GREENFIELD — More than 80 community members gathered at Greenfield Community College’s Cohn Family Dining Commons over the weekend to plant the seeds for community resilience.

Resilient Greenfield, a community mutual aid effort spearheaded by resident Bram Moreinis, held an event to celebrate the launch of the web-based and mobile application platform that will connect local nonprofits with volunteers, while also introducing some of the pilot members of Resilient Greenfield: Stone Soup Cafe, Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity, M&T Bank and Green Fields Market.

Panelists at the event shared how volunteerism is essential to their mission, including Stone Soup Cafe Executive Director and Chef Kirsten Levitt, M&T Bank Branch Manager Coral Jensen, GCC Director of Community Engagement Sara Allred, Franklin Community Co-op Outreach and Communications Manager Caitlin von Schmidt, Franklin County’s YMCA Volunteer Coordinator Nancy Conant, Greenfield Business Association Director Hannah Rechtschaffen and resident Mitch Anthony.

“Let’s go back to being helpful. We can change our community,” Levitt said at the event, noting that volunteerism spiked during the throes of the pandemic, but it has waned in recent years.

“The thing that grabbed me about Resilient Greenfield is that this is a way to make volunteering more visible,” Rechtschaffen said, adding that increasing visibility can then encourage more people to volunteer and do something to support their community.

The grassroots organization has launched its volunteer hub on a platform called GivePulse, which can be accessed at greenfield.givepulse.com or via the GivePulse app on the Google Play or Apple app stores. Attendees at GCC on Saturday were introduced to the platform and were guided in how to create accounts.

Moreinis previously explained that Resilient Greenfield is based on the idea that volunteerism is the booster shot communities need to see effective change.

“Resilient Greenfield is based on a vision that if everybody, or most people, volunteered regularly, particularly people who are of working age … then all of our nonprofits that are trying to scale up to increasing need with fewer volunteers would just do a whole lot better,” Moreinis said in March, adding that this would have a two-fold effect: the nonprofits would be more effective and it would create a network of volunteers. “People will be reaching out to their neighbors and to people who they might not have considered part of their circle before.”

For more information about Resilient Greenfield, visit its website at resilientgreenfield.org.