Coworking In Europe for Ukraine

Coworking IDEA Conversation Special Edition- Ukraine

Ashley Proctor 0:06

So first of all welcome to the Coworking idea project. This is a special edition of a conversation, specifically to serve our friends in Ukraine. This event was brought to you by the Coworking idea project, and the Coworking the European Coworking assembly and so many other organisations. I can’t possibly list them all or we will be here all day each and every one of you run multiple organisations serving this cause. So my name is Ashley Proctor for those who don’t know me. I’m a settler on Turtle Island, and I use she/her pronouns. I’ve been leading the Coworking movement in so-called Canada for about 19 years now. I’m the founder of Creative Blueprint, Coworking Canada, Co-HIP the Coworking Health Insurance Plan, Coworking Toronto, and Coworking Ontario collectives. And I’m one of the volunteer organisers for the court Coworking idea project. And most especially because we’re gathered here today to discuss issues of displacement, and occupation. I have to acknowledge that I’m joining from Toronto, Canada, which is located on the traditional, ancestral and sometimes unceded territory of the Haudenosaunee, the Wendat the Anishnabeg, and the Mississaugas of the credit First Nations. For those who are not familiar with the Coworking idea project, we are an international collective of Coworking operators and associations around the world, community organisers, collaborative consultants, and companies and we are committed to making the Coworking industry more inclusive, more diverse, more equitable, and more accessible. And we’re organising this meeting specifically to serve our friends in Ukraine. But I know there are deeper rooted reasons why we are gathering here today why we’re organising. One being that we are all united in Coworking and that we all share the Coworking core values of community collaboration, openness, accessibility, and sustainability. And as part of the idea project, we value Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility. Many of you are also part of Coworking alliances in your own regions. And we believe by working together we can solve complex issues, and we can create new systems and new ways of being. We all here believe that Coworking is a verb. And that this organising that we’re doing here today is what Coworking is really about. This is Coworking. And so I want to talk about who was gathered here today, why we’re coming together. And we’re here because in the Coworking movement, we have a service mindset. This isn’t just hospitality in our spaces that I’m talking about. It’s the desire to make things better, to build a better solution for ourselves and our peers around the world. It’s what we do. We gather, we build community, we make connections, we build networks, we solve problems. We are community organisers. We are connected internationally. We truly care about the humans that are involved, the larger systems that are at play, and we want to make a difference. We’re also here, because there is a horrific and unjust situation happening right now in Ukraine. It’s unnecessarily violent, and oppressive, and it’s directly impacting innocent civilians, our peers, and friends and their families. We’re going to hear about those conditions directly from our Ukrainian friends in just a moment. But before we do, I need for us all to consider something equally important as providing the support that we are gathered here today to provide. Why are we gathering today for Ukraine? I know you know that reason in your heart. And yet we have not gathered the same way to serve those suffering, the same fate in other regions around the world. Those fleeing Syria, or Afghanistan, or Venezuela, or South Sudan, or Somalia. What are you currently doing in your Coworking community, in your company, in your Coworking Alliance, to support migrants, refugees in your own city, and your own town, in your own country? I’m ashamed that for many of us, the answer is we are not organising in this way. We are not supporting migrants and refugees in our own backyard. 

Ashley Proctor 5:07

Believe me, I am not trying to shame you. This is meant as a wake up call and a learning opportunity for us all. We are not organising for Syria and Afghanistan and the migrants in our own regions because of our internalised bias, because of racism, because of prejudice, because of discrimination. And it’s not just you. It’s historic. It’s systemic. It’s in our history books. It’s in our mass media. It’s in the messaging from the relief organisations who are acting as saviours, rather than partners, and it is in the trail of your donations. We can see ourselves in the people of Ukraine, we are conditioned to help others who look like us when they are in need. And that is why the idea project exists. That’s why Coworking exists. Each one of you showed up with the best of intentions to help other humans in need today. We are all so grateful for that. But as we are building our solutions for Ukraine today, we have to keep in mind that we are the ones who will build this new system. Many of us are already doing the work by building the Coworking movement. In this process, we have to also tear down the old. We have to stop tyranny and violence and war. And we have to end all occupation and oppression. And we have to also work to see our biases, and to work to be more inclusive and equitable in our organising, in our activism, in our service. And we have to take new actions and act differently if we expect change.

Ashley Proctor 6:49

So at every point during our conversation today, as we are working to support Ukraine, and that is why we are gathered, I want you to be thinking, how can we replicate and duplicate these efforts now or in the future for others, who are experiencing the same horse in other regions around the world? How do we build those bridges of opportunity, and share technology and raise funds and gather supplies that get directly into the hands of those who need them. I’m just going to give you a quick example of how you can easily match your values with your work and your donations. If I want to make a donation to a relief effort in Ukraine, I will donate $100 to the effort. And I will make sure it gets in the hands of the organisation that has the highest percentage of that $100 going directly into the hands of those I am trying to support, then I’m going to make a matching donation of $100 to an organisation who is providing relief efforts in Syria, because I know that they’re not getting the same media attention or support for and from our community. And thirdly, to ensure that there are always going to be organisations that will continue to fight for Migrant Justice in every region all donate to an organisation, like the migrant Rights Network in Canada and there are equivalents in your region. We’ll be presenting an upcoming idea challenge with many other suggestions of how you can support migrants, refugees, and newcomers around the world. So I’ll pause those examples. For now. The issues in Ukraine are layered and complex. And it’s easy for any of these conversations to get political, to feel personal, or to become emotionally charged. And with so many incredible minds, and brilliant problem solvers and community organisers and passionate volunteers and coercion royalty in the room today. It’s also easy to get distracted during our time together. And so I will offer a few suggestions to set the tone and the flow for today. The question really is that we all have, how can we organise collaboratively to provide the support needed by our Ukrainian colleagues and friends. And I know many of you today have already created some networks and solutions and have things in progress. And I promise we’ll get to share all of those today too. But we have to, we mustn’t forget a few key points as we’re building and crowdsourcing any kind of international networks, providing relief or mutual aid. We have to centre those who are actually experiencing this crisis firsthand. Those are the voices that we need to hear. We need to take direction from them on this issue. We build mutual aid networks together by elevating the needs of those being directly impacted. And that is why we are asking, What do you need? What do you want? What can we send? What can we build? What can we coordinate for you with you and how can we help? I want you to imagine a circle, and in the middle of the circle for this issue. Are all the people actually experiencing and fleeing violence, war and occupation in Ukraine, and some of them are with us on this call. We will take direction from them and work to amplify and elevate their voices and messages. This is not about us. This is not about our solutions, our Coworking alliances or our brands. This is about the people of Ukraine. And beyond these understandably traumatised, and exhausted leaders who are still in the middle of the issue, we can also take guidance from others who have lived experience with war and as refugees. These people know from their  own experience, the kinds of resources, services, networks and communications that could be most helpful and can even fill the gaps. They’re not experiencing this event firsthand, but they have valuable lived experience that most of us admittedly do not have. Consult with these people when you can. Beyond people with lived experience broadening, there are those who are experts in providing and organising humanitarian aid in crisis, relief efforts, emergency services, and support. There are experts trained and armed with international connections, resources, and existing lines of communication and funds that could be helpful to our efforts, connections in the field and in the region and across Europe, who are educated on the crisis and are extremely valuable, and they have the capacity to assist us in our organising consult with them.

