5 Ways The Trampoline Effect is Relevant Now
We’re living with head spinning uncertainty. A pandemic, a racial reckoning, and rabid political polarization are making visible holes in our safety nets and systems of thought. We cannot return to the way things were -- but what might the alternative look like? The Trampoline Effect shares what we’re learning about what to replace the status quo with. Here’s five ways the book speaks to this moment.
1. Reframing wellbeing as a collective responsibility.
The pandemic has highlighted that our wellbeing isn’t just the responsibility of government and social services, but the product of mutual care, informal networks, and engaged neighbourhoods.
The Trampoline Effect offers stories, examples and frameworks for re-imagining the role of citizens and community.
2. Designing alternatives to institutionalised care.
So much of our welfare state is oriented towards providing group-based care to “at risk” groups. Not only are people in settings like shelters and nursing homes more susceptible to the virus, but they face greater isolation, exclusion and stagnation.
The Trampoline Effect shows what it can look like to move away from programs that ‘house’ people to platforms that connect people into community. .
3. Considering soul needs as critically as body needs.
COVID-19 has put our physical needs and safety under sharp focus, and also highlighted our essential human need for connection, agency and purpose.
The Trampoline Effect argues that our social safety nets must become more adept at addressing people’s human needs if they are going to stop contributing to existential harm.
4. Confronting systems of oppression.
A commitment to justice and equity demands that those of us with privilege (ourselves very much included) recognize how even systems with good intent hoard power and can cause harm.
The Trampoline Effect shares our ongoing and incomplete journey to co-design social services from the ground-up.
5. Nurturing shared understanding and dialogue.
As populism sweeps the globe and social media capitalizes on conflict & ideological warfare, we’ve got to get comfortable with holding space for different perspectives: this is where possibilities for real creativity and problem-solving lie.
The Trampoline Effect describes some of the key tensions that are essential to preserve within our social systems.