Celebrating National Night Out With Our Residents

August 22, 2022


As a continuation of our Community Connection Events, this month we celebrated National Night Out (NNO) with residents at three of our properties: Beacon Ridge, Glenbrook Crossing, and The Village at Washington Terrace. 

Originally started in 1984, NNO was created to promote police-community partnerships and is celebrated in cities across the country on the first Tuesday of August. 

Here’s a closer look at how we celebrated with our residents this year and helped to promote better community relations between law enforcement and residents, an issue that we recognize deserves immediate attention.

Beacon Ridge

On August 6, around 150 Beacon Ridge residents came out to our NNO event, which we co-sponsored with Southeast Raleigh Promise. During the event, we enjoyed eating delicious food, interacting with the Raleigh Police Department, who brought their K-9 unit out for the event, and getting to spend time with our community in person. 

We also used this time to introduce the residents to a local artist we’ve hired to create a beautiful mounted mural on the property. The residents had the opportunity to give their feedback about what they’d like to see in the mural and we look forward to sharing photos of it once it’s complete. 

By far, the highlight of the event was passing out backpacks filled with school supplies, donated by Southeast Raleigh Promise, to the children in attendance. WAKE Up and Read also generously donated books throughout the event, helping to foster a love of reading for the youth in our community.

Thanks to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, which handed out food boxes to residents, no one left empty-handed, and all had a good time. One resident summed it up best: “Watching the kids receive their backpacks and talking to my neighbors really made me feel part of a community.”

We’d like to give a special thanks to our other community partners who helped make this event possible:

Glenbrook Crossing

Our NNO event at Glenbrook Crossing was on August 2 and it was the first big community event at the property since the start of the pandemic. 

Also funded by Enterprise Community Partners, the event featured the Raleigh Police Department and an ice cream truck for all the residents. Like our event at Beacon Ridge, we passed out books to the children in attendance, courtesy of WAKE Up and Read. 

The Village at Washington Terrace

On August 2, we also held our NNO event at The Village at Washington Terrace. Special guests included the Raleigh Police Chief, Estella Patterson, and the St. Augustine University Community Office, Charles Simpson, Jr, who talked to residents to help foster the relationship between police officers and the community. 

The Village at Washington Terrace’s resident-led Safety Committee helped plan the event, which included a community fish fry and was attended by more than 150 residents. Throughout the event, residents received educational materials, services, and donations from the following community partners: 

  • Raleigh Dream Center, which provided 100 backpacks filled with school supplies.
  • NC League of Conservation Voters, which helped register residents to vote.
  • Advanced Health, which provided tours of their mobile unit, which will remain at the community to provide ongoing onsite healthcare services.
  • NCWorks, which provided writing services for residents and assistance with job searching.
  • WAKE Up and Read, which provided more than 70 books and various literacy resources to children and hosted two authors that met with the residents.
  • DHIC Homeownership Center, which scheduled meetings with residents who are interested in pursuing homeownership in the future.

A film crew from ABC 11 News also came out to the event, interviewing residents who advocated for more opportunities like this to help improve the relationship between the police and the community. You can watch the news footage here. 

Thank you again to all of our community partners, sponsors, and donors who helped make these events not only possible but a resounding success!