The gate, but smarterStichting Beheer Rijstrook Rietvaart VI

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Draft application — not yet submitted. English translation of the Dutch original.

Neighbours on the air

Draft application — Oranje Fonds, Together for the neighbourhood

In short. We want neighbours to be able to reach and help each other when things really go wrong — in a major power or network outage, or when someone becomes unwell. To that end we will run a neighbourhood programme for a year: getting to know each other, making agreements, practising together, and making sure older and less digital neighbours take part too. A simple neighbourhood radio network is the tool; the people and the agreements are the core.

Why

Residents in our neighbourhood have already shown that they want to look after safety together: in 2025 neighbours jointly funded a neighbourhood AED through the Dutch Heart Foundation's BuurtAED scheme, on the initiative of a resident who is himself part of the foundation; it has hung on his façade since May 2025. Contributions were in the order of € 100 per household, out of their own pockets — the willingness to invest together is already there. But an AED only helps if neighbours can find each other in time. In a major outage, phone and internet do not work, and then it matters that the neighbourhood knows who does what, who needs help and who can fetch the AED.

What we will do (12 months)

  1. Kick-off gathering for the street and surrounding streets: getting acquainted, explanation, who wants to take part.
  2. Neighbourhood agreements: who has a first-aid or CPR course, who fetches the AED, who keeps an eye on which neighbours — recorded on one map that hangs in every home.
  3. Helping people take part: volunteers help neighbours set up their neighbourhood radio and phone, with extra attention for older and less digital residents.
  4. Two exercises a year, for example during the national siren test: simulate an “outage” and see whether everyone can be reached.
  5. CPR refresher evening around the neighbourhood AED, together with the resident who set up the AED and the surrounding foundations.
  6. Closing and review: what worked, what do we keep.

Gatherings can take place outside in the alley: the foundation is getting a lockable outdoor socket (applied for at the municipality) for coffee, light and sound.

For whom

The residents of our street and of the surrounding back alleys (six similar foundations), and explicitly also neighbours who do not belong to a foundation. Participation is free and voluntary.

Budget (draft)

Item€Note
Venue and coffee, 4 gatherings400estimate
CPR refresher evening (instructor, materials)400estimate
Printing: neighbourhood map, manual on paper200estimate
Loan neighbourhood radios for residents without own means, 10 units350prices checked
Thank-you gifts for volunteers150estimate
Total programme1,500
Own contribution foundation and residents−500
Municipal contribution (applied for, radios and repeater)—separate items
Requested from the Oranje Fonds1,000shortfall after own contribution
Own investment by SBRR VI. The foundation itself invests about € 1,800 in the gate controller, the gateway and the radio link. That is partly for its own use (the gate), but the same infrastructure is in principle also a building block of the neighbourhood network: the gateway with its internet bridge, the radio set-up at the gate, the management organisation and the know-how. The gate buttons in the homes can double as neighbourhood radios. That investment is not part of this application; the neighbourhood programme does build on it.
Applicant. Stichting Beheer Rijstrook Rietvaart VI, Zoetermeer. Contact: ir. Jan B. Rhebergen, chair and secretary, sbrr-vi@rhebergen.net. Chamber of Commerce 27322857.