Hi BF-fers,
I’ve tried to write this post over the past week but since things kept changing day to day, and honestly, I found myself overwhelmed… as a Bostonian, an Asian American, a freelancer, someone who has one living parent in their 70s, someone that volunteers with vulnerable populations, and as the person that runs BOSFilipinos. I think all of us are feeling some pressure or distress on all different sides of our identity.
“This is just what I needed,” is something that I often hear at BF events. Knowing that our community has created spaces where people feel safe, seen, and included, I was hoping that we’d be able to keep doing our in-person events, but modified. However, as you all know, any kind of in-person event right now is unsafe. So while I feel like a lot of us could use some home-cooked Filipino food and company, I’m postponing all of our events until we know more. Here are a few more bulleted notes about our future plans:
Events (Meetups / Classes / Pot Lucks / Volunteer-led Excursions) - As mentioned, all of our events are canceled until May. Mid-April we’ll reassess and see if that needs to be extended, and we’ll announce that here on the blog as well as on our social feeds (Facebook / Twitter / Instagram) and in our newsletter. We will, however, continue to list community events on our Events page. While we do not encourage public gatherings until it’s communicated that it’s safe to do so, we do want to amplify the efforts of our community so that you can follow those individual organizations as they send out updates / reschedule.
Conversation Circles - People have expressed interest in learning Filipino languages, and we were beginning to do some intake, but these meetups will also will be postponed for now. I’ll think about how we can achieve this online (and not be repetitive with current resources out there), but for now, if you’d like to know more about when this launches, you can fill out this form: https://forms.gle/9dEX9Z5a51iMaaG88 We’re especially in need of people that are fluent!
Profiles - Now more than ever it’s important that we tell stories about our incredible community. So if you’d like to nominate someone to be featured (I’m looking at you too!), and they haven’t already been nominated (we’ll cross check - if they have been highlighted already, we’ll send them a nice note that someone was thinking of them), please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/9dEX9Z5a51iMaaG88 If you’ve already been highlighted but have an update, feel free to use that form as well, we’d love to hear what you’re up to these days.
Volunteer - As many of you know, the core BF team is three deep (Hyacinth, Katie, and myself), so if you find yourself with some extra time and want to give back to this community, we’d love to work with you! We’re looking for people of all backgrounds and skill sets, so tell us more about yourself by filling out our contact form: https://www.bosfilipinos.com/contact
And last but certainly not least… please remember to take care of yourselves during this time (and always!). I know a lot of you out there are caregivers, whether that be through profession, community leadership, within your friend group, or within an intergenerational family, to name a few. It’s absolutely a time to look out for and uplift others, but you can’t do that if you’re not taking care of your physical and mental health, so please take time for yourself however you can.
If there’s any other way we can help you or someone you know in the community, please don’t hesitate to email us: info@bosfilipinos.com.
Love and tabos,
Trish and the BOSFilipinos Team