Scott on Nostr: 🚨 Calling all health promoters, community animators, Community Health Centre ...

🚨 Calling all health promoters, community animators, Community Health Centre colleagues #CHCs and others working in community health and social impact around the world. 🚨

I invite you to direct your attention to a global movement that is brewing, one that is hitting a milestone YESTERDAY and TODAY in a small place you've probable never heard of: a small town in England called Bedford. Look it up on a map, and then look up Cheat Code Conference and Real Bedford FC.

So what's this all about? Well, it's about community development, grassroots organizing, and socio-economic inclusion. It's about providing fresh opportunity for individuals, families, communities and local businesses and that have been pushed to the margins over time by political and financial structures -- like large commercial banks, multinational corporations, and donor-rich political parties -- that have increasingly centralized power, wealth, and control over the past 50 years.

You see, this very clever dude named @PeterMcCormack wanted to do something for his town, one that has come on rough times in recent decades.

Peter clued into the notion that he could help revitalize his town, bringing hope and opportunity, by rallying people around sport. Many of you community health and social impact folks have seen other examples of this sort of social enterprise in your work. Now, Peter is thinking big. So big that it might be hard for some to believe. But read on, and suspend your disbelief if you will.

He has developed a plan to take his local football (er, soccer for some) club from the very bottom rungs of English football all the way to the famed Premier League and, in the process, to use this as an anchor for a much large vision of community economic revitalization. Here's the magical element, and I'm gonna ask you to keep suspending your disbelief until you learn more: the tool that is powering this effort and carrying it beyond what Peter could ever have imagined a few years ago is #Bitcoin .

Peter and team have placed Bitcoin and the currency that is transacted over the Bitcoin network, #BTC , at the centre of this vision. A little more than two years in, the results speak for themselves: two consecutive years of promotion up the ranks of English soccer (the 2nd about to happen); adding a woman's professional squad last year (now top of their league); making football accessible to youth in the community who don't have the financial means to participate; growing the financial resiliency of the club (Real Bedford FC) through #BTC  as a savings tool; and so much more.

The "so much more" part brings us back to today and the milestone being hit. The impact of this project to revitalize Bedford has been so successful that it is now being replicated by other towns and businesses. This includes the likes of football clubs @Botev_EN in Bulgaria, and FC Lugano in Switzerland.

The vision that Peter and team set out, and their ensuing success over the past two years, have garnered increasing global attention and support, albeit among a smaller group of early observers (like yours truly) who were primed to take note of the Bedford plan and to see it grow in its initial stages.

Having seen the plan not only work locally but begin to gain traction in other settings, Peter has coined it the "Cheat Code" and he has been giving away the blueprint to anyone who will listen, anyone who wants to explore how it can help them. Today, visionaries from around the world and curious local observers have gathered in little ole' Bedford to discuss this all at the first ever @CheatCodeCon (see schedule attached).

There's magic happening here. #Bitcoin #BTC is at the centre of it all. Now, if you're a community developer or other ally working in some domain of social impact work and have managed to keep your disbelief suspended thus far, I want to issue a challenge: learn more about this "Cheat Code", learn why many of us believe that #Bitcoin  is a powerful tool for human rights, community development, and economic empowerment. Dedicate some time to studying this. You may -- and I hope you will -- discover that new opportunities to advance and scale your own local social impact work await you.

If you're asking "who the heck is this guy to talk about social impact work and how this Bitcoin thing matters", well, I've shared some of my own journey in this little piece: https://x.com/scottawolfe/status/1766688560357241121?s=46&t=wq0GoOCdXxA5DblxlsJJng

I hope it provides a bit of reassurance, and a bit of encouragement to just give this Cheat Code idea and this Bitcoin thing a closer look. Feel free to reach out. I'm happy to discuss and to share other evidence of where Bitcoin is having a powerful social impact -- like Bitcoin circular economies that are taking shape around the world from the grassroots up (see @FBCEglobal).

Kudos to @PeterMcCormack @_DannyKnowles @realbedford and many, many others who are bringing the Cheat Code to life in Bedford and not only making a difference in the lives of locals but also providing inspiration for what is becoming a truly global movement. Onward (and best luck this weekend @realbedford)!

cc: @IFCHC @NACHC @CACHC_ACCSC @Bromley_by_Bow