One Facebook group filled with Moose Jaw residents is doing its best to connect people in the city with one another during this increasingly serious time of social distancing and province-wide closures.
Dalise Hector is one of the 11 administrators running the page A Little Help From My Friends - Moose Jaw, which has become a busy forum of local residents offering help to one another however they can.
“It's not a group to talk about news or politics or anything like that,” said Hector. “It's basically a concept to just help people connect.”
Group members are able to post in one of four categories: offering any items, resources, or services to those who need them; asking for help from other members; sharing local information or updates on the topic of coronavirus; or asking for group opinion as a local business or organization.
“People who have resources can bring those to the table, and people who have needs can bring those to the table,” said Hector. “And I think by matching some of those resources with some of those needs, we’re going to get through this strange time together.”
Hector had the idea to create a social media group to help people in the community connect during such a stressful time after seeing a similar concept work well a few years ago during the Syrian refugee crisis.
“It's by no means a new idea that I came up with, but we just applied that idea to a new situation,” said Hector. “We're just applying what I think our community has been excelling at for years in a new context.”
She saw how the pressure to self-isolate and the closure of so many amenities is already affecting many people, and thought Moose Jaw was already well-equipped to get behind an idea like this.
“I think it's beautiful to see [this group happen], in these times, but I don't think that it's anything out of the ordinary,” said Hector. “I really think that’s just how Moose Jaw is.”
The group grew quickly, reaching over 750 members within a week, as the community sought some way of sharing their needs while continuing to stay safe in their homes.
Members have posted all kinds of useful things, including offers to deliver food or do grocery shopping for others, links to online classes, and ideas to occupy the time while stuck at home.
“It's great to have these social media tools, especially when we're so isolated from each other right now,” said Hector.
The group may be labelled closed on Facebook, but anyone in Moose Jaw and area is welcome to join and be a part of the positive space.
“Really it boils down to making critical connections, to deal with wherever things are falling apart because of how different everything is in the world right now,” said Hector.
In fact, Hector encourages all of Moose Jaw to get involved and for other communities to create their own social media stronghold of positive energy — to debunk the idea that “social isolation” means being cut off from the community entirely.
“I think this group just shows that we don't want to talk so much about social isolation,” said Hector. “Yeah, we can talk about physical isolation, but we're social beings and we need to be socially connected, so that's what we're trying to do.”
