By Anita Herbert, Community Impact Manager
28 January 2021 – The past year has presented precious few opportunities for people to connect with each other, which is surely the mainstay of creating, sharing and building a community.
This is why we at Berkshire Community Foundation (BCF) were excited to hold our first Community Focus roundtable event of 2021 yesterday, meeting with representatives from five community hubs spanning all the local authority areas in Berkshire: – Involve Bracknell and Wokingham, Reading Voluntary Action, Slough CVS, Volunteer Centre West Berkshire and WAM Get Involved. It was our first time bringing all the hubs round the table to connect and regroup – an opportunity made even more important since the start of the second lockdown.
What have been the biggest issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic? What were the volunteer hubs’ biggest triumphs in grappling with the pandemic? How have the community hubs’ roles evolved in relation to local government? How has BCF been able to help, and what could we do better? These were the questions we most wanted to answer together, to understand how we can better serve the communities we all live in.
Here were some key themes that emerged from our discussion.
Technology – a help and a hindrance
Interactive, open-access technology has allowed many of the hubs to create mini-revolutions in the way they offer and coordinate local support. From organising online video events and intelligence gathering sessions to understand immediate needs, to creating mapping and self-management systems for volunteers and consolidating user databases, technology has been key for volunteer groups in pivoting operations during the crisis.
But IT has also presented a new set of problems, particularly around inequality of access. For example, older people are not always able to understand online processes and software – and are thus unable to access support. Those in rural areas may not have good online connectivity, while children in poorer households may not have computers and WiFi accounts which are necessary for home schooling.
One hub has been able to access some funding to provide hardware and online connectivity to certain low income households. But as another representative said, “I’m not sure we have touched the tip [of the problem of technological access]. Going forward, we need to figure out what’s the solution. There’s going to be a lot of people that just can’t use technology to communicate and reach out to the rest of the world.”
Mental health as an enduring issue
Beyond – but closely linked to – basic survival needs such as food and medicine, mental health was a concern for all. This includes worry around the virus and keeping loved ones safe; stress amongst workers resulting from prolonged periods at home; pressure on parents to juggle work with home schooling and childcare; anxiety relating to the loss of livelihoods and income; and depression or other emotional issues related to domestic strife or abuse.
The hubs reported that groups feel a heavy burden to tackle and address mental health in local communities, particularly among the vulnerable. One representative suggested that older volunteers unable to staff vaccine centres could be redirected to take on befriending or online outreach programmes to those who are lonely, or in need of social interaction or support. This could be an ideal way to direct some resource to support mental health in communities, whilst keeping older volunteers virus-safe.
Bringing the public, private and voluntary sectors together
Many of the attendees praised the value of consolidating the services offered by local authorities, charities and volunteers into a single one-stop platform, with a single point of contact such as a hotline or email address for all local residents to find out about, or receive referrals to, all the aid and support available in the district.
COVID-19 had, in effect, galvanised a much closer, cooperative relationship between local authorities and the volunteer sector – in strategic response, funding, and the pooling of resources.
Some local authorities, for example, provided on-the-ground communications support for charities to send leaflets door-to-door. Others explored forming charity hubs in town centres for easier access to the public, or mutually shared databases of vulnerable or shielding people with local authorities, the NHS and charity groups – so that individuals in need could be placed at the heart of all community support.
The picture was positive, but could still be improved: some community hubs still reported being able to access local authority databases of vulnerable people, preventing them from offering help. Not all hubs have received funding from local authorities. But on the whole, they have seen greatly improved trust and appreciation from local government for the voluntary sector, as a fundamental pillar propping up the community in this crisis and beyond.
Inequality and inclusivity
The hubs reflected that it’s been a year of exacerbated inequalities, but also the breaking down of some social barriers.
One representative noted that there have been “existing systemic inequalities in the wider determinants of people’s health and wellbeing [such as poverty, poor housing and discrimination] which have been magnified. If you look at the vaccine roll-out, we’re hearing about people who don’t speak English, going to vaccine hubs waving a letter… and then being turned away because they can’t sign anything that’s in English… That’s where voluntary sector groups, especially the small ones, are fantastic at mitigating some of these problems.”
She reflected that we’re at a moment of prominence around the issue of inclusivity, in which movements such as the Black Lives Matter campaign have received nationwide attention. “There’s no excuse now for not knowing about poverty and exclusion and discrimination, so how can we capture this and have a legacy of keeping this embedded in the memory of the nation and the memory of decision makers and funders?”
Other hubs noted that, particularly in areas of wide inequality, faith groups have stepped up to support others, beyond those of their immediate religious or ethnic communities. This has resulted in the breaking of stereotypes and greater appreciation between ethnic groups who previously have had little or no interaction with one another.
