It’s amazing to see how quickly the world is changing in light of recent issues predicated by the COVID-19 virus.
Inspired by actions of neighbors through social media sites such as Nextdoor.com, Facebook, and others, I realized that there was a gap in the capabilities that these platforms could provide as a result of the wide spread of online issues they were created to address.
While there are a host of neighborhood services and organizations in South Aurora, there wasn’t a “cooperative” that wasn’t limited in a sense where we could collaborate as neighbors on key, ongoing development within our personal lives. Things like seed-exchanges, favors, service referals and more can be accomplished on Nextdoor or Facebook, but these sites provide no forum mechanism to develop ongoing conversations and topics – once you create a topic there, it exists for a few days and is suddenly gone.
The point of creating a cooperative was two-fold. One, we need to address new requirements and needs that are rapidly changing in society at present. We want to encourage personal development and social skills such as gardening, seed exchanges, neighborhood watches, pet services, ‘gig economy’ services, and more…but with a focus on community and through an organization that is non-profit and lead by elected members.
True change starts at a community level, and we, as neighbors, need to decide whether we are going to help each other, or just ourselves. A proactive and ongoing cooperative is a great way to develop a community among those of us that are willing to help our neighbors, and eliminate the concerns found on larger social media sites of conflict and neighbor-shaming.
The intention of this cooperative (as it is being developed) is to try and first, re-develop a sense of community amongst ourselves. Let’s create groups that are relevant to our lifestyles, engage in an ongoing conversation about how we can improve our community and ourselves, and find a way to engage each other in a solutions-based format.
Thank you for taking the time to check our the South Aurora Cooperative, and please let us know if there is anything we can do to improve our site, our coop, or our community.
Author: Bryon Taylor
In Mission Viejo Neighborhood
