Living in a culture where violence enters our living-room through the T.V news every evening, Americans often buffer themselves from their neighbors behind security systems, high fences and their own paranoia.

Informed by the vision of "Think Globally, Act Locally, " as well as the Second Commandment of "Love Thy Neighbor, " I believe that how we relate to our neighbors is a microcosm of how we relate at a global level — and how we relate to ourselves as well.

My background of gathering together with men to do an activity — Little League, community service, Boy Scouts, sports — has shown me that through working together shoulder- to-shoulder to solve a common problem or to complete a task, relationships are formed, friendships emerge, and mutual understanding flourishes.

When we can see, through our accomplishments, that we make a difference, our self-esteem grows, we feel truly nourished, and deep alliances are forged.

More often than not, it's the little things we do that make a difference.

I find that through taking action in our neighborhoods, sharing with others what we love to do, and being acknowledged for showing up, we build camaraderie as we build the fences.

We create bridges as we work side by side to make our neighborhoods safe, fun, interesting, exciting places to live.

Introducing ReadyWatch and Vanderwaals

ReadyWatch is a suite of software tools for organizing both a neighborhood's response to emergency, and a collection of forms and procedures to jumpstart an Incident Command Center.

vanderwaals AGS™ is software for powering your neighborhood web-site. The software is designed to be inexpensive and user maintainable.

Find out more!

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"What we don't talk to we don't understand,
What we don't understand we fear,
What we fear we seek to destroy."

— Chief Joseph

Nicholas Epple
3871 Piedmont Avenue, #74
Oakland, CA 94611
(510) 326-4646

suggestions? comments? questions?
neighborhood success stories?
please email me!