Ashley Proctor 11:24

And beyond the experts, there are activists, and alliances, and companies, and community organisers just like yourselves who are highly connected, privileged, empowered, funded, and who have access to resources around the world. We are all perfectly positioned to assist in meaningful, impactful and sustainable ways as long as we remember to take all of our guidance and leadership from those who are closer to the centre of the circle than we are. International organisations like Coworking Canada and the idea project are following the lead of more informed and connected regional alliances like the European Coworking Assembly, who are in in turn amplifying the voices of the local Ukrainian Coworking Association, who are amplifying the direct needs and requests from the actual human beings who are experiencing this war. Keep that formula in mind, as we ask these important questions today during our time together. How can we organise to provide the support requested by our Ukrainian colleagues and friends? How can we organise to provide support needed by others who are fleeing persecution and more? How do we organise to maximise our impact, and duplicate and replicate our efforts to provide support to those who are in the same position experiencing and fleeing violence and persecution in other countries, but are upper underrepresented in the media? And how do we maintain these efforts now and in the future, especially when the media moves on? So I’d like to know who’s in the room and what we hope to achieve today. So I will give you all the opportunity to introduce yourselves in the chat. Because again, I want to elevate the voices of our Ukrainian Coworking friends. We’ll hear from them. Then we will hear from some of you about the relief efforts that are in progress. And we’re also going to share a link, Hector, maybe you could share that in the chat. Where we’re going to collect resources in a Google Doc, I know there are other organisations collecting resources. We are only doing this for this meeting. We’re not trying to create a new website or a new central resource we’re collecting while we’re here in the dock. And we’re going to make sure that this is forwarded to organisations and all of you so that you can continue to share and add resources as we find them. So to begin, I’m going to play a short video from our friends at the Ukrainian Coworking Association and then because going to speak 

Anastasia Kachan 14:18

Hello, my friends. It’s Anastasia Kachan from the Ukrainian Coworking Association. Eight days ago Ukraine woke up with bombs and my life, as well as lives of every Ukrainian changed forever. We had the worst eight days in our life. In our previous life, eight days passed as a moment. Now it feels like eight years. Eight days ago we left our homes and I don’t even know if my home still exists. Roughly speaking it doesn’t even matter. Nothing matters from our previous life now. The one purpose, the one desire is to help ourselves, our mothers, children, our people alive. First, we were shocked, then we were lost, and could not believe it’s real. But a few moments after, we understood that it’s a new reality. And our duty is to fight and do everything we can to stop this. Every Ukrainian and every person in the world now has its own war, its own forefront, standing with its own weapon. And it’s not just a gun. The weapon of Ukrainian Coworking Association members is humanitarian aid, and means of protection to our people. We do this, as we understand that it’s not the war Russia started against Ukraine. It is a war between truth and light. It’s a war between democracy and totalitarianism, between freedom and fear. And we cannot lose, we don’t even have the right to lose. When my grandmother, who saw the Second World War, said, “No one wins the war.” I did not understand this. Now I do. But we have no choice but to resist. Because we fight for truth, for justice, for the whole world. If you could just see our people now, you would have no doubts that we will win. The morning always comes after night. And it will come this time. In just the world order. The one thing all of Ukrainians are praying now, every single moment, is just not to reestablish this world order at the cost of our lives. This price is extremely expensive. Sometimes, when I see the innocent people killed, I have doubts. Can we really stand? But when my hands go down, the one thing which helps me to believe and continue to fight is support. You know, there is no personal home in Ukraine anymore. Every Ukrainian house is a home for every Ukrainian, and they come inside. We see support from every stranger in Ukraine doing everything possible. We see support from all of you, support from all humans around the globe. And the world’s support has the deepest meaning ever now. You can’t even imagine how important it is. We say support in your massive meetings, in your protests in European cities. We feel it in your donations, when your humanitarian aid comes from Europe, and your financial support to our volunteer organisations, to our army. Please just don’t stop. Every bit of help, even the smallest help will be never forgotten.

Anastasia Kachan 19:10

We are all small bits of one big world and now we need to build such a Coworking community. But the size of the whole word. We can win this horrible war against humanity but only together. Only together we are powerful. Thank you. Thank all of you. And be sure Ukrainians will never forget this. Slava Ukraini. 

Ashley Proctor 20:05

Vika, if you are able to speak as well, we’d love to invite you to chat to the group and just let us know, who you are, and where you are, and how you are, and maybe what you need. Yes, thank you.

Vika Zhurbas 20:20

Yes, thank you. First of all, while speaking, I was looking at this young lady Anastasia who was part of our team and I was thinking how incorrect is this instance? She’s so young and is speaking about serious things. And I want to speak about it just a little bit. She is the vice president of the Coworking Association Ukraine and we were asked to make this video after Bernie and the European Coworking Association made… and all you guys made audio for us. So we were so touched that we wanted to give an answer. And we were thinking about how to do it. So this was our step further. My name is Vika Zhurbas. And a couple of years ago, I was thinking “why Coworking in Ukraine and not united?” And we decided to create a Ukrainian Coworking Association, which was doing events, meeting people, etc. But as of now, the aims of it are quite different. With me at this call, there are two of my colleagues, you might have known Igor Dzhebyan, who is also vice president of Coworking Association Ukraine, and founder and CEO of andcards, who has supported us from almost the first day of Coworking Association Creation. And also my colleague, Dmytro Mashtali, who is coordinating the international connections with our association. So I want you to get to know them. And I’m sure we will be connected even after our call today. Also, I would like to add a personal story from me as you asked, Where am I? Now I am in Hungary in Budapest, and I was very hesitant to come here. But you guys, with your support, and with audio and with messengers, made it easier for me to take this decision. And I know that there are so many people now hesitating about what they should do next. And even if they’re safe, there are so many other challenges they should be fighting. I love the speech, Ashley you did. And I haven’t seen good in this way, that we are not the only country because now I’m focused on myself, my family and on the closest people of my family, but you were speaking so right, there are so many countries which face it and might face it. And I agree that we share the coworking communities, and community, and building communities, and sticking together can make incredible things. Being here now in Hungary, I was helped by the Coworking community here by Kaptar, by Aaron and his wife to make my kids feel a normal routine and life. So I know how this works. And I know that it works. And I know also from some people in Ukraine in my community. That they are ashamed to ask. Some people even need some even products and food. And they are ashamed to ask me as a person, who won’t say no, and who will never say no. And it’s also a problem. I mean, to be ashamed to ask and as I was and also still am. I am also the type to only respond when somebody is very persuasive that we can go, we will help you just let me know on the fifth message. Maybe I will answer, okay. Yes, and I need help with this and that. But from the beginning I didn’t start because I think there are so many problems right now in the country. So you cannot ask for yourself. But still, we as a team gathered some concrete, accurate things which are needed, like already said humanitarian help or financial help with concrete aims.

