Could you be a Community Champion?
Since our last Blog Post life has been busy – spring is in the air and the results of our labours are, like little shoots in the soil, beginning to become visible. At the time of writing there are 66 organisations on the Map and each week sees more. Selfishly, it gives me a real buzz when I send an invite and a link to the Survey to an organisation and find their entry has been authorised and they are on – as happened last week with both Metal (Liverpool) and Merseyside BioBank.
As the Map begins to attract more attention (and thanks to our friends at Ethos newsletter for their article) some organisations are finding their way to us without much work on our behalf, and we expect that will increase.
It is not always that straight-forward of course, for some groups one of the impacts of Covid has been to disrupt communication and decision making. Some organisations might suspect we are trying to sell advertising space. Some organisations might struggle with access to, or use of technology – or in some cases things have changed and our information about what is in your local area is out of date.
Windmill were one of the first…
How do we make sure that we are representing and supporting all organisations that are part of the Solidarity Economy? – One answer is to forge links at a local and community level with people who know and love their patch “Community Champions” – to provide information about the map and if necessary support the process of adding organisations to it. We aim to support
Biobank was contacted by one of our champions and completed
the survey that day…..
these Champions who will be able to spread the word and share information back and forth so when an organisation expands, offers a new service or resource, changes contact details or, as inevitably sometimes happens, closes its doors, we will be able to update the map and maintain it as a resource which, over time, becomes ever more effective.
One of the great things about the Community Champions role is that it is very flexible and therefore inclusive and accessible. Some people might want to be involved quite a lot for a short period of time, others might have responsibilities which mean they can’t commit to a set time for volunteering but want to do something positive to support their community. Some might need to stay at home but can contact organisations by email or phone, whilst others might want to use the Champion role as a start to build involvement in other ways.
The Tool Library is a recent addition…
I hope some of you might consider coming on board as a Champion to support the development of the map. To find out more just drop us an email at merseygreenmap@gmail.com
If you can’t commit at the moment but still want to help to support the Green community (and if you’ve read this far I guess you do) just make sure to spread the word by directing people to the map and the survey and if you think there is an organisation we should definitely be speaking to, send us an email.
