Leapers is moving into Calm Mode.

Just to let you know, Leapers is changing our strategy over the coming weeks, and moving into 'calm' mode.

There are SO MANY PEOPLE posting content, creating resources and guides, telling others what they should be doing.

That is not my style, I don't believe in preaching, but providing support for those who want it.I feel the noise is contributing to anxiety, not reducing it, and the airwaves are cluttered to the point where authoritative and essential services are not able to cut through.

As a result - we are no longer going to be posting outwards, but focusing inwards, on our existing community and members - to pull together in here.

We are not going away, we will continue to update our resources and guides, and anyone who wants to opt-in to this, we will welcome and support as best we can - and our guides will continue to focus on ways to build positive emotional and mental health whilst working - we call this "work well".

Leapers has always been a safe space to share, but currently there's a risk of it becoming a space that triggers anxiety rather than encourages support, so we're also going do two things internally within the community:

1/ I'm creating #covidsupport - which is a channel where conversations around the impact of the virus can continue, and you're free to discuss openly. Additionally, #workwell is our space where you can share your current emotional state, and in here, you are also welcome to share openly how it is influencing your mental health state. These places may contain triggers, so you are advised to be aware of this if joining those channels. This also means you can mute those channels or not opt-in if you need a break from the constant coverage.

2/ I'm asking that for the rest of the channels, please be mindful of what you're sharing, and respect that many may be here for encouraging and positive support. I'm not saying not to mention / discuss the pandemic, as it is clearly the backdrop for everything currently, but let's balance our conversations.

3/ Channels:

#worktogether will move into a mode where I'm encouraging everyone to post more regularly, create hangouts, and turn in to our collective virtual office, please join, post, say hello each morning, share your cuppa, encourage chat, and connect with each other.
#askanything continues to be the best place to ask.. anything.
#brainfood is for sharing useful content you've discovered, but use #covidsupport if it's covid related
#littlewins continues to be a space for sharing the awesome stuff we've done
#theweeklyquestion will resume normal service tomorrow
#workwell is for sharing your emotional state, and in here we'll be doing more to tackle the specific issues raised by the current situation
#marketplace is for pitching/offering/asking for commercial help, i.e. selling is fine.

4/ supporting the project: we've had more traffic to our community and online resources in the last four weeks than we have in the last two years. this is becoming a full-time job (workload, emotional load, cost, and now also looking after my children all day!), which i'm very happy to take on, but it is also increasingly difficult. we used to be a small group of a hundred or so, now we have 20,000 visitors looking for help. this is not the right time to be asking anything from anyone, but i will be asking for your thoughts soon on in what ways you think are appropriate or interesting to help out.

i'm also grateful to both our community hosts (thankyou team for supporting me) and a few others who have been there (freelancefriendly chums, thankyou).

That's all for now, thankyou for all being part of this community - we've been supporting the self-employed for 2.5 years, we recognised the gap and importance of doing this a long time ago, and now it's more critical than ever.

Matthew.