?? these lessons from Erin Barnes at Main Street America about the top ways businesses and community advocates can play right now in building resilient communities. It's well worth the full read, but here's the low down: ?? Plan - be ready for climate, financial downturn, and other challenges ?? Open minds and hearts - invite in new ideas and new people; you'll need creativity and new perspectives ?? Mend your corner - start by fixing your corner of the block, of town, or the world and trust others are fixing theirs ?? Build relationships - engage volunteers, celebrate them, give them a chance to get to work and do meaningful things. They truly want to.
Last week I had the honor of speaking to a group of dedicated, talented Main Streeters in Saco- Biddeford, Maine. Thank you Anne Ball Yellow Light Breen Sylvie Piquet Perri Dorset for inviting and welcoming me in Maine. ?? Participants suggested that I share my remarks about the unique and important role Main Streeters can play in our country right now.?Here’s a short preview: First, plan. Let us create stable foundations by pre-planning for emergencies. Make and keep an actual list of all the things that could go wrong for your organization and your community.? Climate disasters. Financial downturns. Funding falling through. Risks to your reputation that could hurt the trust you’ve built. Then make a plan for how you’ll address it. Who will need to be involved? How will you communicate? What resources will you need and where will they come from? Write it down. Share it. And above all, set aside an emergency fund for your organization. The best laid plans won’t go far if there’s not money in place to put them into play when you most need them. Second, Main Streets are for everyone. Let us keep open minds and open hearts to new ideas and new people. A big part of having a stable foundation is having people in your circle who don’t all think the same way. Resilience relies on creativity. Creativity comes from different lived experiences. Without those different perspectives in the room, you don’t know what you don’t know, until it’s too late. Third, let us mend the corner that’s in front of us, and trust that others are mending theirs. We know that we can’t solve everything. But we are the experts on our own communities. We know which kind of business will probably work on what corner, and what kinds of events people will probably show up to. And we have this entire network of folks who are experts in their own communities too. So we build deep trust locally, and we keep on doing what’s working. Then we extend that trust outward, and trust others in our network to mend what’s in front of them. And finally, invest in people and relationships, especially with your volunteers. In the middle of all the bad news and all the disconnection and confusion, it turns out that people are really looking for meaningful connections. Volunteers are the heart and soul of our movement and there’s a tendency to want to make their job as easy as possible. But people who are drawn to this work, to the work of caring for places, tend to be pretty scrappy people. They like to roll up their sleeves and they love a challenge. If they feel truly taken care of, like you trust them to do something hard, they will show up when you need it most.?More on the power of asking volunteers to do hard things from Frances Jo H. : https://lnkd.in/eJJjg_vF