Facebook has launched its Community Help feature within the Safety Check framework, the Menlo Park-based social media giant announced on Wednesday. Originally unveiled in November, Community Help was designed as a hub to connect communities affected by natural disasters with individuals and organizations willing to offer help. The feature is currently rolling out in the United States, Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia, the company’s executive Naomi Gleit revealed. Following a short testing period, Community Help will roll out to more territories in the coming weeks. The feature was intended to facilitate various relief efforts and operations by providing users with a single hub where they can coordinate their efforts, meaning Community Help will now instantly be activated once a territory supported by Safety Check is struck by a disaster.
Gleit said that while the tool was primarily designed by Facebook, it will evolve alongside the Facebook community, just like Safety Check did and continues to do. The social media giant is planning to improve the feature after seeing the ways people use it, all with the goal of facilitating their endeavors. Community Help provides people with a quick way to connect with their loved ones after a crisis as it allows users to filter posts by location and category and easily find and offer help. Facebook’s executive revealed that this tool was created in response to the fact that numerous individuals were already using the company’s social network to organize their efforts after a major crisis, and Community Help was developed to help them accomplish these goals. The feature was also influenced by Facebook’s field agents and humanitarian organizations.
Community Help will initially support natural disasters and accidents, Gleit said. Seeing how the tool is directly tied to Safety Check, it won’t be available unless crisis reporting agencies iJET International and NC4 alert Facebook about some kind of a crisis and the company concludes that a lot of people are using its social network to talk about the incident. More information on the feature is bound to be available shortly as Facebook continues to improve it and starts supporting more territories.
