We’re live!
We are very excited to announce that Thrivespring is now live! It has been a long journey getting here but it’s hard to imagine a more appropriate time to be launching a platform for community resilience.
The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the extent to which a disaster can upend our lives. We’ve discovered just how essential key workers are, and how much we rely on them to keep society running, as well as the importance of volunteers. There are countless ways that volunteers have been contributing to the COVID response, from formal volunteers with disaster relief groups, to those who have set up mutual aid groups to help the vulnerable, and informal volunteers who check on their neighbours. We’ve also seen how important our social connections are, and the devastating effect that isolation can have on mental health — especially for those who live alone.
The pandemic has also revealed the vulnerabilities built into our global supply chains, and it has created opportunities for malicious actors to exploit the cyber security risks of remote working, including attacks on critical infrastructure.
In short, it has exposed the vulnerabilities of modern societies.
But there’s so much that we can be doing to make our communities safer, more connected and more resilient. We can get involved in community-based disaster risk management; we can raise funds for community-owned renewable energy projects; we can get our hands dirty volunteering with community vegetable gardens to help increase food security; we can install rainwater harvesting systems, mesh communication networks, and much more.
And while we are working alongside our neighbours on these projects to enhance our long-term resilience and self-sustainability, it’s good to keep in mind that we have so much more in common than not.
If you’d like to get involved with community resilience initiatives, please join us at thrivespring.com and sign up.