The headlines have been screaming lately. Meanwhile, the quiet work of building a better world goes on.
Nothing to see here, just folks working together. Melissa Fusilier Shutterstock/Standard
Good lord is it ever easy to despair these days.
Two years of pandemic, and now Monkey Pox! Meanwhile, there’s the rising drumbeat of racist, homophobic and misogynistic craziness at the national and state level—and now the horrific school shooting. It’s easy to feel helpless and just want to shout “Why doesn’t somebody do something?”
That somebody might be you, joining the other somebodies already quietly working in your community to make things better.
As of this writing, there are 1,344 nonprofits and community groups in our database covering eight California counties, and we’re discovering and adding more every day. Here in Santa Cruz County, where I live, there are 241 such organizations listed, employing hundreds of paid staff who work with thousands, even tens of thousands, of volunteers and donors, all striving to make the community better in some way.
Visit the California Local Community Groups listing, and you’ll see that we make it easy to connect.
A tenet of “Solutions Journalism” is that while problems scream, solutions whisper. It’s easy to forget that the school shooters, professional haters, trolls and chaos actors are vastly outnumbered by people of good intent engaged in citizening a better community. We are already reporting on groups and individuals working in communities to both inspire and inform, and over time that coverage will expand greatly.
Let Us Help You Spread the Good Word
Right now, we’re excited to announce our new California Local Community Alliance program. Now, any group in our database can sign up as California Local member. As such, you can administrate your listing by sharing information about your programs and posting events in our events calendar. You can create blog posts that we will share with our growing community here and on our social media channels. And you can engage in other ways.
If you are affiliated with a nonprofit or community group, the first thing to do is check your listing. Shoot a note to our publisher, Mike Gelbman (address below), and he’ll help you get set up to use our tools to get the word out. It takes a few minutes.
Our Community Groups directory makes it easier for people to discover and connect with your group—by working with our new tools to help create the California Local Community Alliance, you will be better able to reach out and connect with your community.
Contact Mike!
mike@californialocal.com
