after a year of conversation, the concept of resilience hubs was born.
February 11, 2024 1:02 PM Subscribe
What does a third place designed not only for community-building, but also for climate resilience, look like? "I think anything where we’re saying, ‘Here’s an individual kit, go be an individual and care for yourself, that’s missing out on the entire essence of what resilience is." Key aspects and examples of resilience hubs, also depicted in the winning story in Grist’s Imagine 2200 contest “To Labor for the Hive.”
In early 2020, Lake City Collective — a small but mighty community organization in the Lake City neighborhood in northeast Seattle — leased a commercial space that had stood vacant for over a year and was planning a grand opening of a new community center. Then the pandemic hit.
The qʷiʔqʷuʔ center (pronounced “kwai quo,” meaning “little water” in Lushootseed, an Indigenous language of the Puget Sound area) opened anyway. “People were excited that we had a space,” said Cesar Garcia, who runs the collective along with his wife. The center quickly became a hub for the community’s response to COVID. “We switched from planning our grand opening to, ‘OK, we are facing this big emergency. So what do we do?’”
The collective distributed PPE, food, and school supplies, and hosted three community vaccination events.
In early 2020, Lake City Collective — a small but mighty community organization in the Lake City neighborhood in northeast Seattle — leased a commercial space that had stood vacant for over a year and was planning a grand opening of a new community center. Then the pandemic hit.
The qʷiʔqʷuʔ center (pronounced “kwai quo,” meaning “little water” in Lushootseed, an Indigenous language of the Puget Sound area) opened anyway. “People were excited that we had a space,” said Cesar Garcia, who runs the collective along with his wife. The center quickly became a hub for the community’s response to COVID. “We switched from planning our grand opening to, ‘OK, we are facing this big emergency. So what do we do?’”
The collective distributed PPE, food, and school supplies, and hosted three community vaccination events.
I wonder if my local city councillors are aware of this concept. (I know some of them would be very interested.)
I’ve been thinking about these sorts of things lately because my Canadian community (like many) is facing issues with houseless folks who are inordinately affected during times of climate emergency. We recently had a snap of -30C weather and there was a huge scramble to try to get folks to shelter because that weather kills. We also had a heat dome a few years ago that killed many people, housed and unhoused, in my province. Wildfires every summer have displaced many people, and my place of work was turned into a crisis centre to house people and their animals and connect them with services.
Thought provoking and ultimately hopeful. Thank you for posting this.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 6:50 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]
I’ve been thinking about these sorts of things lately because my Canadian community (like many) is facing issues with houseless folks who are inordinately affected during times of climate emergency. We recently had a snap of -30C weather and there was a huge scramble to try to get folks to shelter because that weather kills. We also had a heat dome a few years ago that killed many people, housed and unhoused, in my province. Wildfires every summer have displaced many people, and my place of work was turned into a crisis centre to house people and their animals and connect them with services.
Thought provoking and ultimately hopeful. Thank you for posting this.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 6:50 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]
this third place concept. seems like a previous generations wave of this was grange halls, elks clubs, odd fellows halls, lodges, etc. These died because they were too exclusive and not adaptive? Anyways, I like how adaptive this resilience hub in this story was/is.
posted by danjo at 8:07 PM on February 11 [3 favorites]
posted by danjo at 8:07 PM on February 11 [3 favorites]
That story was wonderful and now I crave honey so much
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 11:42 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 11:42 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]
My town bought a building across from the high school for doing something like this. The building inspector promptly condemned it for being about 200% asbestos, and now it's a parking lot. *sigh*
Just a week or two I was asking the town council president if they would ever do something else like that and he backpedaled so fast it left scorch marks in the rug.
posted by wenestvedt at 2:09 PM on February 12
Just a week or two I was asking the town council president if they would ever do something else like that and he backpedaled so fast it left scorch marks in the rug.
posted by wenestvedt at 2:09 PM on February 12
« Older Hash Tables | Woman fishes alligator snapping turtle out of... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by signal at 2:28 PM on February 11 [1 favorite]