Utah Neighborhood Connection, focused on northern Ogden, holding block party
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- Artist Matt Monsoon takes a break on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022, from painting a mural taking shape on the outside of Crossroads Church in northern Ogden, which houses the Utah Neighborhood Connection program. A block party is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022, at the site to finish the mural and spread word about the Utah Neighborhood Connection program.
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- Artist Brooklyn Ottens helps paint a mural on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022, that’s taking shape on the outside of Crossroads Church in northern Ogden, home to the Utah Neighborhood Connection program. A block party is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022, at the site to finish the mural and spread word about the Utah Neighborhood Connection program.
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- The design of a mural taking shape on the outside of the Crossroads Church building in northern Ogden, home to the Utah Neighborhood Connection program. A block party is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022, at the site to finish the mural and spread word about the Utah Neighborhood Connection program.
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- Artist Caro Nilsson, right, helps paint a mural on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022, that’s taking shape on the outside of Crossroads Church in northern Ogden, home to the Utah Neighborhood Connection program. Artist Matt Monsoon, who designed the mural, is on the left. A block party is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022, at the site to finish the mural and spread word about the Utah Neighborhood Connection program.
OGDEN — East-central Ogden gets a lot of attention from groups focused on helping working-class families and those in the area in need.
But need exists in other parts of the city as well, and Utah Neighborhood Connection — which operates out of the Crossroads Church building — officially took shape in late 2020 with the aim of helping residents of northern Ogden.
“I think there’s a major need and I think it’s masked because it’s such a high-low area,” said Meghan Shaw, the group’s site director. That is, plenty of households with need are mixed in with other more financially stable households in northern Ogden, where Utah Neighborhood Connection operates.
The group last month launched an after-school program to complement its food pantry operation. Now, in a bid to get the word out about the group, it’s holding a community block party open to the public on Saturday, when a mural covering part of the outside of the Crossroads Church building is to be completed.
“We want to be a force for the community,” Shaw said.
Utah Neighborhood Connection received a grant from Make Every Block Better, affiliated with H&R Block, the company that helps prepare tax returns, and the funds will cover the cost of Saturday’s event and the mural. Saturday’s block party outside the Crossroads building at 789 2nd St. — just north of Highland Junior High School — goes from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will feature food, music and more.
Matt Monsoon, an assistant professor at Salt Lake Community College who’s completing the mural, called Saturday’s gathering “a paint party.” He’s been working on the outlines of the mural and those attending Saturday will help fill in the blanks spots.
The mural “speaks to our ownership and involvement in the community and how we all have ripple effects,” said Monsoon, who’s completed around 15 murals from Logan to Boulder in southern Utah. It features two hands in the shape of a heart and the northern Ogden area that Utah Neighborhood Connection serves.
The roots of Utah Neighborhood Connection are in an informal after-school initiative for kids that Crossroads operated once a week starting in 2019, up until the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in early 2020. The new group formally took shape near the end of 2020, operated independently of the church, and the focus up until the launch of the new after-school initiative in September was on distribution of groceries to neighborhood residents in need.
“Our mission is to love and empower our neighborhood,” Shaw said. “We want to know the community and just do what we can because we love the area so much.”