Networks and Peer Support

This is a collection of material that grantholders may find useful in responding to the current crisis. As far as possible these are sourced from reputable, recognised VCS organisations, but inclusion on this list does not imply any endorsement or recommendation by the National Lottery Community Fund.

• Covid-19 Charity Preparedness Facebook Group: A group to discuss and share contingency plans, tips and best practice and requests for advice for charities in relation to charity fundraising, operations or service delivery. The group is global and allows posts to be tagged where they have a specific country focus.
• National Association of Link Workers: UK Corona Virus (Covid-19) support group Facebook peer support group for link workers.
• Directors and Heads Of Fundraising Facebook group
• Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK: a group of volunteers supporting local community groups organising mutual aid across the UK. Focused on providing resources and connecting people to their nearest local groups, willing volunteers and those in need. https://twitter.com/CovidAidUK
• The Viral Kindness Scotland project: aims to assist those in need, connect people across Scotland, and build an army of volunteers. https://twitter.com/viralkindscot
• SCVO Digital Slack Community: To share ideas on how to reach those in Scotland who are isolated and have no digital skills. Email digital@scvo.org.uk to join.
• CoronavirusTechHandbook.com Facebook group
• Civil Society CoronavirusTechHandbook Whatsapp Chat
• Discussion Forum for Community Educators
• FEANSA has started a weekly webinar series to connect professionals from across the homeless sector in Europe.
• Release has set up a network across the UK to collect information about the drugs market during the Covid-19 crisis to inform and improve their support work.
• NPC have created a dataset to map where the deprivation, reduced numbers of charities and opportunities for funder collaboration are, indicating which places in the UK are likely to be most affected by Covid-19.

Free/Pro Bono Support

• NCVO: Regular webinar training on various topics linked to Covid-19.
• Catalyst Digital Teams: Free access for charities to a combination of digital, design and data expertise to help go through urgent transition.
• NCVO: KnowHow Non-Profit NCVO have made their member-only resources on how to run a charity free to everyone. There is also a specific section on the coronavirus.
• SCVO: Covid-19 Third Sector Information Hub Information resources related to running a charity in Scotland
• Fundraising: Covid-19 response packages Free virtual, social and DIY fundraising site-packages to help charities fill a gap with their planned, cancelled or postponed events and campaigns.
• SCVO: Using digital to help your organisation keep working If you work in a voluntary sector organisation in Scotland and need to talk to someone about how to use tech to help your org work remotely, SCVO's digital team is offering one-to-one 15-minute chats.
• Digital Candle: One free hour of expert digital advice for charities
• Cranfield Trust: Free management consultancy, mentoring and HR advice to charities.
• Bluefrog: Free resources for creating a coronavirus appeal Templates created for organisations that don’t have access to a dedicated fundraising team and who’d like to approach their current customers or donors for support.
• Helplines Partnership: Find a Helpline Directory of helplines across the UK offering support via phone, email, text or online.

Adapting Your Services/Going Digital

• Digital Communities Wales: Covid-19: digital inclusion webinar programme
• Scottish Tech Army: They connect technical volunteers to support organisations responding to COVID-19. You will need to make a project submission to take part.
• SCVO: New service delivery models. An overview of some key principles behind digital service delivery, along with some short examples of how voluntary organisations have used digital technology to support people in their communities
• Third Sector Lab and SCBO Digital: Covid-19: Digital service delivery for charities. Content in this document is open source - collecting case studies, policies, best practice and guidance specific to delivering charity services online.
• Coronavirus Tech Handbook: A Crowd-sourced set of tech, tools and data relating to the coronavirus pandemic.
• LGBT Youth Scotland: An overview of using Microsoft Teams for communications and collaboration.
• ProMo-Cymru: Digital Resources for the third and youth sector in Wales #Covid-19
• Third Sector Lab / Scottish Contemporary Art Network: Digital working during the Coronavirus outbreak

Alcohol/Substance Use

• GOV.UK: Guidance for commissioners and providers of services for people who use drugs or alcohol during Covid-19 crisis.
• Collective voice: Resource bank for treatment and recovery services

Benefits, Debt and Money

• ​​​​​​​Turn2Us: Benefits and coronavirus.

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) People

• Association of Charitable Foundations: Foundations, Covid-19 and racial disparity: A time for urgent action
• The Ubele Initiative: Impact of Coronavirus (Covid-19) on the BAME Community and Voluntary Organisations. Key findings from a survey of 89 BAME-led organisations carried out in March 2020.

Befriending

• Befriending Networks: Covid-19 Guidance for Befrienders
• Befriending Networks: Covid-19 Guidance for staff of befriending projects
• Quarantine Chat: Talk on the phone with someone else stuck at home. Free, worldwide initiative to connect isolated people by phone (over the internet through the app Dialup).

