SUMMER 1999

Y2K Community Organising

The last hundred years has brought us to a point where the most basic needs we have are being met by technological means.Food, heat, light, shelter, entertainment, communication - they get more technology-dependent every day.

I love technology. I love gadgets and buttons and the bright light of a computer screen. I love knowing that my voice flies through space to satellites and back down to my mother when we speak on the phone. I am constantly amazed by all the wonderful things technology can do to improve the quality of our lives.

But guess what? Our dependence on technology may have made us far less aware of the fact that we are also dependent on each other. It can make us less appreciative of human labour, of the interconnections between people. We have become less amenable to bartering with each other, to gathering in informal groups to work together and help each other.

Look around your neighbourhood. How many of your neighbours do you know? If you’re lucky, you live in a real community. You watch each other’s houses and water each other’s plants during vacations; you stop and talk to each other on the street; you take turns making casseroles for the ill and the invalid; you all know the names of each other’s children and pets; you know that the neighbours would call the police if they saw a stranger trying to get in through your basement window - because they’d know that person was a stranger.

Not many of us live in a community like that. Not many of us have the time and energy to build a community like that. And not many of us realise anymore how important a community like that is.

Y2K might force us all into that realisation.

Here’s why: people who understand that Y2K poses some potentially huge problems are often overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness and fear. There may be a sense of isolation, of helplessness, which can lead to paralysis (“I don’t know where to start, so I can’t make a single move!”). Working on these potential problems as a community group can alleviate a lot of those feelings of helplessness, because you’re taking action, together, to prepare for various contingencies.

There are a lot of great articles online about community organising for Y2K (listed at the end of this article). If you want to do some community-level work on Y2K, I strongly suggest that you visit these sites and see what others have done to successfully mobilise their communities.

Community Y2K action pretty much boils down to identifying the strengths and needs of your community, and figuring out how best to maximise the strengths and meet the needs. It takes a certain amount of initiative and leadership to get it off the ground, but after that, people can be responsible for their own part of the plan. Having community members take responsibility for themselves and their community is an amazingly empowering strategy.

There are a few different ways in which you can approach the initial community gathering. Save copies of Y2K articles in your local and national newspapers; tape TV programs about Y2K; print up a simple information sheet and leave it in everyone’s mailbox; put up flyers at your local grocery stores and restaurants, etc. Have a block party. Combine the meeting with your local Neighbourhood Watch meeting. Talk to parents at your child’s school.

A simple list of the strengths and needs of the community can be created at the first meeting, on a blackboard or flipchart. Write it all down. The strengths and needs of the community can be divided into three main categories: environmental/physical, interpersonal, and individual. For each of these categories, you can have the people at the meeting brainstorm together about strengths and assets, available resources, health needs, and potential hazards.

Examples of environmental/physical strengths, assets, and resources include access to solar or wind power, access to fresh water, sufficient shelter and heating sources, fuel, food supplies, and vegetable gardens. In this category, health needs and potential hazards are linked, and may include such things as proximity to factories and chemical plants that may not be Y2K-compliant, or living in an avalanche area.

Examples of interpersonal strengths and assets include a high level of existing interaction between members of the community; the bond and trust levels between community members; how well people in your community have worked as a team in the past; Neighbourhood Watch groups; and other community organisations. Health needs at an interpersonal level include such issues as garbage and sewage disposal; maintaining a source of drinkable water; and the spread of infectious illnesses. Potential hazards include overcrowding, an inability to work as a team, and poor communication. Potential hazards from the outside can appear in the form of rioting or looting.

On an individual level, strengths and assets are sometimes more difficult to pinpoint, because often people aren’t even aware of all the strengths they have. The greatest strength of a community is its people. We all have useful skills, each and every one of us. Some of us know CPR; others have a lot of backwoods camping experience; still others know how to cook delicious meals out of practically nothing. You’ll probably be surprised at how much each person can contribute to a community effort. Individual assets at this level include doctors, nurses, medics, carpenters, gardeners, organisers, and people with wood stoves or hand-pumped wells. Health needs include infants, people with illnesses, pregnant or nursing women, etc. Potential hazards in this category include theft, violence, or simply an inability to process the information being shared at the meeting and thus an inability to work with the community as part of a team.

Develop a Community Memory

Find out how people in your community have coped with crises in the past. Talk to people who’ve lived through the Great Depression or WWII. Their memories will be very useful in terms of how to do basic things such as laundry, storing food, maintaining sanitation without hot and cold running water. Ask about the 1998 ice storm, or other emergencies and crises, to learn more about how communities organised to meet people’s needs.

Take Practical Steps

There are a few basic things everyone in the community should do: get battery-operated smoke detectors; get fire extinguishers; buy extra food; store some drinkable water; stock up on necessary prescription medications. This is as good a place as any to begin. Community members should encourage each other (and themselves) to take a first aid course, to get to know each other better, to think about what each and every person can contribute to the welfare of the community.

Organise Social Activities and Meeting Points

Decide where people will meet to stay warm, to cook and eat, to get medical care, to communicate or leave messages. Organise your resources so there is a minimum of waste: it’s better to heat a house for eight people than to heat four houses for two people each. And don’t underestimate comfort, play, and laughter. Just imagine how many board games, decks of cards, guitars, and books there are in your community! Who are the storytellers, the teachers, the poets?

Develop Community Responsiveness

Make a plan for each contingency. Figure out who will still be able to cook and keep the house warm if the electricity and gas go out (I have relatives who regularly fire up the barbecue on the patio in the middle of a prairie winter). Figure out who will need to be taken in to a warm house under those circumstances. If you have a fireplace, and other people are freezing, would you rather take in people you barely know, or neighbours whom you’ve come to know during the months before Y2K? People who know each other and who are striving for a common goal are much more likely to reach out to each other when the need arises.

People will need to take responsibility for each other and for themselves. Arrange for people to check up on the ill and the elderly. Arrange groups for clearing away snow, for helping out on farms and with food production, for cooking, for acquiring and distributing supplies. Organise classes for children, so their education isn’t interrupted if the schools close, and so their parents are freed up to work with the community. Children, in particular, require assurance and continuity in crisis situations.

If you feel, for whatever reason, that it would not be possible, safe, or practical to take Y2K action in your geographical community, there are other communities. You can work with your religious and community organisations, or through your network of family and friends.

Y2K Community Organising Websites