Vika Zhurbas-Litvin 25:21

And we can together create a file, excel, and to put everything inside what is needed. But as I said it’s so many things, me as being, I would say like a more people-person, I am thinking not only about my personal position, not only about me, but also about mothers and kids, and people who are staying in Ukraine, and who are relocating how hard it is to them. And as I said, your moral support for me was very crucial and I believe a person can do a lot of things if he or she is in a stable moral condition. So I don’t have a concrete step here. I just, as I said, share my story. But just hearing the voices, being in this call, reading the messages, it helps a lot. And maybe sometimes it can save a life, you don’t know what your kind words to somebody can do.

Vika Zhurbas 26:42

As I said here, the calls are also eager and demanding. And guys, I wanted to ask you also, Igor mainly, to step up here. And to suggest the steps, we’ve gathered three main steps, we’re asking to support after discussion with our Coworkings. So maybe you could proceed from here.

Igor Dzhebyan 27:14

Oh, yes. So of course, Vika, thank you. And thank all of our friends here, thank you. I want to thank Ashley for an amazing speech in the beginning, an amazing opening. My name is Igor. I’m a co-founder of andcards. And also the Vice President of the Ukrainian Coworking Association, one of the founders there as well. First of all, I want to say that, as Ashley pointed out, the developers of Coworking, collaboration, community, inclusion and others, there is no nationality in any country they are the same. And all people deserve equal treatment and our efforts. I hope this is a foundation for something bigger than support for Ukraine. I hope we can maybe put together some greater effort to scale this to a much larger platform that can help all people in need. Around the Coworking industry, mobilise the Coworking industry to a whole new level. Second, Anastasia ‘s point was amazing, really. Anastasia basically said that this is… we’re all Ukrainians now, basically, right? Fighting alongside to uphold the values that Coworking was founded upon, and also standing up against the bully that is currently trying to reverse the flow of history, to undo the progress that we’ve made. The progress we’ve made in Ukraine by uniting all the people around the common values there, and the progress that humanity in general made towards freedom, towards dignity, collaboration, against fear and bullying. So I think that it’s amazing that we have all of you here and it’s amazing to get this kind of support, for me it’s horrible to see Vika getting so emotional even out of Ukraine. To be honest, I never met Vika outside of here. She is actually a native of Kyiv, the capital. I just met her a couple months ago there. We were planning, we had so many plans around the association I think we could do, but unfortunately, we have to delay this. I think I will, it definitely will happen but maybe not at the moment. We’ve had a lot of discussions internally in our team of how we can all mobilise together and what we can do to support Ukraine right now, the people there… and the people there are… What’s going on in Ukraine is unacceptable. And I believe that the people there do not deserve what they’re currently experiencing. Even andcard myself, we have a lot of customers that are coworking spaces. Some of them are in the city, which was bombed by Russia. I don’t even know if they’re still alive. We are trying to get to some of our customers and those beseech CDs. I am doing everything I can to connect with them, but I still couldn’t reach them. But there are a lot of working spaces there that we’re in touch with, we know what they need there. They are actually mobilised and they’re providing their spaces to refugees, helping the government to educate people, and to mobilise the support for Ukraine. So to mention a few things about our community there… things could be helpful. Firstly, is to mobilise the community to organise humanitarian and financial support for the coworking spaces in Ukraine, and for the people in Ukraine. We have our Coworking, Ukraine Coworking Association Board member working directly with the government and he can help us channel the resources straight to people who need it with, as Ashley said, maximum possible conversion rate of the donations to the people in their hands. We have an official statement by the Cabinet of Ministers, we can work directly or we can have a direct channel communication. So the top priority, top 10 shortlist of things they need, which you saw in the end of the video, if you watched, somebody already shared the link on the chat, where Anastasia spoke in the very last frame, you will find the top 10 list. If any of the community members know how to procure these items, you can reach out to us through the email on the last frame of the video. And help procure that. 

Igor Dzhebyan 32:14

The other of course, we understand that a lot of people may be… it may be easier sometimes to mobilise financial resources or just to have people donate for that, we have a reliable link called supportukrainenow.org which offers people a lot of different channels to support army, humanitarian efforts, hospitals, people, even animals. I believe that everyone needs support and I think even animals that are starving, should not be left out. It would be amazing if we could mobilise our community to actually track these donations and so that we know how much support we have mobilised altogether. So that we can lead by example, and maybe this could help us draw some attention from the media to get more people on board. A lot of people present in this call are representatives of not only the coworking space, but also associations Coworking Europe, the greater organisation, various conferences, various similar organisations which have a lot of followers and a lot of influence could help us to spread this information across all your social media, various communication channels. I mean, even if you look at the CELTA systems, social media alone, I think it has about a quarter million followers on social media. It is a  very powerful research that can help us mobilise the support. The second also quite important, in my opinion, and opinion of our board members is the standing out against the bully. And one of the efforts here, I believe, should be focused around this kind of the flash mob or the domino effect that we are all seeing now, with the withdrawal of various international companies from the Russian market. I want to mention that the reason why we’re doing this is because of our products and services that we have created and your organisation’s. They’re designed for the free world. They’re designed to empower people. They’re not designed to destroy, to instil fear. We don’t want our product to be used against humanity, against the values that Coworking was built upon. And therefore, and currently one of the first companies that announced withdrawal from Russia and unavailability of our services. I was really impressed by the support of our unlikely partners in this venture. The other Coworking tech companies. I want to thank the optics officer and the next was Cobalt, all these amazing companies that joined our effort and also are with us in standing up to the bully and we are not working with Russia. Today I’ve seen that wework already announced that they are planning to withdraw from Russia. But there are many more companies in the Coworking tech and in the Coworking world that I bet are still there. They are still doing their bidding, they didn’t make any official announcement. It would be amazing if we could all maybe ask them a question or somehow mobilise them. Find out what their stance is. IWG for example, I haven’t heard anything from them. Soldier Systems, last I checked in the newsroom today on their website, I didn’t hear any announcement. A couple more companies as well. Then the last point is going to take a particular bit more time, is other means of support. And I’ve seen really amazing efforts here, hosting refugees in your countries, helping hire Ukrainian people, all kinds of initiatives, also mobilising the grant to financially support Ukrainian Coworking, who want to rebuild later,  all of these amazing efforts also are quite valuable. And we want to know about them. And we want to kind of maybe centralise, mobilise all of them in a single place. So we would love to learn more about all the efforts that you were doing, also other efforts other than donating and supplying other than, standing up to the bully, anything else, maybe vacancies because even on Coworking Association website, we have actually a special place where we post vacancies in Coworking, we can maybe use this section to share various opportunities in Europe, or from the European and American partners. So, we would love to learn more about this. And maybe if there’s any other types of support that you offer, we can also then promote them as well. I guess this is all for my end. I want to give a word back to Ashley. Thank you. Thank you all for the amazing support. And Vika and I and we’re all here too… we’re going to do everything possible to make sure this is a great success. Thank you.

