How We Are Supporting Our Community in 2025
Hi all, we made it through another year together. This is the time of year for us to reflect and make plans for next year. One of the things I've been reflecting on is the evolution of our community.
When I started Support Driven, we had one channel in our Slack for a long time. Then we eventually added more channels when it became clear that one channel was becoming chaotic and wasn't serving the needs of the community. Since then, we've created many channels over the years to bring people together to help each other. Some of those channels have taken off and others have been relatively dormant.
As we've grown, it's become harder to find similar people in the community. We know this is an issue because people aren't sure if there are people like them in our community, and where to ask their questions. This often shows up in the form of requesting a new channel to be created.
However, we know that creating a new channel is not enough. Channels are spaces where people can find and help each other, but creating a space doesn't mean that people will find it and use it.
So we need to evolve the community to actively support and grow these spaces so we can
Facilitate people helping each other
Actively tell people that there's a space for them in our community
And leverage these spaces to support people in their day to day and in their careers.
That's why we started groups within Support Driven for our European community. Groups are driven by a team of volunteers from the community to
Organize events online and in person to bring community members together
Keep the groups connected through publishing a monthly newsletter
And share jobs that are relevant to the group to support people in their careers.
Groups are how we actively support and grow our spaces to create value for community members.
Looking ahead to next year, we're going to be on a journey of evolving our channels into groups. Over the next few weeks, I'll be visiting our channels to see if there's still interest in having the channels as a part of our community. And if there is interest, to see if there are people in that channel that want to actively support and grow it as a member of the volunteer team for the channel.
However, if you're part of a channel that you want to actively support, you don't have to wait for me to visit your channel. Let us know that you want to be a part of the team by filling out this form.
As we move forward, I'm excited about what we can achieve as a community. By evolving our channels into actively supportive groups, we're taking steps towards helping community members find their place, help each other, and thrive. Thank you for being a part of this journey, and let's continue making our community an amazing place for everyone.