By John Drury & Evangelos Ntontis
In 2020, tens of thousands of people got involved in Covid mutual aid and similar community
support groups, with over 4000 new groups being
set up in Spring of that year.
Who
were they?
Many
participants were new to volunteering or community action. Some groups
were repurposed pre-existing community groups. Groups tended to be informal, distinct
from the existing voluntary sector, and with no formal constitution. Some groups later applied for charitable status to access grants more easily. Local
communities with more social capital tended to have more mutual aid groups.
What
did Covid mutual aid groups do?
Mutual
aid groups’ main activity was shopping to support those self-isolating or
shielding. They also engaged in other community support activities, including fundraising, providing
information, dog-walking, mental health support, and collecting prescriptions. Some pointed out that mutual aid groups were crucial in the UK’s pandemic response. In
addition, many groups sought to respond to other community needs beyond Covid, including food poverty and supporting
refugees.
Understanding
how Covid mutual aid groups sustained themselves
The
Economic and Social Research Council funded research to examine how Covid mutual aid groups sustained themselves over
time. Following the initial upsurge, participation in mutual aid groups
dropped, particularly after ‘lockdown’ restrictions eased. For example, activity
in Covid mutual aid groups on Facebook dropped
by 75% by June from the high point of March 2020.
Some volunteers left
because they felt let down by local authorities, needed logistical
infrastructure, felt overwhelmed, lacked capacity, or lost motivation due to
return to ‘normality’. For the groups that continued, there was a need to
sustain themselves and maintain volunteers’ engagement over time.
Interviews with organizers and a two-wave survey of volunteers indicated three types
of factors that helped sustain groups. First, there was group scaffolding
– such as access to funds, space for meetings and storage, computing
facilities, and transport.
Second,
there were group experiences which arose from participation and
motivated further involvement -- including a sense of identity, wellbeing, empowerment, and skills acquisition. Finally,
organizers employed various group strategies to enhance a sense of belonging
and motivate volunteers – in particular, fostering a culture of care, holding
social events, a flexible leadership structure, and regular communication.
Learnings:
Implications for community resilience
Central
government, local authorities, and local infrastructure organizations/ the
formal voluntary sector can all help scaffold the group processes that sustain
mutual aid groups.
Group
scaffolding can comprise financial/ practical support, connections and links,
and guidance / advice.
It
is important that no ‘strings’ are attached to this external support, as it is
precisely the identity of mutual aid groups as independent and informal that makes
them trusted by communities.