One attendee said: “An area that BCF can look at is working more closely with BAME communities. Some of the smaller groups need additional help in looking at how they can progress and develop their capacity… It’s just providing that feedback of where they could improve moving forward, that could really help with their confidence in completing applications and accessing funding.”
Volunteers at the heart of it all
The experience of the pandemic brought to light, like never before, the priceless value of volunteers, and the growing perception within the private and public sectors of volunteer groups as being key partners, rather than an afterthought.
One respondent recounted how volunteers had transformed perceptions by being at the heart of the COVID-19 response: “It was a shock to some people in the local authority sector when we brought in a volunteer to manage them… not realising that [amongst volunteers] there are incredibly senior people with a huge amount of expertise that can be tapped into. Having a charity run a section of about 20 staff inside a local authority [to organise a call centre] was a great experience.”
Across the board, the hubs witnessed communities coming together to respond to urgent local needs. Volunteer sign-ups grew exponentially; “the response by local people on volunteering has been exceptional.”
However, the picture of volunteer demand is mixed. With funding cuts and curtailed activities, many charities had to reduce their demand for volunteers. Many hubs responded by creating online volunteer training courses, and now need to come up with ways to engage new volunteers with rewarding and fruitful roles in local charities.
On the other hand, now that multiple vaccine centres and lateral-flow test centres are open, there is an ongoing need for younger, able-bodied volunteers to staff these sites to help the NHS vaccinate and test as many people as possible. Recruitment of younger volunteers is always a tricky challenge which continues to face the volunteer hubs, although communication technologies and channels – such as social media sites – could offer new outreach opportunities.
The need for funding flexibility
One representative highlighted the crucial role of funders like BCF in aggregating funding support from multiple sources and channelling it to where communities need it most, and in providing flexibility for community hubs to adapt their services to the most important needs at every point in the crisis.
“At grassroots level we were able to go, ‘food is the most important thing today’, and next month it was prescription deliveries, and later on it became vaccination and testing centres. We were able to use the same resource to vary what we were delivering using the same volunteers. Having that amount of flexibility made a dramatic difference,” he said. “It gave us a sense of security, and allowed us to invest and deliver services, when we hadn’t had more than two months’ visibility [of immediate need] going forward… We ought to recognise that as a system, a partnership delivery mechanism that should be as solid as it was in Berkshire, across all the other counties.”
That said, it was apparent that tight spending deadlines from some funding sources were a real challenge. “Funding streams are continuing to honour the financial year rather than reflecting how COVID is behaving,” said one respondent. “We’re keen for a more flexible approach in enabling groups to take their funding forward.”
All representatives were keen that the strength and flow of funding streams should reflect how vitally important the voluntary sector has been in mitigating the pandemic crisis. For example, volunteer groups have been instrumental in staffing vaccination centres across Berkshire, but have found it more difficult to access and receive NHS funding for their services, than private suppliers for the Health Service. “We’re still in the same position with regards to NHS funding that I remember we were at, 20 years ago,” said one representative. “That needs to shift!”
It was clear from this event that, just as our national COVID-19 situation continue to evolve quickly, our local volunteer groups have needed to adapt just as rapidly. That’s why at BCF we feel it’s more important than ever to keep watch on what is changing in the voluntary landscape: to understand the unexpected issues thrown up as the pandemic continues its cycle, the areas of work that need more funding, and the opportunities that are emerging for better collaboration and partnership.
We continue to plan more community events to gather more insight. Through the unstinting effort of longstanding BCF volunteer, Gaye Pottinger, we are embarking on a new round of desktop research and local surveys this year for our next Vital Signs report – our ‘health check’ on the local communities in Berkshire which will inform our donor outreach and funding considerations.
Most importantly, thanks are due to all volunteers – a mix of ages, backgrounds and skill sets. Mary Riall, the 2020-21 Berkshire High Sheriff, has taken the lead in this through the High Sheriff Awards to recognise those who have made outstanding contributions to society. Whether or not people have been ‘called up’ to help with the crisis yet is irrelevant – the fact that they have stepped up to offer their time and effort is hugely appreciated by all charities and groups. This outpouring of community goodwill is precious, and one that all the volunteer hubs are dedicated to preserving.
BCF looks forward to continuing this dialogue over the coming months and years as we continue to respond to the needs of the communities we serve.
Find out more: Read our Coronavirus Report documenting our support for the voluntary sector in managing the COVID-19 crisis from April – July 2020.
Do more: Find out how you can contribute to our efforts to support charities and volunteer groups providing vital services across Berkshire.
