A very common complaint in the prepper world is an inability to locate other preppers in the immediate vicinity. The idea is to network with them, share ideas, and, in some cases, resources. If nothing else, it helps to know you’re not the only one around with the same sorts of concerns.
How do You Find the Preppers In Your Area?
Social Media
One place to start your search is Facebook. Check for any Facebook groups that are prepper-centric and focused on your area. For example, do a search for “[state name] prepping” and see what pops up. To the best of my knowledge, every single U.S. state is represented by at least one group on Facebook. Often, there are multiple groups. You might also search for your county name in a similar manner.
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Join these groups and spend a few days just lurking and reading posts. It won’t take long for you to develop a sense of how serious the group and its members are. Ditch the groups that are filled with garbage and nonsense.
Social media like Facebook makes it easy to at least make some inroads toward meeting preppers in your area. At the least, you can develop connections online, which is better than nothing.
In-Person Classes
Check with your local park and recreation departments as well as county extension offices to see if they are offering classes that are likely to be of interest to fellow preppers. For example, first aid, food preservation, seed saving, or wild edibles. Classes like these are a great way to meet like-minded folks in your area.
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If you attend three or four different classes and notice a few of the same people are right there with you for each one, odds are pretty good they’re also preppers.
I host disaster readiness classes a couple of times a year in my area, and I’ve seen more than a few familiar faces at each session.
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Check with Your Circle
I know that this is a lost cause for some people, but it’s still worth exploring. If you have family, friends, or coworkers with whom you interact on a regular basis, consider broaching the subject of prepping and see where the conversation leads. I’m not suggesting you stand up and announce it to the room. There are other ways to bring it up in an indirect way.
One approach is to bring up an aspect of pop culture that touches on prepper themes. The various spinoffs from The Walking Dead come to mind. Sure, it’s a very unrealistic premise, but talking about how characters handled various challenges can open the door to further discussions.
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Bringing up news stories is another angle. It doesn’t need to be a huge calamity, either. Just bringing up a recent story about a lost hiker can open the door to talking about preparedness in general terms. See where the conversations lead from there.
Given the ever-growing interest in preparedness throughout the United States and beyond, odds are pretty good that there are other preppers in your neck of the woods. However, it’s been drilled into every budding prepper’s head that prepping is to be treated like Fight Club. The first rule is you don’t talk about it. This makes it rather difficult to connect with others in the area, as everyone is afraid to reveal themselves.
The good news is that more and more preppers are realizing that building a community, even a loose-knit one, is a good idea.
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