Location: Edmonton, Alberta
On March 13, 2020, Renee Vaugeois created a Facebook group called YEG Community Response to COVID-19. The group is a space for Edmontonians to seek help from and offer help to each other. Members of the group can offer to go for supply runs, offer to buddy with someone who is isolated to ensure they have access to essential supplies, and offer tips, resources and activity ideas.
Within a day, the group had 3,000 members. By April 4, it had more than 18,500. In the first two weeks, the group helped 388 families and mobilized several large-scale projects such as getting laptops to low-income students who had no other way of doing online schoolwork. YEG Community Response to COVID-19 serves as an information hub for Edmontonians and provides hope and connection.
Renee Vaugeois is the Executive Director for the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights in Edmonton. The John Humphrey Centre seeks to advance a culture of peace and human rights through education and community building, guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.