 Communities are important for a handful of reasons and are especially important when times are tough. By all accounts 2025 is going to be tough for many people, so let's talk about why we need community. When people come together they are able to build together, survive together, and even thrive together. They are able to share resources and we see this in times of sudden tragedy. A flash flood washes through a community, or a wildfire rages through, and people have suddenly lost everything. What we see is people come together, help find what can be salvaged (even if it's a small thing), and look for and after animals, and even the survivors. Community comes together, to donate blankets, food, water, clothes, shoes etc. Thankfully we don't have to have a major community loss to support each other, and work together. Many preppers teach don't tell anyone what you have, because people will try and come and take it. But the truth is when a tragedy comes, and it's not "people" it's your elderly neighbor, it's the single mom next door with a toddler, it's you, it's community. What tends to happen in many ways is helping.  Do you remember the old story "Stone Soup"? Everyone adds a little to the pot and creates a meal. Community is when the neighbor falls and breaks their arm and can't shovel the snow, or mow the lawn, and the neighbors take on that task. Community is also the place that notices and provides a safety net. Not in the big brother way of judgment, but in noticing that someone hasn't been home for a while, or someone is moving furniture out the front door, that you have never seen before.  And gardens (and backyard chickens) are another wonderful aspect of community. Have you ever accidentally grown 137 zucchinis? Trust me you are more than happy to make sure everyone in town has zucchini to eat! Your local library, and senior center are wonderful safe places to meet other people, learn new things, and find the resources you need (or how you could help others to receive.)  Everyone needs to weave a thread in their community, for themselves and their wellbeing, and also for the wellbeing of where they live. Small local locations, and neighborhoods, have the ability to save lives, and to make life a little smoother and easier; plus it's super important for your mental health to have some social connection. You do not have to go out and people every day, or do everything, or give, and give, and give; just make sure your personal thread is weaved into the community.
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 What you may not know is that during World War 2, there were concentration camps in the United States. People that were Japanese American citizens, and people that looked Japanese, were rounded up and sent to camps, and held. They had not done anything wrong, there was no due process, their civil liberties were fully stripped and ignored. Men, women and children scooped up and sent to the camps. Many were then sent to other states too. People were pulled from their homes, losing everything - including their basic rights as citizens. When you talk about the next administrations plans for camps, on day one, and you are comparing to Hitler, I encourage you to look a little closer. World War 2 was not that long ago and in fact there are many people still alive today that were held in those camps. One you may have heard of, and certainly would recognize is George Takei, he played Sulu on the original Star Trek series. Idaho was one of the places where a camp was built and you can learn more about it here: https://www.nps.gov/miin/index.htm?fbclid=IwY2xjawGo1i1leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHXcJaV9VT5Hrv1oOne0jDFlUFEK1fIHcGsXA-skXI8TMmcT2ye7j4xheHw_aem_l4NcLo049R95vOCFCXHQVg#:~:text=Minidoka%3A%20An%20American%20Concentration%20Camp&text=Although%20little%20remains%20of%20the,the%20importance%20of%20civil%20liberties There were others too, ten of them: Tanforan: Located in Northern California Puyallup: Located south of Seattle, Washington Tule Lake and Manzanar: Located in California Gila River and Poston: Located in Arizona Jerome and Rohwer: Located in Arkansas Minidoka: Located in Idaho Topaz: Located in Utah Heart Mountain: Located in Wyoming Granada: Located in Colorado They didn't call them concentration camps, they called them "relocation centers" they were run by a department that was created, it was a federal agency and it was called the War Relocation Authority. You can learn more at: Densho https://densho.org/learn/introduction/american-concentration-camps/ The National Archives https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation History https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation If someone tells you, that can't happen here, or won't happen here. Know that is has happened before, and if it's to not happen again, it will have to be the will of the people, to stop it.  The American Foundation for suicide Prevention has a great resource website and you can find that at https://afsp.org/ One of the great pages on their site is this one https://talkawaythedark.afsp.org/thinkingaboutsuicide/?fbclid=IwY2xjawGnaeNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHRhoeOPs8d-YTbZLtRSPb0YpEzMK2ICBxCKizQPPk-BZEN5LWC5KSA8bEA_aem_2m4V8tTa4b-2ml3_DAi0uA It's a great page to keep on your desktop, or on your phone as a short cut. What they have done is shared some ideas about what a conversation with someone who is suicidal could look like. It really helps to remove the stigma that you have to have all of the right words, instead of being present in a conversation. Please remember that if you think they may be considering suicide, ask that question directly. Are you thinking about suicide? Do not ask are you thinking about hurting yourself? or doing something big, or permanent or any other dodging about the ask. Ask directly, you will not put the idea in their head or drive them to it. That is a myth. And hurting yourself, and taking your life can be two very different things, something big and suicide can be two different things, permanent and suicide, can be two different things. Ask the question directly. Are you thinking about suicide, or killing yourself, or ending your life? A direct ask. And have a conversation, ask follow up questions, really listen.. Have you made a plan? Do you have a safety plan? Go read through their guide, they have done a really good job of what a conversation can look like - and what you can do to listen and help. Stay calm, don't be in judgement, be in care, and empathy. Remember too if someone is in immediate danger, 911 And if you need tips on what to say, you can call or text 988, and they will help you through it. And you can also share that 988 resource with them, because they can call or text 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, free and confidential. That is the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline and they also have a great resource website that you can find here: https://988lifeline.org/ As a reminder 911 and 988 are available in the United States. (0:00) Okay, so if you saw the quick stat list that I did earlier, a couple of things, (0:08) a couple of follow-ups from that, and equally fast, faster even. So some people see that list (0:15) and they say, oh my gosh, thank you, because I realized I maybe could benefit from getting food (0:22) from my local food pantry or my Meals on Wheels or my local senior center would give me a community (0:29) where I could go and be with other people. Whatever it is, a reminder about libraries, (0:35) fantastic, awesome, I love that for you.
