A Mutual-Aid Network is a space for people to list their needs and also for people to list what skills or resources they can provide to help others. For example, one person may post on the forum that they are unable to leave their home, and they would be matched with another person who volunteered to shop for and deliver groceries. Learn more in The New York Times article: Feeling Powerless About Coronavirus? Join a Mutual-Aid Network.
Since our main festival got cancelled due to Covid19 Covid19 created an online series with Alex Grey, Marianne Williamson, Charles Eisenstein, Daniel Pinchbeck, Kaypacha Lescher, A.H. Almaas, Gay Hendricks, Jamie Catto, Liam Forde, Anjum Rahman, Karen Johnson. Part 1 of the Human Potential Series weaves together a multitude of viewpoints from artists, authors, activists, teachers, thought leaders, visionaries and entrepreneurs focused around how we can Transform Uncertainty into Action. This is the first of many initiatives to come around new ways of living, community support and involvement.
In our first live session with Alex Grey we had hundreds of people tuning in to draw inspiration and use tools to transform uncertainty into action. We now creating a forum to discuss how to action ideas and initiatives that will promote life, freedom, acceptance and accountability.
That we are diverse and different that currently we are in the most challenging times in human history due to growing divisions and separation. We realized that we fear death and not coming to acceptance with this as well as our differences. We feel it is time to reimagine our relationship with ourselves, our communities, our appointed governments. This time we need to see beyond our fears and differences to be able to truly reach our potential. This will be through hosting discussion panels, community activities and invite as many people as we can to take part.
Patients were not able to recognize health professional wearing mask, and this had implications on caring, empathy, reducing the caring (not the curing) capacity of the health professionals. The provincial president of nurses report the problem during a newspaper interview, and an illustrator offered her ideas to solve the issue.
Now most nurses in different wards of the most important hospitals in Bologna wear the lapel pins and this help nurses doing their job.
This was recognized as a good initiative by the ministry of health, nurses would like to formalize it as a good practice, providing a simple, funny way to handle a problem that may apply also in other contexts (i.e, schools, kindergartens etc.).
LIV Lukhanyiso exists to provide a sustainable solution to South Africa’s growing number of orphan and vulnerable children, and building community is vital to our work. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of vulnerable families and children has grown significantly. In partnership with two local schools, LIV Lukhanyiso has run a successful project to provide food parcels weekly to 110 families in our city during lockdown. These are families with preschool children and most of these children would usually receive their main meal at school. Our aim is to continue to support these children until they can return to school.
Photo by Lara Kruiskamp, founder of LIV Lukhanyiso
Our motto is Together We Can – and it is in times like these that we can clearly see that we can do far greater things when we work together for a common purpose. We are seeing relationships being built and strengthened as sponsors, local businesses, schools and volunteers all work together and come alongside those in need. The project has also created wider exposure for our organisation’s work with vulnerable children. The food parcels provided will keep the children fed and nourished to avoid the child development challenges hunger and malnutrition cause.
We have been running fundraising initiatives for our organisation for a number of years, although successful, the response we have seen for this project has been unprecedented. We have learned that particularly individual donors prefer to give towards a cause that has immediate returns. We have also learned that beneficiaries are far more grateful than what is normally articulated. With more beneficiaries now with cell phones, this gratitude is easier to get across and it serves as a great connector between our beneficiaries and our donors.
Public libraries are storehouses of books and educational materials, but also often community gathering places– usually a good thing. But in times of pandemic, those same libraries are places that need to be avoided. So how can libraries serve their public while their buildings are physically closed? Here’s one of many examples: The Norwood Public Library, in a suburb near Boston, established a “digital book garden.” Library visitors find signs outside the building with the name of a book and a QR code (a two-dimensional barcode). By pointing your smartphone at the code, you can download an eBook or audiobook.
This and other electronic innovations have proven popular. The Norwood library reports a doubling of its digital resources since the physical library was closed. And other area libraries have reported a doubling of electronic library card sign-ups in recent months.
When faced with adversity, libraries, as well as other institutions and organizations, must find new ways to serve the general public, regardless of economic status or other conditions. And especially in times of pandemic, when more people are confined to home and fewer stores are open, the dual desires to escape from daily life and to learn new things are both stronger than ever. We may therefore expect more such creative initiatives, largely focusing on electronic resources, in the future.
Story shared by Bill Berkowitz, United States of America.
Covid 19, health and climate change are not distant cousins! Let’s not get back to normal after coronavirus! The old normal has polluted our Earth, created vulnerabilities and oppressions, and now is the time to create new futures.
Community psychology and environmental justice
For many decades, community psychology has been fighting oppression, violence, poverty, inequalities, and discrimination while environmental problems have been neglected in our research and practice.
Will the coronavirus make community psychologists more interested in climate justice?
Should fighting environmental injustice be the top priority for community psychologists?
What attitudes do you think most community psychologists have toward climate change?
What can community psychologists do as professionals and activists to increase environmental justice?
