek neighborhood-level solutions to what are often city-wide problems. The organization focuses on eight “passions” that address not only things like beautification and safety, but also the pressing problems created by rapid development, like affordable housing, gentrification, constructions noise, and residents being shut out of the planning process.

Through his work, Hawk helps connect individuals and community groups with each other, as well as with city government, agencies, and resources they need to make positive changes at their doorsteps. “That’s a whole lot of conversation going on,” he says. “And it’s among people who want the best for their neighborhoods, and to be good neighbors.”

Hawk was drawn to community organizing from his early days in Christian education. He grew up in Clarion, Pennsylvania and came to Nashville in the 1980s to study at the Scarritt Graduate School and Vanderbilt, where he earned a Master of Arts in Christian Education from Scarritt along with another in Divinity from Vanderbilt.

“Amazingly, I use those degrees every day even though it might look like neighborhood organizing has little to do with that. Vanderbilt was very good at systematic theology, and creating systems and relationships is important in the work I do. There’s actually a lot of relevancy to it,” Hawk observes.

Neighborhood organizing is like ministry in another way. “You really have to feel called to do it. Also, in all the major religions, the call is really to love your neighbor. So that’s something we all can embrace. We may all think differently about what it means to our neighbor, but we all aspire to it,” he says.

“When you come to a neighborhood workshop or training, you already have experience and knowledge, and we try to get you to contribute those to the stone soup pot. There are things I know because I’ve studied the issues and can bring that to the table to share. But it’s more about orchestrating an educational experience where together we all learn.”

Neighbor2Neighbor isn’t Hawk’s first go-around with community organizing. In the 80s he was chair of Nashville’s nascent Pride event. “It was so amazing that year. We got 500 people to come out and just didn’t think it could get any bigger than that,” Hawk says.

He also helped to found Stonewall Mission Church, a small, ecumenical, non-evangelical congregation in Nashville. “I’m not a mega-church person,” he explains. His affinity for small churches grew from his work in rural Pennsylvania, where he worked with congregations that typically had fewer than ten members. “One church I worked with had only two members, and they were sisters,” he recalls.

For a few decades Hawk also worked in digital printing. “It was a good job, good people to work with. But it dawned on me that everything I was making got thrown out eventually or maybe recycled. I wanted to do something more sustaining.”

He looked to the non-profit world for more meaningful work, found what was then called The Neighborhood Resource Center in 2013, and which became Neighbor2Neighbor in 2014. He’s been helping his neighbors make their communities stronger, safer, more beautiful, resilient, and healthy ever since. “When I started working here, I said ‘This is a great organization doing great things, and I could probably do this for the rest of my life.’”

Jim Hawk in the backyard wildflower garden of his Historic Edgefield home. Photograph by Madison Thorn

To learn more about Neighbor2Neighbor's “Eight Passions,” or to sign up for one of the many workshops, visit www.n2n.solutions.