Community Resilience Asks and Offers Board

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured
by the compassionate actions of its members.”
— Coretta Scott King

We have been inspired by the solidarity action network sheets that are popping up from all over the Bay Area (see here, here and here), and are picking up the mantle to build a robust, local map of the work happening here. A community resilience board! — Hooray!

Because we recognize the urgency of this work, we’ve decided to publish the page before it is 100% dialed (prototype, baby!)—we’d love your feedback on what’s working/not working and what you’d like to see.

HOW TO USE THE FORM: By filling out the form to your right (if on computer) or below (if on phone), it will populate the info grid at the bottom. Once we have enough information, we will move into our next phase: mapping and tracking the movement!! It may take a few minutes to upload to the response section below, thanks in advance for your patience.

We are a purpose-driven organization, (our recent motto: “if it’s not strategic, we’re not doing it!”), so we want to share some of our thinking behind the board:

1. Remove Barriers Around Community Giving and Receiving

In a country guided by the American Dream where folks are demanded to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, it can be debilitatingly difficult to ask for help. It doesn’t help that, according to the Community Foundation’s 2019 Trends Report:

“Our [Boulder County’s] charitable giving rates are well below the national average. This is driven, in part, by residents not seeing the needs around them and not knowing enough about what local nonprofits are doing to address those needs.” (page 82)

We are removing the barriers—now individuals, companies and organizations will have a way to ask directly for what they need (money, volunteer support, consulting advice, etc.) and folks in a position to help can step up and step in.

2. Mobilize and Keep People Safe

We are living in uncertain times. The shortages of food and other essentials (read: toilet paper, hand sanitizer) means that people who lack the luxury of abundant time and money are immediately at a disadvantage. For those folks, these aren’t just uncertain times, they are unsafe times.

We need to mobilize in support of our most impacted communities. Mobilize, keep people safe. ‘Nuff said.

3. Normalize Community Resiliency

We can call back to the 2013 flood—these aren’t just thousand-year events anymore. The onslaught of climate chaos means that these dire and dramatic events will hit harder and more regularly—locally, regionally, globally. Community resilience is critical and must be normalized.