Determining how nomads can give back

Being the impact geek that I am, I've been trying to identify how nomads can contribute to having a positive impact in the place they're in. As part of that, I've been assembling like-minded people who are either already having a positive impact in Madeira or want to be, and I've set up these "Impact Meet Ups" so we can work towards that.

At the second Impact Meet Up last week, we wanted to be action-focused (versus just talking) and so I had the idea of facilitating a mini Theory of Change-like session to ultimately drill down on how we could create positive impact. Here are a few insights from that session:

1. 
   We need the local perspective to identify areas where we can give back. The 10 of us who showed up were all nomads -- I had been connected to a couple of local impact entrepreneurs, but unfortunately they were not able to attend. We were full of ideas on the kinds of shifts (outcomes) we wanted to make and concepts (outputs) that we could do to make that happen. But we realised it was perhaps a bit premature of us to determine "what the island needed" if we're all outsiders and don't know the full context of perhaps why Madeira is the way it is (or thinks the way it does) as a local would know. To avoid something like a white saviour complex, we first need their perspectives to see how we can possibly give back to the island's needs, versus vice versa.
2. Giving back is more than just economics. When discussing (or reading about) how nomads are "giving back" to Madeira, often the economic impact is addressed -- but only the economic one. Bringing in more nomads to Madeira has resulted in €1.5m more money being contributed to the local economy per month (through rent, food, etc.). While it's great that nomads can contribute to the wealth of Madeira (Note: quite contentious topic, given the economics may only benefit a few, and may create a bigger disparity in the long run), there doesn't seem to be an expectation on how nomads can give back in social and environmental means. Besides economics, the presence of nomads ideally can contribute to positive consequences socially and environmentally as well.
3. There are many ways of giving back. Throughout the session, I realised that people had different views on how to give back -- none of them wrong, but each stemming from perhaps their own interests, backgrounds, and experiences. These ranged from volunteering for organisations that required manual/physical labour (i.e. planting trees, walking dogs from the shelter), sharing skills (i.e. mentoring startups, teaching english), providing connections (i.e. to other startups, funding opportunities), philanthropy (i.e. raising or donating money for certain causes), activism (i.e. campaigning or influencing local governments to bring about change), to setting up systems and creating movements that they think can have social and/or environmental impact (i.e. starting communities, creating impact startups). Fellow nomad, Mihail Stevchev, wrote a great blog post on how digital nomads can help the local community. Each of these can have amazing impact -- it kind of comes down to preference, capacity, and personal definition of effectiveness. 

So in terms of how we are planning on giving back... well, it's back to insight #1: we need to find out what is needed in order to give back to. So our homework before the next meet up is to connect with as many local stakeholders as possible (charities, non-profits, impact startups, business owners, local government, community leaders, etc.) and ask them what is needed. Then we can start working on how we can give back... so stay tuned :)

(If you'd like to get involved or join the Impact Meet Ups, join the #givingback channel on Digital Nomads Madeira Slack or feel free to contact me directly)

Something's bubbling...

There's so many things I want to write about... building an impact movement to get people to want to join, remote working while managing a company, trying to understand what Madeira needs, what co-living communities are like, ideas on how to make intergenerational communities work, repopulating villages based on need, having an awesome team to build culture at work with, the things that wake me up in the middle of the night and then don't let me sleep for hours on end...

But when I open up a new post to create, I stare at a blank page and nothing comes out. Thoughts of self-doubt, of "who wants to read another travel blog" and "but how could I potentially help people with this?" and "why would anyone want to read this?", come up and the project-manager in me suddenly has a visual of an overcomplicated Venn Diagram with 18 circles and I get overwhelmed in trying to figure out where the overlap is. 

So my dear friend, Anna, decided to start a writing group. And here I am following my own suggestion of "maybe just take 5-10 minutes to write your own stuff and see what happens". No pressure. No having to have had to figure out the format, the style, the audience, my voice, the mission. Just start. And maybe the rest will follow (and maybe it won't, and that's ok too!)

I've enjoyed writing this blog in the past and I've enjoyed reading the posts afterwards (even if it's cringeworthy sometimes), so in the end, I am writing for myself :) At the same time, if there's anything you think would be particularly interesting or enjoyable for you to read, please let me know! Please be my muse ;)