Groundwork Grants: Meetup Wrap-up
Community networks are one of the most significant parts of emergency planning, but building and maintaining connections is often an overlooked activity. Over the past six weeks, Groundwork Grants organized eight meetups throughout California. We gathered 108 individuals from 73 organizations ranging from large museums to small volunteer historical societies. Together with host organizations, we invited Groundwork Grants awardees and their neighboring institutions to have lunch and strengthen community partnerships. Our facilitators guided participants in sharing ideas, resources, and lessons learned from their own disaster and emergency preparedness projects. Participants reflected on each others experiences and were excited to connect while facilitators appreciated the vulnerability and generosity in the conversations. Topics varied widely across all meetups, but included navigating relationships with landlords, antiquated electricity systems, HVAC retrofitting, mutual aid, digital preservation concerns, and more. Feeling less alone in this work was a common theme across all regions. We hope everyone will stay in touch and continue to build upon these connections and overall regional resiliency.
“It was a wonderful experience to hear other institutions journeys into disaster prep. It demystified some of the organizational issues we had. ”
Fresno meetup at Fresno City College Library
“Having this meetup is such an excellent next step towards both meeting our neighbors/mutual aid networks and learning so much from them/their projects. ”
“I thought the open discussions were thoughtful and created new questions and ideas. ”
Alameda meetup at California Historical Radio Society
“This meetup was helpful so we didn’t feel alone. We are not the only ones missing emergency preparedness. Hearing some of the resources used was very helpful and provided ideas that we can utilize in our process.”
“This was amazing - sometimes this work can feel so isolating. It was great to connect with folks doing similar work.”
Santa Barbara meetup at Ganna Walska Lotusland
“Creating this network and facilitating communication between these organizations and institutions is a fantastic idea - very grateful to be a part of this!”
“Very interesting—the archivists were all engaging and had much good information. I felt a Northern California solidarity.”
Los Angeles meetup at Corita Art Center
“This was a great chance to hear from other organizations and it always makes me feel motivated and excited and reminds me of why I am in this field!”