If you’re looking for ways to serve your community and build stronger local connections, consider launching a caremongering site on Facebook.
Caremongering is a grassroots phenomenon that has swept across Canada to respond to community needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Facebook sites give people a way to find and assist neighbors in need.
Locals post requests for help – grocery shopping, protective masks, medicine pick-ups, and so forth – and volunteers step in to fulfill those needs.
Some Caremongering site examples: Kelowna (https://bit.ly/2RyJyZf) Oakville (https://bit.ly/2Vn91py), Wellington (https://bit.ly/3a30mOf), and Yellowknife (https://bit.ly/2xtN4x0)
Once the pandemic ends, your site could remain a powerful way for you and your community to continue connecting and helping one another.
Here are five tips for launching a Caremongering site.
- Check to see whether a caremongering site already exists in your community, so you’re not duplicating efforts.
- Make your Facebook page public, and share it with friends, colleagues, community groups, senior organizations, and local government. Also promote the site through flyers, the media, and word of mouth.
- Set some ground rules about conduct (no bigotry and no exchange of money, for example), how to ask for and deliver help, and ways for people to maintain social distancing during drop-offs.
- Monitor posts to be sure they’re adhering to the spirit of the group and to ensure that the site doesn’t turn into a place where people are selling goods and services.
- See AARP’s step-by-step guide (https://bit.ly/2XtluuF) to starting what it calls mutual aid groups – a concept similar to caremongering. It also offers a site (https://bit.ly/2ydHXRC) where you can search for existing local mutual aid groups.