Ashley Proctor 37:17

Thank you so much, both bigger, and Igor, and everyone who has been sending messages along to our groups through WhatsApp and other methods if they can’t join us today, on zoom. Just a reminder, while we’re still together here, I know we’ve been sharing links and resources about your projects on so many different platforms, but we really need you to add your project, your link, your contact information, your association in the document. This document is for organisers, who are doing projects, that’s you, so we can coordinate amongst ourselves, where are the gaps? How do we support each other? Does your project need volunteers? We have 10 volunteers that don’t have anything to do. We could send them your way. Can we collaborate on similar efforts? We’re going to refine this and work together ourselves before we hand this over to the Ukrainian Coworking Association in a more finished fashion. So they don’t need to do all this work themselves. We need to facilitate on their behalf and take some of the unpaid labour off of their plates so they can focus on living, surviving, thriving, taking care of their families and safety right now. So we will definitely take the lead from our Ukrainian friends in terms of organising but we will work to achieve support for their needs specifically. So if you are doing your own initiative, please add it to that document. The link is in the chat it shared in open for everyone right now. We will refine this and send it out to you all later. Don’t worry about formatting, grammar, spelling, broken English, we will make it pretty and send it back to all of you. Just get all the data you can in this document right now, please, so we can send it to each of you to connect with each other to build a more deep and meaningful objective. This is also the place where if you hear of something that might be an opportunity to collaborate, but  you’re not sure, you don’t know the organiser directly, but it sounds aligned and seems very good, add a note that this isn’t a trusted contact. It’s not something you’ve organised but you hear it might be a great resource. We will do the legwork of researching and diving deeper, are the funds getting to people, and we will fact check again for our Ukrainian friends so they don’t need to worry about that and so that you don’t as well. The idea project, that the European Coworking Assembly and others want to do some of this organising work, this unpaid labour is what we’re here for.

Ashley Proctor 39:42

 So please add your request to this document and just to go over some of the titles, who’s in the room, and what are you working on, add something please What do you need? Where are the gaps in your work? This is for you. I’m organising a network but I need a tech platform to connect me with these people, or I have this organisation ready to roll but we need funding from a sponsor. So add these things. What platforms do you have access to? I have access to an entire Coworking Canada platform, I could mobilise them if someone has a fund they want me to raise for, I’m going to add that to the list. I also have access to a mailing list with about 1000 people that might be interested in social justice work so we could reach out to them, add your resources here, and what can you offer. Even if you don’t know how it can be used yet, maybe someone else can connect with you, add your name, or initials, or contact here as long as we can connect people. And it’s not just an unknown offer. Who currently needs funds? We all need funds to make things happen. We all want to make as much of the funds we’re raising go directly to folks in Ukraine. So who needs funds and why? Potentially we can match you with sponsors, offers, one group is raising funds, another one needs to spend it in effective ways. Please list that here. What will it be used for is very important, so we know who to match you with? What region, potentially, what denomination is helpful. Add your volunteer requests and at the very end of the document, we have public resources and links. These are going to be shared on the Idea Channel website and they are going to be shared across the European Coworking Association, we’re going to elevate all of the European Coworking Associations links and projects here as well. If it’s on that page, it’s okay to post publicly so make sure that that is in the right spot, trusted resources. There are questions at the bottom of this document as well. We’re asking you to answer. How do we help folks who are currently in Russia, or in Poland, or in Germany, or anywhere across Europe who are fleeing Ukraine? How do we specifically help Coworking operators? If you have links very specifically, where to send money, or shelter, food, or connect people with shelter, have them under the right category in this list, so we can send them to the organisations that are coordinating those efforts. We’re particularly finding gaps right now. I’ve had requests coming in for trauma informed care, and potential counselling, or mental health resources as well, just going through the experience, even if it’s just someone to act in and not necessarily professional capacity, but a facilitator in this area. And other people who can just offer general coordination, or facilitation, even if they might not be an expert in Coworking, or social justice. So please add all of those resources to the doc. We’re going to leave this open for a couple of hours today. And then start doing some editing, and sending it out to various groups, so try and get as much of your info in, in the next couple hours as possible. So it’s in there when it goes out. I’m going to ask if there’s anyone else on this call in Ukraine, who has fled Ukraine, who is in the surrounding areas that wants to provide an update, or a very specific request or call to action? Before we start doing a quick rundown of what organisers are in the room and projects they’re working on. Can’t see anyone raising their hand, feel free to unmute and jump in, if you’d like to speak, if you’re in the region. We again like I said, most folks can’t be on the call today, Vika you wanted to add.

Vika Zhurbas 43:17

I just wanted to say that I’m not sure there is somebody else on the call. And we’ve been asking everybody what they need. So we will gather the information, and also we will add it to the file, a summary of what we found and the resources, etc, etc.

Ashley Proctor 43:35

Thank you. And if you need help coordinating, or organising just write those requests in there, please. I know you said it was hard to ask for help earlier. And that’s something that really stood out as a reminder, but we want you each to know that we don’t see this as a weakness or a shortcoming in any sense. Each and every one of us would do the same thing in that situation. And we would hope that the Coworking world would mobilise, and  organise to support us in the same case. So please keep asking, we are all here just looking for things to do and if you know people who also need help, put us in touch we’re ready to mobilise for you and there’s no shame in asking for support in a crisis such as this. I would like to just do a quick introduction then of those who are already organising efforts on other skills. And then I also will end on those efforts. But I want to say because some people will probably need to leave right at the end of the hour. You can continue to reach us through the European Coworking Assembly, you can continue to reach us through the Coworking idea project. And if you are an independent organisation, if you’re a sponsor, or a company in Coworking, if you are a collective, or alliance based somewhere else in the world who wants to raise funds, you are welcome to do any initiative on your own without permission or anything from us. But please, if you are going to be donating to the folks in Ukraine, mention it to the Coworking idea project, or to the European Coworking Assembly, so we can track again Coworking donations and we can also try and pull funds together, and get them directly to folks in need as easily as possible. So if you don’t have a direct line, coordinate directly with the idea project, or with the European Coworking Assembly. I would like to ask folks who are currently organising initiatives to help, I know there are four or five of you in the room, to raise your hand or put up your reaction hand reaction, and we will invite folks to speak. I see Jose on my screen, see Rita, Would someone like to start and we’ll just quick two minutes who you are, what you’re working on? How do people reach you and share your info in the chat? Please?

