Facebook’s Community Help Tool Now Helps People Find or Offer Food and Shelter After Crisis

Facebook today updated its Safety Check functionality with a new way to help people in need of assistance.

The Community Help tool is meant to allow users to find and give assistance during times of crisis. According to Facebook, Community Help will first be put to use for natural disasters or other large-scale accidents. The tool will launch in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Saudi Arabia first, with other areas to follow.

https://www.facebook.com/facebook/videos/10155499595981729/In order for Community Help to become available, Facebook says it must first activate the Safety Check feature. Safety Check typically assigns a name to incidents so they can be tracked, and Facebook will monitor posts in the impacted region.

The Community Help tool will let locals offer or accept food, shelter, clothing, and other necessities to one another via direct contact. Facebook didn’t say how quickly it expects to expand Community Help.