After you’ve reached out to people in your immediate social networks and have been encouraged by their responses, consider sharing The Local Resilience Project with the rest of your community. A mass mail out of The Checklist with a covering letter can be a most effective strategy for generating interest and can open doors for other people to step up and contribute to the resilience building.
Depending on where you live, this initiative may require the support of your local council member e.g. accessing the residential data base for an email or snail mail delivery/ printing The Checklist for a letterbox drop. If you’ve already discussed this strategy with your local political representative and s/he is willing to donate such resources then you’re well on your way to being able to plan for your first big community meeting.
While it can seem a daunting task to deliver The Checklist to all the households of your community, until this is done, the idea of building a more resilient community will remain just that – an idea. This is where The Local Resilience Project gets real. Enlisting the support of local politicians/ the media/ Chamber of Commerce to help publicise and distribute The Checklist + an Introductory letter + Invitation to your first ‘Town Hall Meeting’ can be of great value and will help reassure the community that you have committed decision makers on board.