Rita Cortes 45:56

Do you want us to share things by speaking? 

Ashley Proctor 45:59

Yeah, please, just a quick introduction, who you are, we represent what the project is and how we can help.

Rita Cortes 46:04

Okay, so I’m talking on behalf of the European creative hubs network. So we gather the hubs that are usually working in the cultural and creative sector. And what we did as a start was to try to think of ways to support the hub leaders who are going to welcome refugees in this situation. So what we did was to gather four organisations and creative hubs that have been through this with other refugee crises in the past. So we’re gathering their experience and are hoping to build a toolkit for how to deal with those people, the things you need to be aware of. So we’re also here, there’s two other board members from our organisation. We’re here exactly because we want to share practices, and we want to see to pull together our efforts with someone who’s maybe doing this similarly, or could use this.

Ashley Proctor 47:08

Thank you, could you please add all of that info to the documents so that we can follow up with you afterwards, if that resonated with anyone. Thanks so much. Eksteen, I’m sorry, if I’m not pronouncing your name, right.

Eksteen De Waal 47:23

That’s okay,  it’s the K first so it is Eksteen, but it’s okay. We’re basically working on a few initiatives, but the basic thing has to do with coordination. So we’re gathering coaches and counsellors from around the world, especially ones that can speak Ukrainian or Russian. So it’s easier for people to speak in a language that’s closer to them. And then more English, and that can coach in that and bring people together to help people that are especially… trauma coaches, or trauma counsellors. The one side of it is in Ukraine, there’s a war going on. So we need support there, we need support in the borders. But what we’re looking at specifically is as the migrants are coming into the centre of Europe, there are a few things that have already happened. I’m not sure if you guys are aware of the temporary protection directive from the European Union, which… I should just mention that quickly. In essence, the European Union brought out a law last week, and the only country in Europe that’s part of the European Union that is not signed up to it is Denmark. And obviously, the UK is not part of the European Union, so it was not signed up to that. Any migrants that come across the border have 90 days basically to pick a country, and if they want to go to the country, they can go to any city in the Netherlands especially to any town council, and they will be directed to what is the closest recommendation to them where they can settle, temporarily. It’s usually things like hotels that are currently made available in the Netherlands. About seven town council’s are, currently, already running with that. But, what we’re looking at is how do we get that information to people that are arriving in the country? How do we help people that have arrived in the country and are now sitting in a hotel, but they’re going like, “Yeah, I’m sitting with my whole family. How can I work?” Because there are people that will have the ability to work remotely, they might want to continue with their jobs, they want to quickly settle so they can get their stability back for their families. So we’re looking at things like co-working spaces, do you guys have them available where people can go sit and work, so we can help them, direct them towards that space. Here’s a place where you can have a WiFi connection, here’s a place that has a computer or a laptop that you can sit behind to work. That’s one side, the other side is on the counselling and the coaching side. We need a safe space where people can sit by themselves in a quiet space and work with a coach or counsellor. Be that if the coach or counsellor is sitting in Canada, for instance, we have volunteers coming in from Canada, from South Africa, from Spain, sorry I’m getting really emotional, but this is just amazing work these people are willing to do. And we’re talking at the moment to anybody that’s a coach or counsellor that’s coming in. So we have people that currently already speak Ukrainian, Russian, English already lined up. So we want to help younger people as well. Some of the stuff that LIBOR, which is on the call as well as currently involved in looking for businesses that want to expand. So this is not necessarily highly skilled labour. Because we see that across the borders, there’s a lot of women and children coming, we have no idea what the stereotypical gender identity structures are like in Ukraine. So we’re assuming there are people that come across the border that are not skilled labourers, that are going to be looking for jobs. So we’re looking at things like  if you’re a bread Baker, if you’re expanding your bakery, if you’re planning on expanding your hair salon, anybody that’s coming in any kind of skills, we’re trying to find jobs for that. So the other thing that I’m focusing on at the moment is specifically cancer, I have a huge network in oncology, and so does my husband and all our friends. So if anybody has any problems, where they are suffering from cancer, or are on cancer treatment, or in remission, and need checkups, or anything like that, and they are coming to the Netherlands, just contact me. We also have a European network in that, so willing to help with that. So what we need, we need volunteers, we need people just saying, “Listen, you know what? I might not be a counsellor or a coach, right?” Or you may be, but even if you can’t, can you help us organise? Can you help us coordinate? So another friend of ours from the same sort of MBA Group, Carter Pascal, has offered her platform she’s got a secured end-to-end platform in which you can offer services on the one hand, and the other side, you can we can match it with the need, she’s making that whole platform available to us for free. And what I like about it is the security element in it. And it’s also hosted in places that do not have any extradition of information, for instance, to the US or to Russia. Okay, so we will try and make it as secure as possible. That’s basically what we’re busy with at the moment. So anybody that’s willing to help, just contact me.

Ashley Proctor 52:16

Thank you, can you please add as much of that,  and those needs to the doc so that we can enter your contact info, So we know how to get in touch with you? Because I just heard three or four matches I know we have for you. That would be fantastic. Thank you so much. Christoph, are you here with us right now?

Christoph Fahle 52:34

Yes, I am. Hello, sorry, I was a little bit late. I don’t know if you already talked about this. But I just wanted to quickly say that we were putting together as many coworking spaces in Europe, that are happy to support people displaced by the terrible things in the Ukraine. And so what I wanted to say is that we are putting together a map for every space that we know about and every space that signs up on our form to indicate where people can go, but what has been really helpful in the last week, what we saw is, if the spaces themselves that think they were, or that have space, or support to give show it immediately, to put it online, because what you said earlier is true, it’s really difficult to ask for help. And people have to flee home and then come into a new environment. And maybe first only think about shelter and where to sleep. It really helps if they have like clear information, or open arms, they come to us and we have free coffee, or just whatever there is we put it out there because we learn from the network that already did that that’s when people get back to and then really find a way because it still seems sometimes difficult to get up and go to the workspace at least that’s what I what I think is happening. So apart from all the maps and signing up, just put it on social media and say that you are open to help and I think that would make a big difference. And that’s it. I mean, the link is probably already in the doc, you can sign up and we will do our best to add more spaces and more information, what the spaces are helping with in the next weeks.

