One of the defining features of the coronavirus pandemic was the community-centered response, with neighbors and communities coming together to ensure the vulnerability received the assistance they needed, whether in terms of getting supplies, caring for pets or vulnerable relatives, or simply having company in times of isolation and loneliness.
It’s an image that new research, from Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) Erasmus University and Nlvoorelkaar, suggests does not tell the whole story. The research suggests that around a third of those most in need of help from volunteers didn’t manage to get it.
The research was based on the NLvoorelkaar platform, which is the largest volunteering community in the Netherlands. The analysis reveals that while vulnerable communities were generally kept safe, they nonetheless suffered from reduced social contact and increased loneliness.
“The COVID-19 virus struck in the Netherlands in March 2020. Corona-assistance initiatives soon followed, ranging from special corona-assistance platforms and volunteer services to self-organised neighbourliness,” the researchers explain. “In the Netherlands, people turned out in droves to help each other. For example, the volunteer platform NLvoorelkaar.nl received nine times the usual number of new-volunteer registrations.”
Volunteered support
The results show that around 40% of those in need of help not only weren’t able to get it, but they found it harder to get than they would ordinarily have done prior to the pandemic. A number of reasons contributed to this, including a fear of contamination, business among family, friends and professionals, a fragmentation of service delivery, and even an assumption that help would not be possible.
“Just like previous crises, the corona crisis presented the same challenge: on the one hand, the volunteer energy burst immediately and on the other hand, some organizations stopped all volunteer activities for safety reasons, such as when nursing homes and community centers were closed,” the researchers explain.
The researchers hope that the pandemic has provided valuable experience that both individuals and community organizations can use to ensure that volunteer help is provided more effectively during future crises. There is generally no shortage of help offered, but it isn’t reaching those in need effectively.
A major barrier to overcome in future crises is the reluctance to ask for help among those who need it. If volunteer groups and efforts can overcome that hurdle, then the chances of ensuring the help gets to where it’s desperately needed is much greater.
The researchers propose three approaches to achieve this:
- Start thinking creatively about the assistance that extends ‘beyond the front door’: How can you provide the fundamental contact that people are lacking, without posing a threat to the health of those involved?
- Talk with vulnerable people in order to develop a sense of what they need. This will make it easier to act following a major event, as you will have already charted the likely ‘need for assistance’. The only thing left to do will be to fulfill it.
- Start recruiting a pool of people with specific skills that you know to be in short supply (e.g. household chores and gardening). In a subsequent crisis, such help would be immediately available, thus drastically reducing reluctance to ask.
