Volunteers in times of Covid: stories

Lots of different hands up offering help

Many charities have been able to take advantage of the surge of volunteers during the pandemic to help them tackle the challenges. Here are just two short stories...

Many charities already registered with us have fast tracked some of their thinking and moved quickly to recruit new volunteers.

The Sleep Charity

The Sleep Charity, which provides sleep support to families, is one such charity. It was able to launch an online version of its respected training programme within two months, thanks to the development support of volunteer e-learning expert Henry Mpologoma. 

CEO Vicki Dawson says: ‘The sale of these training courses brings in 80 per cent of our income so we needed to move very quickly.
‘At the same time, we have always been very proud of our training and we wanted to be sure we would capture that quality when we moved online. Henry’s advice was invaluable to us in achieving such a quick turnaround with confidence.’

Community Links

Skills-based volunteers have a role to play in charities working in services that are in even more in demand during the pandemic. Community Links is an east London-based advice service whose clients normally make contact by visiting its Newham offices, which are currently closed. 

The charity knew the need for employment and housing advice was greater than ever. They advertised for a communications expert, and found Alexandra Beveridge, a Brighton-based events marketer who has transformed their digital and partner marketing. ‘She’s done an amazing job, we would have been lost without her’, says Community Links programme manager John Mahoney. ‘Instead of seeing a fall in the number of people coming to us, which many similar organisations have experienced, we have seen an increase over the period.’
 

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