Connect: Life After A Pandemic [Winnipeg Free Press]
(Read the complete original article & become a paid subscriber to the Winnipeg Free Press while you're at it)
Whether reaching out to old friends, singing with neighbours, or offering help where you can, small actions can build and strengthen connections with each other, especially during the pandemic, says the publisher of a popular poster on building community.
"We think (community) is an important component in creating a society that respects everyone, has enough to eat, has access to health care," says Dik Cool of Syracuse Cultural Workers.
"In the present, it also makes people’s lives more enjoyable."
Syracuse Cultural Workers is a publishing company based in Syracuse, N.Y., which creates and publishes calendars, posters, cards and T-shirts on themes of peace, sustainability, and social justice.
Cool and his colleagues adapted their popular "How to Build Community" poster, first released in 1998, to adapt to the uncertain and unprecedented situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic shutdown.
Titled How to Build Community During a Pandemic, the downloadable poster lists nearly three dozen short directives, from the mundane "share toilet paper" and "wash your hands" to the more existential suggestions such as "imagine a shared future for people, plants and animals," or "remember to grieve" and "make room for a new normal." The poster also encourages people to do more practical things like making and sharing music, using technology to connect with people, and asking for help or offering assistance.
With modified graphics — the people on the poster are physically distanced and wearing masks — and the same typeface as the company’s original poster, the new edition is available for free download to print on a letter-sized paper.
Released at the end of April, sales of the design number about 200 for the larger poster and 3,500 for the postcard size.
The original poster, written collectively by staff and illustrated by art director Karen Kerney, has sold about 500,000 copies in multiple formats and languages, says Cool.
We’ve taken some of the directives from the poster and found our own home-grown examples.
Article by Brenda Suderman - read it all by clicking here
ORDER THE POSTER FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION OR FOR YOURSELF BY CLICKING HERE! LET’S SUPPORT THESE AWESOME PEOPLE FINANCIALLY WHEN POSSIBLE!
Make and share music [Click here to learn from Geung Kroeker-Lee]
Go out and get moving [Click here to learn from Glenn Reimer]
CONNECT [It’s me!]
Read aloud to each other and children: Send letters, postcards and packages
During the pandemic shutdown, community advocate and public speaker Michael Redhead Champagne walks throughout the neighbourhood with a new purpose.
Knowing many of his North End neighbours are homeschooling their kids without the benefit of public libraries, he’s become a travelling library and art store, passing on donated books and craft supplies and squeezing in a little social distanced visit at the same time.
"I feel like books can save people’s lives," says Champagne. "I feel like during a pandemic I can give books."
Empathize [Click here to learn from Andy Mager & Kate Kehler]
Champagne agrees that the pandemic has exposed fault lines in Winnipeg, but the shutdown has also demonstrated that governments can react quickly to solve problems if they are motivated.
"One thing that’s become visible, as a society we’ve been able to disperse resources to people in need," Champagne says. "If it’s possible during a pandemic, it’s always possible."
