The founder and head of Neighbors for Neighbors—a popular nonprofit community-based social networking site launched in Jamaica Plain in 2009—is moving to Washington D.C. and is looking for someone to take over his old gig.
“…I’m sad to say it, but I am moving to D.C. tomorrow,” Porcelli said in an Aug. 30 blog post on the Neighbors for Neighbors website.
Porcelli said he and the nonprofit’s board “are fully committed to support the next round of leadership.”
He said the board is open to other community members taking over the site or to a nonprofit or business taking it over.
Speaking to the Gazette last week, he said the website is set up to continue operating through July.
Since it was launched in JP, Neighbors for Neighbors has gone citywide, but JP residents remain the most active users of the site. Popular groups on the site include the JP Women’s Running Club, JP Ultimate Frisbee, JP Writers, JP Yoga, and the Parkside Neighborhood Group. About 1,900 of the network’s 2,740 members are from JP, he said.
In his blog post, Porcelli said that he needs someone to take over as webmaster for the site. Two people have volunteered for that job, he told the Gazette.
Neighbors for Neighbors hosted a series of successful community events between its founding in 2005 and 2009, and some blog commenters have expressed interest in resurrecting the event series.
Porcelli has been working for the communications consulting firm GovDelivery. The company counts the Federal Emergency Management Agency among its clients.
“I took what I learned from Neighbors for Neighbors and took it to a national level,” Porcelli said.