Ashley Proctor 54:18

Thank you so much, Christophe, We appreciate you joining us and for the work you’re doing on this.

Christoph Fahle 54:26

Yes, of course. 

Ashley Proctor 54:31

Anyone else, would you like to speak about an initiative you are currently organising or a collaborative effort?

Bernie J Michelle 54:38

Ashley, is there anyone here, I’m not going to speak about an initiative, but is there anyone here from We Help Ukraine from Fernando and Hugo in the Portuguese family? going once…

Ashley Proctor 54:51

Can anyone speak about that other than them? Are they not…

Bernie J Michelle 54:38

I can’t see anybody. Okay, I’m gonna go away.

Ashley Proctor 55:03

Perhaps just share the link in the chat, we already have it in the doc, but so others can see who we’re speaking of. Thank you. Any other?

Bernie J Michelle 55:13

Alex Ahom has something here. He’s just put it in the chat, which we should make him read out.

Ashley Proctor 55:19

Alex, are you able to speak or?

Alex Ahom 55:21

Yeah, I can. Hi everyone. Yeah, I can speak, I was just kind of quickly typing it out. So I might not make a lot of sense. It’s not really related to that, I just wanted to ask, to the last one, I just want to ask you a question. I know so many people who want to help and they don’t know how to help. So some people are collecting toys. Some people are collecting  jackets and shoes. Some of us are donating money to certain charities. But, again, and talking about accommodation, I know people who want to take in, they have a small apartment, they want to take in one person, others have a bigger apartment, they want to take in three or four people, but no dogs or people who love cats or whatever. So the thing is that I know a lot of people, but they don’t know how to help. And I just wondered if anybody has any more information on what we can do other than collect toys, or donate to charities. I know people who are thinking that they’re going to have to go to the station and wait for refugees to come and then kind of just pick people off the train and say, “you can come with me,”  so we’re not aware of how it works. I mean, I think the last gentleman said that people go to town halls and the town hall shows them to someone’s house, but how do they know whose house is free. So, as I said, the point of my text was that a few people I know feel that some of these charities, organisations, the town hall, whatever, the cities are quite slow, and they feel like they have time at the moment. And they would like to maybe start some kind of sustainable business or a company that helps in some way, but relying on people’s charity. Some people,  I’m also afraid that, sometimes charity can run out and people’s intentions change. So I just wanted to know, what can be done? Myself and a few people I know, have time at the moment. So we could do something on a daily basis. But I think that collecting toys or hats and stuff.  I think that’s been done already.

Ashley Proctor 57:40

So Alex, just in response,  part of the reason of organising that doc is to find the gaps, and we want to hear from our Ukrainian friends what exactly they are needing, and we’re not able or not currently providing and then that’s where we’re going to focus our efforts next, just to make sure the most basics but I’ll let Vika answer this.

Vika Zhurbas 58:00

Yeah, just 1% of my battery. So I’ll try to make it. What I was thinking is that, as I said, if you have one person you can ask, if for the person you’re connected to it’s easier if it will be English as a barrier or something like that, then me and my team will help with it. But as I see the needs of people change so quickly, they don’t know if they should leave or not, then they leave and they call you in three hours and it is I will be here can you pick me up in two hours. So it’s very, you should be in this right now, in this spot connected to this person, because in two or three hours, we’ll be late. And I’m not sure if the toys or doubles or blankets are not crucial right now, because people are still leaving and some people who could leave who may be more like they say middle class and lift shores maybe. And now there is a second or third wave of people who are leaving. So if people are still leaving and they come last and they know nobody so when I was thinking is to have at least one to five, how many people more people you can connect you can write you can ask stupid questions, maybe but they will answer us and will help you they will help you within their community together. Choose blank kids kindergarten schools because there are very, very basic questions and if you know even English, like me in Hungary, but I don’t know Hungarian, you cannot do a lot of things actually. So you should ask somebody you should have one or two person you can just ask

Eksteen De Waal 59:44

I think, if I could just tie in with what you were saying. I’m currently working with people that are currently fleeing. One of them’s looking for cancer treatments. So that’s how she got in contact with me or the people connected with me If somebody is fleeing, they don’t know where they’re gonna have battery power, they don’t know where they’re gonna have mobile cell phone service, they don’t know really, if they’re gonna have data plan, or they have to get to a WiFi somewhere. Their days are completely unstructured. So do not, do not try and make an appointment with someone just be there. With people – 

Ashley Proctor 1:00:22

I’m sorry to interrupt, but I just want to again, the reason we’re organising here today is to minimise the points of contact that our Ukrainian friends have so we don’t need them independently navigating all of our help. If we all reach out even with help, we would overwhelm them right now. And what we need to do is if you are organising in your region, with your alliance, on your own, or you even just as an individual or a human contact either the Coworking idea project or the European Coworking assembly to coordinate because then, those two projects through one contact, we’ll be in touch with our Ukrainian friends so that we’re not putting extra demands on their time. And they will keep us updated. Like we just said it changes outwardly. So we will have updates through the European Coworking assembly and ideas you don’t need to reach out directly. And we can let you know day to day what is being asked for what’s being needed. Also, if you don’t know how to get your funds there safely, send your funds or send your stuff through IDEA project or through the European Coworking assembly and we can navigate getting it to them directly as well, so that they don’t need to navigate that, and I believe Vika may be back if she would like to continue.

Vika Zhurbas 1:01:38

Yes, sorry. But sorry for this disruption. As I said, I was thinking of having a list of people who you can ask in each of the countries, and to have, if you already are somebody from the team ready. And to have, I don’t know, inside commitments of two hours per day to be in even this connection and advising findings, stupid things. They said sometimes. And if it has this list of the people, it would be easier for some to leave. Because even I have friends etc. All over Europe, it was very hard for me to leave. And those people who wanted it’s always a choice and it’s a decision of the person. But if they want his hand, and somebody writes either in a document or in charge, that the government is slow. Yes, it is because of the government’s all Arabic machines. But as I was saying before, everything is happening so fast. And this connection in any of the messenger SMS, WhatsApp is very crucial. When my friends are leaving or needing something, I’m just constantly messaging them, how are you? Where are you, what you need, etc. Even they know they can ask. But as I said what worked for me, like the connection was those people who were pushing even me to help me. So maybe Ashley was active, people can help them and it can be easier, because we can make maps and we can make calls, please. But it will be changing even throughout different lists of borders with Ukraine, and they are updated on a daily basis. We can make a list of frequent workings but it will be updated. It’s also great to have it but without a person you can ask if something has changed or not. He can be proved and I would also add at the end that our value maybe this commitment of helping somebody now it’s the Ukrainians then it’s maybe to other communities or organisations we can choose to help so we can learn this lesson and promise ourselves to get into our routine one hour per day like giving directed to those who even afraid to ask this what I wanted to add.