Please, yes, always use the community resources that (0:42) are available to you. Yes, please, yes, please. And how do you amplify your quick stat choices? (0:48) Become the coordinator. You can, let's say you're saving your grocery bags, you could do it for (0:54) the folks at work and then you're the person that takes it to the local food pantry. (0:58) You could be the person who helps coordinate in your family, cleaning out the closets and (1:05) getting the clothes donated to the right places. You could be the person at work who coordinates (1:10) everybody putting together bags for foster families, whatever it is, right? So if you (1:15) wanted to boost it up, fantastic. Become a coordinator in a small or bigger level. Become (1:22) a volunteer at the organization and do even more. And if you have the opportunity to join a union, (1:28) do join a union. That gives you different levels of safety standards and community at work. (1:36) So there's a couple ways to amplify your choices. Hang in this, hang in there.We've got this. (1:41) We're going to make this through and it's going to be a success one way or another. We fight. (0:00) Okay, this is going to be a quick, fast run through some ideas of how you can help in (0:05) your community, how you can be an ally, how you can make a difference, how you can help. (0:10) So we're going to do this quick and fast. (0:13)
Foster families, can you be a foster family? (0:17) If not, there are still often many ways that you can help, whether that is doing donations (0:24) of clothing or toys or bags to be able to move the kids from point A to point B to point C to point D. (0:33) A lot of times there's a lot of moving and they only have trash bags.(0:36) Your local library, usually they have some sort of fundraising where maybe they have a bookstore (0:43) that they do year round or maybe a book sale once a year, once every six months. (0:50) Being able to read to other kids, to help in the computer lab, to help dust. (0:55) Ask, ask, ask, see what you can do.(0:58) Clothing drive, you can donate to your local domestic violence shelter. (1:03) You can donate clothes to your local homeless shelter. (1:07) You can donate clothes to your local shower program.(1:12) There's also in many communities a get somebody back to work level up kind of program (1:18) where they teach you how to do an interview. (1:22) They teach you how to dress appropriately and they even have clothes that are available. (1:27) Things are going to be more expensive.(1:29) Many towns have an opportunity for you to donate clothes for the prom, for example. (1:37) Get involved with your local food pantry. (1:39) You can donate your grocery bags so that they have bags for the people that are leaving (1:44) with groceries from the food pantry.(1:47) You can donate food. (1:48) You can volunteer. (1:50) You can volunteer at your local senior center.(1:54) Visiting with seniors or helping play on game day, Meals on Wheels, excellent program. (2:01) Are you a midwife? (2:02) Are you thinking about being a midwife or do you need a midwife? (2:06) Find your lane, right? (2:07) Can you teach self-defense or do you need to learn self-defense? (2:12) Do you understand how budgeting works? (2:14) Tariffs bring prices way up, right? (2:17) So maybe you're the person who needs to help teach other people how to do budgeting (2:22) in their family. (2:23) Environmental, you can document what you're seeing.(2:28) What are the birds in the area, especially if you live near anything of environmental concern? (2:34) What does the water look like? (2:36) What is the air? (2:37) These are all simple things where you can find what you actually enjoy and do more of that. (2:44) Not only are you going to be able to find your own tribe to give you support, but you're (2:49) going to be able to support that tribe too. (2:51) These are just a couple of quick stat things.(2:54) There are a million more ways to get involved. (2:56) Please, please do. I made a longer post about the steps and stages of grief, and it's posted in the wellness community - here is the link! https://www.wellnessbrainandbody.com/blogvlog/stages-and-steps-of-grief  We don't know them all, but we owe them all. And that means year-round, and wrap around support.
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