Cindi Barker, Emergency Communication Hubs Coordinator for West Seattle (and citywide), shared this update about how hub volunteers are working with others in the community.
Whew! The COVID-19 virus outbreak has been a real head-spinner for the hubs. Hubs normally activate only when all normal communications are down after a disaster, but the current national emergency has had us thinking 180° differently. Standing up a local gathering place – while practicing social distancing – isn’t wise. How else can we help?
On March 11 the Hub Captains across Seattle held a virtual meeting to talk about our role. We came out prepared to utilize our preparedness / organizational skills to assist in the virtual environment.
Within Nextdoor, a West Seattle neighbor, Liz Root created a spreadsheet to make it easier to see who was offering to help. We took that model and shared it across the city for other neighborhoods to use. Nextdoor has since launched a new feature called Help Maps, but the West Seattle spreadsheet continues to thrive (60 volunteers at last look): West Seattle COVID-19 help spreadsheet
Then, we found a website used by Bainbridge Island, which did the same thing — matching volunteers to people who needed help. It was created from a national Recovers.Org template; its advantage is that it helps everyone, not just people who are signed up for Nextdoor. But, we didn’t have the capacity to set up and run a new website.
In one of those wonderful moments of serendipity, Phil Tavel called to see what the hubs were doing and how he could help. Phil immediately understood the potential of the Recovers.Org tool and quickly partnered with Brendan Kolding to set up a West Seattle Support COVID-19 site in a matter of days. This site will help individuals and our local organizations such as the Food Bank and the Senior Center post their needs and find people who can volunteer for their essential services. Please go to https://westseattlecovid.recovers.org/ to help your West Seattle neighbors!
For more information about what the Emergency Communication Hubs have done across the city, see our longer post at http://seattleemergencyhubs.org/
West Seattle Be Prepared 