The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in successful collaboration, community-based working and mobilisation of volunteers that have driven significant change within communities and can offer a new blueprint for social action – according to new research from the University of Hull.
The 18-month research project, titled: Mobilising Volunteers Effectively (MoVE), has brought together experts from the universities of Hull, Sheffield, and Leeds. This is the second of three reports, from the first phase of the project which began in June – which explores the models and frameworks that were used by local authorities and their community partners, to coordinate vital community support.
At the start of the project – which is supported by £382,000 of funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to COVID-19 – local authorities and voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations in England, Scotland and Wales, were interviewed and asked to reflect how they coordinated community support during the national lockdown period and to help researchers identify the next phases of the research. The latest report is entitled Models and Frameworks for Coordinating Community Responses during COVID-19.