Children and Young People

• HeadStart Kernow: Online resilience tool and other resources to help support young people online. It also helps professionals assess young people’s online behaviour.
• National Youth Agency: Managing youth sector activities and spaces during COVID-19
• Cwm Taf University Health Board: Information for families of children with additional needs during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Children's Commisioner for Wales: Information Hub for Families and Children.
• Early Intervention Foundation: Evidence, challenges and risks relating to virtual and digital delivery during Covid-19.
• NSPCC have created a weekly update of current policy, practice and research on children and young people.
• NI Children & Young People’s Strategic Partnership (CYPSP): A live document with updates to their family support provision and how to access these.
• National Youth Council of Ireland: Covid-19 Support and Resources.
• Children and young people’s mental health coalition: Covid-19: Protecting Children and Young People’s Mental Health
• Childline: What is coronavirus? Information and advice for children and young people
• NSPCC: Online safety and social media
• Radicalisation Awareness Network: Doing digital youth work in a P/CVE context

Communications

• CharityComms and Media Trust: Impact of Covid-19 on Charity Communications. Results of a survey of the sector about the main communications challenges charities are facing at this time.
• CharityComms: Charity communicator coronavirus resources. Links to tips and resources for coping with coronavirus and changing ways of working.
• Third Sector PR & Comms Facebook group. Group for people working in Comms, PR or Marketing in the Third Sector with a dedicated thread to post about support needs around Coronavirus.
• Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR): #CIPRLearn webinars a new weekly series aimed at advising public relations professionals on managing their work during the Covid-19 outbreak

Community Centres and Village Halls

• ACRE: Action with Communities in Rural England: Information to help village halls reopen
• ACRE: Action with Communities in Rural England: Village halls and similar rural community buildings
• Cambridgeshire ACRE: Advice for village halls on Coronavirus
• Community First Yorkshire: Coronavirus advice and updates
• Norris and Fisher Insurance Brokers: Coronavirus Advice For Village Halls

Community Transport

• Community Transport Association: Coronavirus/Covid-19: Guidance for Community Transport

Criminal Justice

• Clinks: Support and FAQs for the voluntary sector working in criminal justice
• GOV.UK: Coronavirus (Covid-19) and prisons

Data Protection and GDPR

• Information Commissioner's Office: Data protection and coronavirus: what you need to know

Disabled People

• SCIE: Covid-19: Supporting autistic people and people with learning disabilities.

Domestic Abuse

• Standing Together: Guidance for client-facing staff on Mulit-Agency Risk Assesment Conferences (MARAC) and domestic and sexual abuse in homelessness settings.
• SafeLives: Domestic abuse and Covid-19
  
• Womens Aid: Covid-19/Coronavirus: Safety Advice for Survivors

Food

• Sustainable Food Places: Are regularly sharing newseletters and breifings about food distribution during the Covid-19 crisis. They are also running a weekly online forum for food poverty alliance and food partnership coordinators. Find out more here.

Fundraising

• Third Sector: Covid-19 funding – live tracker. A list of Covid-19 funding and grants that collates information on funds available, eligibility and deadlines in one place.
• Charity Fundraising Ltd are offering free fundraising advice / mentoring sessions.
• IVAR: The pressures of uncertainty: A briefing for trusts and foundations on the challenges faced by VCSE leaders during the Covid-19 crisis.
• Civil Society Consulting are running free one-to-one 'Income Generation Surgeries' for the VCSE sector. Sign up to an upcomnig surgery on Eventbrite.
• Charity Excellence Framework: Covid-19 Funder database (Free - but registration is required)
• Charity Connect: Coronovirus - List Of Emergency Funders
• Institute of Fundraising, NCVO and Charity Finance Group - Coronavirus impact survey results. Data from over 500 charities on the impact of the crisis on their organisations.
• Civil Society: This article lists funding available to charities during the pandemic
• Bluefrog: Coronavirus fundraising. What we’ve learned so far
• Institute of Fundraising: Five ways the coronavirus is changing the legacy market and what this means for charities
• SCVO: Funding, the voluntary sector & coronavirus Functional areas where funding is needed to support organisations to help their communities now and in the coming months.
• Institute of Fundraising: Information for fundraisers about coronavirus
• Charity Finance Group: Coronavirus and your charity A practical guide for charity finance professionals, which will be updated with new information and advice as the crisis unfolds.
• Association of Charitable Foundations: Foundations and coronavirus
• Alliance: How should philanthropists respond to the coronavirus?
• London Funders: Funder statement on Covid-19, March 2020 Statement from a group of funders (not solely in London) on their commitment to grantholders during the crisis.
• IVAR: Covid-19: What funders can do this week
• IVAR: Covid-19: What can funders learn from previous emergency responses?

