northeast organic farming association of vermont<\/a>]. and then there are people who are like, \u201ccan people come and help me?\u201d and people were showing up to help them out. <\/p>\n\n\n\ni think it’s important because it\u2019s such a place that you can just call into the void and ask for help and someone will always echo back, someone will always respond. that\u2019s why it\u2019s important to have that for bipoc folks because oftentimes in a community space, there\u2019s a lot of microaggressions and racism that can affect a community. having an affinity space where bipoc folks can feel like they can rely on other bipoc folks to support them in a moment is kinda great. and there’s also a sense of solidarity that we have to help one another in a state like vermont. that\u2019s why the listserv and releaf are an important model. i don\u2019t think they necessarily exist in other places in the country, maybe because there isn\u2019t the same need, but in vermont, i think bipoc folks feel really isolated. releaf is important because especially during the flooding, we were there and we held space again and people were emailing and trying to coordinate help. what releaf does really well is that we are all bipoc folks, that is what brings us together. and yet, we have so much difference. there’s so much diversity within our community. rather than siloing ourselves, we’re trying to create a safer space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
grass roots organizer andr\u00e9s oyaga shares what he learned about the need for vermont communities to come together after a summer of intense flooding. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10168,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4916,5195,4914],"tags":[],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-34060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate","category-justice","category-sustainability"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
building bipoc community means building resiliency\u00a0 - planet forward<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n