Council of the Ageing launch Tassie's Kindness Connection to highlight community connection

Tasmanians have risen to the challenge of supporting the vulnerable members of the community while still abiding by the rules and restrictions put in place to protect health.

Now, the Council of the Ageing is hoping to build on this community sentiment by launching a project called Tassie's Kindness Connection.

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COTA chief executive officer Sue Leitch said the project aimed to improve relationships between people in the community.

"What we want to do with the Tassie Kindness Connection is really tap into that grassroot kindness that is going on in Tasmania at the moment," she said.

Ms Leitch pointed to the postcard project run by the City of Launceston council as one example of grassroot kindness.

During the height of the pandemic the council distributed thousands of postcards to elderly people in aged care homes.

The project was a joint effort between the suicide prevention team and the council.

The point of the cards was to ensure people had the means to stay connected even if they weren't technologically savvy.

Artwork from the Minds Do Matter exhibition, which explores the connection between mental health and artwork, adorned the cards which would soon be sent to loved ones far and wide.

Suicide prevention coordinator Samina Alam said the initiative helped promote artists and to keep people in touch with each other.

"The postcards were initially targeted at older people. With [the move] online it can be difficult for a lot of people to keep up with the technology," she said.

"So postcards is a really good initiative for people to stay in touch with each other."

"During the pandemic it was recognised that the elderly people were the most vulnerable cohort," Launceston council community development team leader John Davis added.

"Each person got a pack of five postcards in and they could share those with five of their friends ... to try and keep their own mental health in as positive a state as we could."

But, it wasn't just councils trying to spread kindness during the pandemic.

Meegan MacQueen's Facebook page, Pay it Forward Tasmania, has experienced a spike in membership since the beginning of the lockdown.

Every post on the page, which has about 13,000 members, is someone offering something free or is promoting a free service within the community.

Ms MacQueen said the page had been inundated with offers of help during the pandemic.

"One good thing that has come out of the pandemic is people have slowed down a bit and become a lot kinder," she said.

"[People] have realised that there is a lot of people who are struggling, and it was very scary for a lot of people, so [people] wanted to know what they could do, how they could help."

Megan Singleton has been pushing the kindness train for about 16 years. For her it all started on a whim when her and her friends decided to start Random Act of Kindness Day in New Zealand.

The idea took off and for the past 16 years September 1 has been known as RAK Day.

Now Ms Singleton has challenged Tasmania, and Australia as a whole, to get involved.

"We've never needed kindness more - I think 2020 has been the worst year for so many people that I challenge you Tasmania to join us," she said.

"Tasmania is small, like New Zealand, you could do something in Tassie like we did in NZ and make enough of a statement ...to just grab the day and run with it."

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