Local

Overview of steps to setting up a Group

Read the 'How to' section below
Check out the Leadership section - to read what others have done
Check the list of groups below
Set up your group
Register your group with us: local@thekindnesspandemic.org (so others can find you)

The Local - a Network of Kindness Pandemic groups around the world

The Kindness Pandemic was established by Dr Catherine Barrett in March 2020, as part of the Celebrate Ageing Program. The aim of the Kindness Pandemic is to spread acts of intersectional kindness across the world at a time when so many people are struggling with the consequences of COVID19. Our Group grew to over 1/2 million members in two weeks. In response this page was established to support local communities to set up a LOCAL Kindness Pandemic group for their suburb, town or city - to ensure actions are locally focused, embedded and owned. To date over 60 groups have been established around the world (see list below).

How to set up a Local Kindness Pandemic

If you are interested in setting up a local group, please undertake the following steps:

Establish a group admin team with other people and groups in your area - don't try to do this as an individual, because local communities need a range of groups and stakeholders on board
Set up a Facebook group: use the name XXXKindnessPandemic (replace XXX with the name of your suburb, town or city)
Create your own banner - do not use ours, create a banner that reflects local community
Clarify the aims of your group eg: to promote local acts of kindness (and respond to calls for support); to share information from local Government; to share information about local health services (video messages etc); to identify local people who are marginalised and reach out to them
Document group rules: click here to download and adapt to your local needs
Provide local health information: ask local health services to provide you with updates
Provide information on local services: updates on essential services like supermarkets etc
Focus on intersectional groups: who are the people in your local area who were doing it tough before COVID19 and are now doing it tougher? What new marginalised groups are there?
Use the hashtag: if you us the hashtag #TheKindnessPandemic we can connect globally
Email us with a link to your group: so we can register it on this page (see below) and share your launch with our Page and Group members on the Kindness Pandemic Facebook page. Email to: local@thekindnesspandemic.org

Leadership

With over 60 groups already up and running, it is clear that many groups are innovating to make sure their communities are engaged, empowered and supporting each other. We are now working with some of the leaders to share what they are doing - because this leadership is inspiring.