Ashley Proctor 1:04:39

Thank you so much. I really appreciate your joining us. I know it’s hard to even be on this call right now. So thank you for making the time. I want to honour that request and just make it really a specific note of for the European Coworking assembly to make plans to coordinate some assistance in in different languages in different regions, to be able to assist exactly with that and helping to answer silly questions and find help and verify facts and do research online for folks who are occupied with other things right now. And so we will work to provide that Vika to our best ability, and we will be in touch about it. Anyone else running an initiative, an Alliance, something that’s in progress, where you would like to share it as a link of resource or something other people can help with?

Hector Kolonas 1:05:34

I don’t have a resource. I just had a question to Vika and more about the actual payment infrastructure over in Ukraine right now. A lot of us who are a little bit further away, would love to support those spaces that are mobilised right now. Is there any way for us to buy day passes? Memberships, sign up virtually just to get money into their hands so they can support their communities? Or is that? Is it better to put that money into bigger organisations?

Vika Zhurbas 1:06:06

It’s a very, in a good way, tricky question. Because for some time I was working on an application or resource where you can book any Coworking space in Ukraine. And it’s not ready for now. It’s now in design status. So it will be, if it was ready, it will be the easiest way. There is no LiquidSpace or Aplex or something like that, which is popular in Ukraine and everybody uses it. I would say that, let me check and think it’s over. How can it be done? In a more like, automatic way?

Igor Dzhebyan 1:06:53

Let me add to that. Let me just add to that. So the payment infrastructure in Ukraine is up and running. There is no any, like sanctions or any limitation on transactions. The government only limited the transfer of money to abroad, but within Ukraine, they can receive payments. So cards work, everything works. The base of my information, the customers that we have the integration system and system up and running, everything works just fine. They’re just not operating, right? They’re just not used. I think we could use it because we could actually ask them, How can we support them directly? If they want to receive donations or support through the app, we can probably open such a possibility because even you know half of Coworking spaces use endcard. So we can basically open up for payments for day passes and stuff like that. Then the other crowd, we can just ask maybe there’s other ways to support them. Maybe they have their own payment page on their website or some kind of day pass. You know, I guess Hector was referring to what the Airbnb guy folks do like they’re just renting an apartment in the destroyed city.

Igor Dzhebyan 1:08:09

Let’s ask them in our chat. 

Ashley Proctor 1:08:20

I think that’s a great idea. So we’ll get more information from you on the ground first, the best way to do it, and then if there isn’t something that’s already in place that’s easy to distribute funds. We’re happy to collect them through ideas or three from the European Coworking Assembly and transfer it to the Ukrainian Coworking association to then distribute to its members if need be. Pauline, please.

Pauline Roussel 1:08:46

Now I just thanks Ashley and everyone for putting this event together, I just had a question or maybe for Igor and Vika because you just talked about Airbnb and people booking right now Airbnb across Ukraine to donate could we imagine that spaces could please their spaces on Airbnb in the like experienced part or something so that we can do the same

Igor Dzhebyan 1:09:10

We don’t really need airbnb because as I said most of them use end cards and cards there’s a payment system connected directly to their account. And I don’t know what Airbnb is doing with the fee, right? But as Ashley said, it’s important to get as much as possible right of that donation to the hands of the people. So I don’t know if Airbnb is taking their card. I know that through the payment system, they’ll probably only pay the processing fee like the visa process and that’s all. So I think one thing we could do and most of us use online so if we were to do teller, you know how to send the money to them. We will just ask them If they don’t have it, we can put it as you said on some online platform, like what they say.

Ashley Proctor 1:10:06

Thank you. Anyone else running an initiative or gathering funds or want to point people towards something that’s already in progress or that exists we should all know about? Okay, so we’re going to continue to add resources to the document. I’m going to open up the floor wider than the organisers right now and just ask the Coworking the European Coworking Assembly, anyone from the Assembly want to say something right now.

Bernie J Michelle 1:10:58

Are you gonna go Jeannine? The… so the thing that Amy, hello, Amy just asked about the list of co-working spaces in Ukraine, and Hector has an airtable that we’re working on. There we go. We’ve got an air table. We’re working on it. Hector, can you explain how that works? Because I will not do it very well. And you will?

Hector Kolonas 1:11:27

Yeah, sure. So the airtable is just essentially a shared Google, this equivalent of Google spreadsheet for folks who haven’t used an airtable before. Our idea is whatever we add into that can then be embedded onto any website. But it asks for three specific things, name of the space, what they offer, as like, where do they sell day passes, memberships, etc? What do they cost, and then a direct link to where people can pay for that, whether it’s their homepage, their portal, their member app, on something like an access, pass, whatever their preferred way to allow us to support them would be initially we’re going to go through those lists on the andcards website and the other lists of Ukrainian Coworking spaces, and build that list. But I think if we can, Igor, if you could give us a list or share who your members are, who would be interested in this kind of assistance, then maybe we start with that, and then we populate the rest of the list from there. But I will essentially just give you a list of spaces and where you can click to pay them. 

Ashley Proctor 1:12:35

Thank you. Is it in the doc, we will make sure it’s in the doc. A link is in the doc. Anyone else here from a Coworking Alliance or organisation who would like to speak to the group while we’re together? Please raise your hand.

Bernie J Michelle 1:13:05

Just to add Ashley there are a lot of people from the assembly that didn’t make this call, who are very less visible than me and Jeannine, and Joe and people like that, who do things behind the scenes. And we’ve been tracking down people in all the countries surrounding the Ukraine. And anytime you hear of anyone starting a project, because you know, not everybody, a lot of people on this call are very visible in the Coworking universe. And they have an online presence. And there are so many people who have just not had time to put a website up because of the situation they’re in. So if you hear them, just put them in direct contact with us, because something we can do, excuse me, something we can do is give voice to people that just don’t have the brainpower to, or the headspace to tell people about what they’re doing. And, as you reiterated, all the way through this call is if everyone sends stuff to us, it will help us connect with people who are doing nearly the same thing. And that’s something a lot of people on this call have almost made a career of doing in Coworking over the last 10 years or so. And it is amazing to see so many people here today. And there are I can think of at least 15 people that said they couldn’t make the call when I hear about it later. So thanks very much, folks.

