About Us
"We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it." - President Barack Obama, September 9, 2009
We're here to see risk, provide or help find tools to address it, and to help navigate disruption - pandemic or otherwise.
We provide tools, resources, and services for people and organizations to be resilient, to make change, and to counter fear. We get there by anchoring, strengthening, facing our fear, growing vision, building connection, and taking action.
Our focus has mostly shifted to Shifting the Country. It's about fostering civic engagement at scale to help make shift happen in this unprecedented disruption + transformation.
Overall, the goal on this site is to help people and organizations help each other through this long-term COVID-19 crisis, to help hold society together while we're doing it, to get voters engaged in all that, and to make transformation along the way... so that we can thrive and flourish on the other side. Alert readers may note that that's the same mission as the one in the Shift the Country - White Paper.
There's plenty to do in a massive global catastrophe, but it's overwhelming, too. We've been getting ready for something like this for a lifetime (more on the transformation and knowing a catastrophe would be bad), and we can help you chart and evolve your own path forward. To find what resonates. There's transformation to be had here - in all of the realms, sectors, and corners of the world; it's going to take some doing to make it happen. We can help.
The counterfear website and content is geared for the US; the principles and concepts can work anywhere. Our work is funded through contributions and some consulting and coaching clients; links are below to help out or join in.
Our Work
- Counterfear.com is jointly operated, and our work is anchored in service.
- Shift the Country is an initiative calling for Americans to get engaged with everything. It is a civic engagement push to make shift happen, & to spread it like a virus with a 5-part strategy. White paper here with more.
- Wicked Problem Wayfinding, LLC (dba Counterfear LLC) is a business with a mission to do social good, through coaching & consulting services, with inclusive pricing - here to help you and your organizations.
- 25 Focus Areas - for deeper dives into countering fear and making shift happen.
- The Toolbox - tools and resources to get it done.
- The Blog - tools, tough truth, and perspective.
- Core Resources, Ideas, & Tools - our own anchor points and foundation stuff.
- Events on Shift the Country FB Page - solidarity, support, online workshops, & whatever we all come up with to help us find our way through.
Where Did This Come From?
- What counterfear is: “Launching an Idea: What is Counterfear?"
- The journey - counterfear version: “I Took the Red Pill: Why I’m on the Counterfear Path.”
- More to the story: Back Stories: This Disruption Was Not Unexpected. Includes the deeper motivations here in the 2016 take on "Why" in a pre-COVID-19 world, a piece called The Great Transformation on the time that's now in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a piece on knowing a US catastrophe would be bad.
- Finally, this piece is unique to the very specialized background that brought this site and this work together. This summary of the US disaster response landscape is not written elsewhere: There Is No National Coordination System - There Are 12. It's also summarized in Big Picture for US Disasters on YouTube.
Who We Are & Where We're At Online
- Help fund Shift the Country on Patreon!
- Help fund Shift the Country on GoFundMe!
- Events: Shift the Country Eventbrite Sign-Up.
- Facebook: Shift the Country Page.
- Facebook: Counterfear Page.
- Facebook: Vanessa Burnett (founder).
- Twitter: @ShiftTheCountry.
- Twitter: @CounterfearZone.
- Twitter: @DerechoSquared (founder).
- YouTube: Shift the Country.
- We are so growing an online community on Discord to help navigate this disruption / transformation. Should be super cool... text chats + lounge + voice + video + events + planned hangouts to help us make shift happen. Ties to Shift the Country civic engagement work, plus the core stuff here for the moment - connection, community, problem-solving, resilience. Coming ASAP.
- Medium: Counterfear (inactive; re-posts from The Blog).
- Founder background: LinkedIn public profile.
- Founder background: Founder Experience / Bio.
- Founder background: "About the Founder" blog post.
- Founder background: "Random Life Tidbits" blog post.
- Get in touch: Contact Us.
|| Shift the Country || I'm In! Sign Me Up || How Can I Support All This Shift? || 15 Tools To Help People Engage With Everything || 10 Structural Areas For Action Anywhere || Printable Shift the Country Framework || FB || Twitter || Videos & Broadcasts || YouTube || Workshops & Scheduled Livestreams || Services || The Blog || 25 Focus Areas For Navigating Disruption ||