The Hope Next Door

The late Mary Jo Taylor and Westbrook resident Jeffrey Wood were the subjects of "The Hope Next Door," a Salt Institute for Documentary Studies project completed in 2009 by Kai Lindemulder.

According to Wood, who is the founder and president of the caregiving organization eHope, he and Lindemulder have begun to collaborate a book that will be similar to the Salt project. Here's a sampling:

Mary Jo’s predicament is not uncommon; we are becoming more isolated from one
another. The Internet and its slew of online social networking opportunities
have a vast number of Americans putting energy into hundreds of shallow distant
relationships, rather than connecting with the people around them. Our roots are
spreading wider, but they don’t travel deep enough to provide us with true
support. Jeffrey suggests that this is directly linked to the fact that in
21st-century neighborhoods, we get to know our neighbors through the blinds.
This trend is precisely what he seeks to counteract.

- John C.L. Morgan