Should community psychologists promote a planetary sense of community?
Picture by Desiree Martin/AFP/Getty Images
Rethinking our approach
The burden of climate change is extremely high, and it is already negatively impacting the health and well-being of our communities.
What are the most urgent environmental problems?
Do you want to save the planet you live in?
Is there a “real world” or is everything socially constructed?
Donata Francescato: is an Italian former Professor of Community Psychology and currently scientific director of ASPIC, in Rome, she co-founded the feminist magazine “Effe” in the 70s and created an online archive in 2015 (www.efferivistafemminista.it). She received an Award from the European Community Psychology Association in 2013 for advancing CP both in Italy and in Europe, and for developing specific intervention and research methods involving community profiles and organizational analysis. In 2019, she was selected for the Award for Special Contributions to Community Psychology from the Division 27 of the American Psychological Association, for her contributions to theory, research, methodologies and training and her dissemination to the general public through mass media intervention (www.donatafrancescato.it). She introduced the Participatory Multidimensional Organizational Analysis (PMOA) model, Socio-Political Empowerment Training Labs, and innovative online collaborative learning models for conducting integrative, interdisciplinary, and empowering community practice. Since 2019 she has been an activist in the Parents group of the movement promoted by Greta Thurnberg, Fridays for the Future (FFF).
The city of Juneau, in the U.S. state of Alaska, normally has a hiking hotline for those seeking volunteer-led walks in the area. But when the pandemic struck, hiking programs were suspended. The hotline might have been suspended too, but local officials had a very different idea. They decided what was needed in this challenging time were some light-hearted moments, and a chance to laugh. So they turned their hiking phone number into a laugh line. Anyone who called heard a pre-recorded joke, usually with a bad pun. Example: “What kind of music is scary for balloons?” “Pop music!”
According to reports, the new laugh hotline was an immediate success — so much so that the line became overloaded. And suggestions for jokes have been received from across North America.
This example shows that it’s possible to turn a difficult situation into something positive and beneficial It does take creativity, and the ability and willingness to go beyond usual boundaries. It was surprising that the laugh line attracted so many people. But in a stressful time, laughter is a good coping tool, which helps people stay connected. And people need to laugh. In the words of a local parks and recreation employee, “After all, laughter is the best medicine.”
To hear a joke on the hotline, call (907) 586-0428. To submit a joke for hotline consideration, contact Parks.rec@juneau.org.
Story shared by Bill Berkowitz, United States of America.
More than the Covid 19, we have earthquakes, and we are still recovering from a strong hurricane. Our community is a Cooperative house system. We have been learning from our complex personalities in a respectful manner. We have notice changes in ourselves. Persons that usually didn’t care about the others are more solidarity. Looking for medicines and food, listen and support with each other. Consciousness of consumerism and marketing medicine are themes we have been actively discussing. We are learning a lot from this pandemic.
Picture by Lídia Martínez
We have more consciousness of how we can change with our community. If we practice solidarity, the community will do it too. Being alert to others suffers is very important.
Communities are the first response to hunger, poverty. Being able to share our material resources is a priority. People change and learn if we begin with ourselves. Modeling is the best.
Story shared by Lydia Martínez Vázquez, Puerto Rico.
EFPA EMC 18/2020: How to strengthen communities in times of crisis
EFPA has released some basic recommendations on the social effects on communities in relation to the Coronavirus spread based on a community psychology perspective. The document remarks that Community Psychology can offer specialist competencies and tools that are useful for real problems both locally and on a global scale.
The SC Community Psychology has together with our Associate member the European Community Psychology Association ECPA prepared this information and converted into an EFPA position statement. The document is available here and on the EFPA Hub about the COVID-Crisis.
After the lockdown in the course of the Corona Pandemic almost the whole public life in our small village has come to a standstill. The official community newsletter, which is delivered to every household on Thursday, became thinner and thinner as there was hardly anything to report except the regulation of the lockdown. That is why we started the series “Stories of Corona Everyday Life”.
For 8 weeks now we have been collecting stories about the changes in everyday life during the Corona crisis, the worries and fears, but also encouraging experiences.
Pictures by Markus Trinker (left), Henriette Biber (center), Luise Behringer (right).
A few extracts: A woman reports about her concerns when her husband was ill. When news came that he was negative, she looked after her orchard and saw a stump with new shoots: “That’s what spring looks like – old things fade away, new things grow.” My 85 year old neighbour tells how she lacks contact to other people, but many have offered help. The football player misses the sociability and weekly structure given by football. He’s constantly thinking about what he would normally doing right now. And a group of women has started sewing face masks almost in piecework.
We get very personal stories, which are also an expression of the overall social situation and uncertainty. However, every story contains not only uncertainty, loss or concern, it also contains new perspectives and positive experiences that encourage others. The citizens’ stories are now eagerly awaited. Last week, the community newsletter was delivered one day later on Friday. This has caused many to go to the mailbox again and again and to ask the neighbours if they already had the newsletter.
