Betterish Togetherish: Community Building Through Creative Connection + A Dash of Whimsy & Delight
Illuminating more meaningful ways to bridge people across the globe that are interactive and downright fun
[ DENVER, CO, MARCH 19, 2021 ] Imagine walking in the park and finding a mobile cart that instead of serving ice cream or hot dogs offered hands-on games and activities that encouraged strangers to forge meaningful connections.
Sure: a delightful encounter pre-pandemic.
Now imagine a mobile cart that offers hands-on games and activities that encourage strangers to make meaningful connections in a virtual space amidst COVID-19.
Meet: The Meet Cart by Emily Hope Dobkin, hailed by Denver Westword as a “people person extraordinaire” and founder of Betterish.
Created as a mobile structure where strangers meet, greet, and play, The Meet Cart is where unfamiliar people become unexpected pals. In a world of great disconnect, divide, and social isolation, Emily Hope Dobkin has created this pop-up social space where simple games and activities bring people together in uplifting, innovative, and engaging ways.
Pre-pandemic, The Meet Cart, based in Denver, CO, was popping up at events, festivals, birthday parties, museums, schools, parks, donut shops, and bakeries. In the past year, it’s been making waves in a virtual space and now connecting people across the globe.
“Though we’ve certainly found new ways to connect with friends and family, it’s been harder to connect to new, fresh faces,” says Dobkin. “Research suggests there’s actually a positive impact when we connect with strangers, both for our own and others’ wellbeing. As humans, we are inherently social creatures who are made happier and healthier when connecting with others. So I’ve decided to encourage those connections at The Meet Cart,” she further explains.
Since March 2020, The Meet Cart has been zapping into zoom rooms worldwide hosting everything from birthday parties, baby showers, conference and orientation kick-offs, creative conversations with libraries, TEDx and CreativeMornings, racial justice dialogues in which attendees have collaboratively compiled resources into the Betterish Anti-Racist Resource Room, in addition to interactive happy hours for companies ranging from cybersecurity, pharmaceuticals, architect firms, marketing agencies---she’s even thrown on a dinosaur costume and hosted virtual storytimes for children, deeming herself “Connectasaurus Rex.” With every virtual Meet Cart experience, participants are invited to cultivate in-depth connections in a digital world, yet still in a way that integrates hands-on approaches with tangible resources.
“The Meet cart offered me the opportunity to meet a lot of strangers, to make connections (even if just for minutes), and the chance to share smiles, vulnerability, and kindness. Emily is a connector. A joiner. A bridge-builder. She offered us all a safe place to unplug from the daily grind. She made the world feel more human and smaller,” said a Creative Mornings Global FieldTrip participant.
Sounds great if you aren’t zoom fatigued. But what if zoom exhaustion has gotten the best of you and instead of zooming in, zooming out is what you really need to make connections? There’s a plethora of other Betterish projects Dobkin has designed for people to feel connected, involved, and energized all at once:
VIRTUAL SPIRITS WEEKS - It’s your classic spirit week, but made better(ish) with a mix of playful, action-driven, empathy building prompts that unfold on Instagram stories with themed days ranging from “Send a Note to your Neighbor Day” to “Share Your Slice of the Sky Day.” History Colorado also worked with Dobkin to design two virtual spirit weeks as a way to engage their communities with some refreshing digital fun, offering a “John Denver Spirit Week” when The John Denver Experience launched back in June 2020, as well as “Colorado Spirit Week,” which celebrated all things Colorado leading up to Colorado’s 144th Birthday on August 1st.
PENPAL PROJECTS - In September 2020, Dobkin launched Penpals for Progress, a snail mail project geared to facilitate meaningful connection as folks geared up for the 2020 election. Dobkin sent 104 snail mail starter kits to 52 sets of penpals spanning 49 cities in 21 states in an effort to share perspectives, advocate, learn together, and write + fight for justice via a reflective letter-writing practice. Participants were expected to write two letters their penpals and two letters to elected officials (templates + contact info were provided).
“My penpal has been a joy to meet and correspond with. By participating in this project, I was encouraged to write to people in office, something I had never done before. That was empowering. It gave me something to take a step in using my voice in a big way and I look forward to doing more of it in the near future,” said a Penpal for Progress participant.
In January 2021, Dobkin partnered with Boulder Colors to offer Paint Pals, a similar snail mail project, but this time to facilitate the creation of more colorful connections. Participants received a Paint Pal Snail Mail starter kit that included: one dot card palette with paints sourced from locally grown plants (vegan & waste free), five watercoloring postcards, and a mini-guide with tips & tricks on how to be an awesome pen pal/paint pal. You can see how it’s been unfolding here.
THE SASSPORT PROJECT - In August 2020, Dobkin teamed up with TARRA + Babe Walls to offer a socially-distant-safe creative adventure aimed to support local womxn + BIPOC artists and business owners in Denver, CO. The event completely sold out, while proving to connect the dots in exposing community members to local creatives with small businesses in such a restrictive time. Attendees got to collect a set of custom-made stamps made by 17 local artists in a souvenir passport notebook; each artist was stationed at a womxn or BIPOC owned shop. The artists — all of which were womxn — represented Babe Walls, Colorado’s first all womxn and non-binary mural festival.
ZINES – Dobkin has created everything from participatory “Zines for Kids in Quarantine,” zines for organizations that more accessibly tell their stories in a fresh historical format, a collection of recipe zines for her own extended family connected to Jewish Holidays, and most recently made a set of zines that serve as wedding invitations.
“Betterish Togetherish” is a phrase Dobkin coined at the start of lockdown last spring, referencing that we could, and still can, find ways to build a sense of community—perhaps not physically, but through different approaches that spark play, creativity, and making more meaning from the mundane amidst the monotony and never ending sameness. At the root of every Betterish project, Dobkin continues to push the boundaries into new ways of seeing, thinking, exploring, imagining, and, ultimately connecting: to ourselves and to others in a time where that’s proven quite challenging.
ABOUT BETTERISH
Betterish is a platform that creatively encourages people to make better things, better relationships and all-around better days. Through workshops, creative consulting, pop-up events, and designing interactive learning opportunities in community and collaboration, this is a space dedicated to exploring the small actions, experiences, and lessons that lead to bigger things while acknowledging process over perfectionism.
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
The brains, brawn, and breadth behind Betterish is Emily Hope Dobkin. Emily is a hybrid of a community organizer meets arts educator meets creative entrepreneur. Twisting together craft, play, and reflection her work with Betterish is about producing innovative experiences that nourish creativity, encourages social connection, and fuels empowerment.
###
FOR MORE DETAILS AND INFORMATION, FILL OUT THIS FORM AND EMILY WILL BE IN TOUCH WITH YOU SHORTLY.