Ashley Proctor 1:14:39

Thanks, Bernie. And for all you’re doing behind the scenes as well. I know we have to do a lot of visible work these days. But I also know that many of you are staying up late nights because you’re there when I’m calling and you’re there when our Ukrainian friends are reaching out as well. So thank you to everyone working behind the scenes right now. Denise, welcome. We are muting and unmuting sorry.

Denise Brouder 1:15:08

That’s what happens when I try to use Zoom from my phone and not from my computer. Sorry about that very quickly. So my organisation is about training either individuals, groups of individuals, teams as a unit, or leaders and managers and how to work in hybrid and remote ways. So I’m not in the space or the co-working space proper. But I do help people understand how to use co-working space. And I can’t imagine a better way to kind of push back against all of this by picking up your work as if you never left it. So I’d be more than happy to help out anywhere we can and deploy our team to these rapid training sessions. Now, this might come a little further along as people get settled on the basics that they need right now. But once they feel more established, just keep this in mind, we’d be more than happy to lean in to help out anywhere along the way.

Ashley Proctor 1:15:54

Thank you so much, it’s really important that we’re thinking about these long term solutions as well. You know, once the spotlight is off of Ukraine, and onto the next issue in the news, they’re still going to be so much needed from our friends. And I’m really excited to hear that some of you are already thinking about this,  Rita?

Rita Cortes 1:16:15

Hey, I just wanted to say that I think there’s a lot of common ground here. And definitely what’s the skill that Denise probably likes, being a trainer of managers, I think it’s really important. And our approach was very much about this, like, how can we think about long term strategies and better solutions that have a longer term impact? And because our focus is the creative hubs are also thinking about this, like, how do we train people, and this like gathering all these efforts will, I think make a huge difference from like, training, the one who are the ones who are going to welcome so that they do a very good job at this, and they can tackle this, this challenge. And then like on a medium mid term thinking also of like, training opportunities for people who are like looking for looking out for new skills, and they need to like, restructure and you know, like, then coming after this this first, like Shopkins displacement time when you know, like we need to. And I think the creative hubs also can have a very good role in this because we have a lot of makerspaces, we have a lot of crafts and artistic spaces, they’re kind of a good starting ground for these new chapters. And we also just want to share, like our openness that we decided to not to do anything on our own, and instead joining efforts, because this is also what we believe makes more sense right now. So again, I just want to reiterate our openness to share whatever we can and build up together. And thank you so much for you guys who put this together. That’s it from my side.

Ashley Proctor 1:18:04

Thank you Rita. Would anyone else like to speak? It could be an offer. It could just be some thoughts now that we are winding down. Any thoughts on organising the gaps that we’re seeing in future initiatives projects? How are you feeling? Any ideas brewing? Maybe for your own organisation? What are your takeaways? Feel free to just unmic.

Tony Baciglupo 1:18:04

Hey Ashley Hey, everybody. Tony Bacigalupo, New York City here. One quick thought that comes to mind is whether there is a specific call to action that we can propagate amongst the members of the co-working spaces that each of us have access to. Pretty much everybody on this call is the tip of the spear for a much larger network in their own local community. So do there exist resources or will there exist resources that are designed to be passed along to those audiences?

Ashley Proctor 1:19:19

That’s a fantastic question. Thank you for reminding me to share that. So the Coworking idea project is going to be collecting funds, particularly for our friends from our friends in North America and others outside of Europe. And then we are going to be forwarding it on so we’re going to be just collecting directly through the idea project. We will set up a link or two that can be distributed and so for example, Coworking Toronto, Coworking Ontario alliances will get this link and all of our fundraising will go to one place and then the idea project can put it to best use and sort of go through our top needs that are identified today, whether that be directly to the spaces or For more humanitarian aid and relief, or just directly handed over to the Ukrainian Coworking Association to the side, and that will be in addition to, of course, all the independent ways to contribute directly to spaces, but there will be one link coming from idea for everyone if you don’t have a direct channel already.

Tony Baciglupo 1:20:20

It also sounds like people want to find that link, but also any other means of nonfinancial support basically goes to the Coworking idea that’s going to be kind of the hub where we can direct people to learn more.

Ashley Proctor 1:20:38

Yeah, if you’re if you’re outside of Europe, and you’re not a member of in some way or connected to an alliance in Europe, or the European Coworking assembly, you’re welcome to reach out to them. They’re more than welcome to you know, they’re more than welcome any support. But you can also just connect with the idea project because it’s an international sort of effort. And we can direct funds back to Ukraine and in the European assembly.

Bernie J Michelle 1:21:02

And like, nearly every day, the idea project and the Coworking assembly do stuff together. So it’s not like, it’s not like going to Wells Fargo and the Bank of Taiwan. They’re very coordinated behind the scenes.

Ashley Proctor 1:21:20

Yeah, so these are all of our sort of our best trusted neutral resources in the industry right now as it relates to this issue. So we know exactly the trail of money and can account for fees and things like that along the way. So we feel quite comfortable with that. So once we have that, that link, there’s already a PayPal link on the idea Project website. If you were just like, it’s in Paypal, I just need to move it on. I just saw that there. Venmo PayPal, you could absolutely do that. There’s already a link on the idea page, you can make a note that it’s for Ukraine, we’re gonna assume that all the funds coming in over the next couple of weeks are supposed to be directed towards our efforts in Ukraine this fall. So if you need something immediately, you can do that. But we will be sending it out much further, along with some calls to action, and again, elevating everything we learned from our Ukrainian friends today. Anyone else like to share some parting words? How are you feeling? What are you leaving with?

Ashley Proctor 1:22:25

I don’t want to keep us longer than we need to be together because I know you all have lots of work to do organising on top of your own day to day work.

Tony Baciglupo 1:22:33

Thank you, Ashley. Thanks to everyone here. Everyone who spoke up, everyone who helped make this happen. I was heartbroken, stirred, moved, inspired by all of you. And really, really, I’m glad we’re all here. Not glad why. But I’m glad we’re here and grateful for all of you. Thank you.

Ashley Proctor 1:22:59

Thanks Tony. Any other final thoughts I just like to say thank you all so much for being here. Today. We fit a lot into our time together. And I know this work will continue to go on. This document will be live for a while and continue to evolve. And this will probably be the first of many group calls on what we can do to help now and in the future and how we can replicate and duplicate these efforts for other folks around the world. fleeing war, violence, persecution, oppression, natural disasters. These are systems we’re putting in place for all of us. And so just a reminder that we are fully here for Ukraine today. But we are organising in these ways so that we can be here for each and every one of you tomorrow, if need be. So thank you all for your time. And I hope you have an amazing day. A safe, happy healthy week, and I look forward to working with you all on this and other challenges through the idea project in the future. Thanks for joining. 

Otter Link: https://otter.ai/u/CI45Gis7SMDirCKjuVSngyLH320