An unlikely trio of Loudoun citizens has banded together to create safer and improved communities in the county - not through the device of a neighborhood watch program - but with a neighborhood listening program.

The founders of this Neighborhood Listens Program hope that by fostering direct, informal communication among neighbors, many disputes and misunderstandings that sometimes occur in our increasingly multicultural communities can be resolved before government agencies get involved.

Sterling resident and program co-founder Joe Budzinski writes on his NovaTownHall blog: "When a family of a different ethnic background moves in, is there open communication? Is it possible that no one ever told the person who owns the house that subdividing rooms and renting floor space by the month would evoke scorn and investigations?"

Budzinski told me that often there's a language barrier between neighbors, so much so that when a problem arises, it often grows into resentment and a call to local authorities, which just makes matters worse.

"We envision having team captains similar to how Neighborhood Watches are organized, but these captains would be available to listen to residents and increase understanding between neighbors," he said.

The idea for the Neighborhood Listens Program was born when Budzinski, Ricardo Cabellos-Reyes and Ben Kelahan - all local community activists with decidedly different views on illegal immigration - discovered that they shared similar views on smaller issues like safe streets, friendly communities, good schools and maintaining property values.

"From that common ground, we were able to expand to larger areas of common ground until we believed we had a sphere of agreement worth serious consideration,” Budzinski said.

What makes these three citizens unlikely bedfellows is their passionate involvement in organizations revolving around the hotbed issue of immigration.

Budzinski is the founder of Help Save Loudoun, an offshoot of the Help Save Herndon group that garnered national attention for overturning Herndon's decision to run a day laborer center for alleged undocumented and, most often, Hispanic workers.

Cabellos-Reyes of South Riding was appointed in 2003 by Gov. Mark Warner and later reappointed by Gov. Tim Kaine to serve on Virginia's Latino Advisory Board. He currently works for Fairfax County, where he works to "bridge the gaps between the immigrant community and access to government services."

And then there's Kelahan, a Brambleton resident who has been a community activist and vocal advocate of local day laborer centers.

With the program still in infancy, these founders want to get the word out, particularly in some of the more culturallydiverse neighborhoods of Sterling, and they're encouraging fellow residents to show their support of this program by signing an online Loudoun Neighborhood Agreement. As more people add their names to the agreement, Budzinki, Cabellow-Reyes and Kelahan hope to gain support from Loudoun’s elected officials and law enforcement and to show these agencies that neighborhoods are willing "to play an active role in ensuring safety and quality of life" in LoCo.

As far as the founders know, this is the first such program of its kind. What do you think about it? Will it make a difference?