The Sunshine Coast Resource Centre is collecting threads of hope and kindness in the community as part of its poverty awareness work.
This month, the centre is asking locals to nominate people on the Coast who are doing acts of kindness, who are doing things to make people’s lives better.
“We strongly believe that celebrating the gestures and actions that build community is where we start to address cracks in our systems and help to support people struggling with big challenges like housing, food security, child care and transportation,” explains the nomination website.
“Rather than focusing on just the challenges in the community, we wanted to instead look at folks who are doing really great things as a way to make that connection between the issues…but also the bright spots,” Resource Centre communications coordinator Sarah Tesla said, “and what’s hopeful about how people get involved.”
While there are four key focuses – support in housing, food security, childcare, and transportation – the broad idea is to find people who are making differences, big or small, in people’s lives. General examples Tesla offered included a teen babysitting for a family or parent who needs some extra support, someone driving an older person to their appointments, someone who has experienced homelessness offering peer support.
Tesla also emphasizes that she’d like to see diversity in nominations: people from all ages and all backgrounds.
Once the nominations are in – the vague deadline being the end of the month – the Resource Centre will reach out to the nominated people and ask if they’re comfortable sharing a bit more of their stories, which will then be part of a public campaign. “To give these folks some visibility and to bring more visibility to the issues through a positive lens,” said Tesla.
To nominate someone or learn more, visit resourcecentre.ca/nominate-kindness-in-our-community/.