Governance

• OSCR Scottish Charity Regulator: Charities and Coronavirus: An update from the regulator. Resources to support the sector through the pandemic.
• Charity Commission for England and Wales: Coronavirus (Covid-19) guidance for the charity sector. Guidance to help with running your charity.
• The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland: Covid-19 (Coronavirus) information. Guidance on changes during the crisis.

Grief

• Irish Hospice Foundation: Grieving in Exceptional Times.

Health

• RSPH: Covid-19: A men’s health emergency?
• Chartered Society of Physiotherapy: Covid-19: guide for rapid implementation of remote consultations Practical advice for physiotherapists and support workers
• SCIE: Using technology to support people with dementia
• Alzheimer’s Society: Coronavirus: Information for people affected by dementia
• Stroke Association: Coronavirus (Covid-19) information for people affected by stroke
• Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Royal College of Midwives, Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare and British Society of Abortion Care Providers: Coronavirus (Covid-19) – Information for women requiring abortion
• Asthma UK: Health advice for people with asthma
• British Lung Foundation: Coronavirus and Covid-19

Homelessness

• Centre for Homelessness Impact: Covid-19 response. Resources to support communities to help people who are homeless or at risk to stay safe and healthy.
• GOV.UK: Information on coronavirus disease (Covid-19) for hostel or day centre providers of services for people experiencing rough sleeping.
• Homeless Link: Recommendations, FAQs and Resources
• Homeless Link: Covid-19 and Homelessness Services Recording of a webinar from 18 March 2020
• Homeless Network Scotland: Guide for Housing Support workers to help provide phone-support during Covid-19
• Centre for Homelessness Impact: Covid-19 homelessness official guidance Collates government guidance from across the UK relevant to helping people experiencing or at risk of homelessness stay safe and healthy
• Shelter: Housing advice: coronavirus (Covid-19)

Information, Advice and Support

• CAB: Live traffic and searches on citizensadvice.org.uk Live feed of searches on the CAB website.

Loneliness and Social Isolation

• Campaign to End Loneliness: Coronavirus and social isolation Ideas for how we can all combat social isolation and look out for each other during the spread of the virus.

Marginalised Groups

• Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC): Covid-19: How to include marginalized and vulnerable people in risk communication and community engagement.

Mental Health and Wellbeing

• Gov.uk: Guidance for the public on the mental health and wellbeing aspects of coronavirus (Covid-19)
• Mind: Coronavirus and your wellbeing
• MHFA England: How to support your mental health while working from home
• Samaritans: If you're worried about your mental health during the coronavirus outbreak
• HealthUnlocked: Positive Wellbeing During Self‑Isolation An online community where people can share their tips, advice and experiences on how to keep healthy while self-isolating.

Multiple Disadvantage

• Fulfilling Lives: Tips on taking a trauma-informed approach to coronavirus.
• Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) are producing a series of recordings focused on multiple disadvantage and Covid-19 over the next few weeks.
• Making Every Adult Matter (MEAM) are producing a weekly newsletter which includes policy updates and resources.

Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants

• Refugee Action: Coronavirus Asylum Handbook
• JCWI, Migrants Organise, and Medact: Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK: Guide for Supporting Migrants During Coronavirus Collaborative guide for Mutual Aid groups to consider how best to support at risk migrants.

Research and Evaluation

• Inspiring Impact have collated resoures and upcoming events around data and evidence.
• Evaluation Support Scotland: Evaluating at a distance. Simple guidance on how to learn and report while moving to deliver services virtually, help more or new beneficiaries, or meet new needs arising from the pandemic.
• FutureGov: Making design research work remotely. Slide deck on how to adapt research process when working remotely.

Volunteering

• Doing Good Leeds: Top tips to safely help others in your community.
• The CEO of Volunteering Matters has written a thread on Twitter which outlines the opportunities and challenges the sector is facing around volunteering.
• Volunteer Now: Guidance and Webinar on Involving Volunteers During the Covid-19 Crisis.
• Furlough Go: Furlough swap scheme, set up to enable charities and community groups to connect with and involve skilled and experienced furloughed staff as volunteers.
• GOV.UK: Coronavirus: How to help safely
• NCVO: Volunteering and Coronavirus, how can you help?
• Volunteer Scotland: Coronavirus (Covid-19) advice for volunteers
• NHS Volunteer Responders Set up to support the NHS and recruit an 'army' of volunteers who can support the 1.5 million people in England who are at most risk from the virus to stay well.

Working in Your Local Community

• Ready Scotland: Helping in your community
• Support Staffordshire: Be a good neighbour

We’re making sense of what we’re seeing and hearing from our grantholders at pace, so there’ll be things we’ve missed, haven’t noticed yet or, perhaps, misinterpreted.

We welcome comments or challenge, so that we can continuously improve and develop, and make this work practical and useful.

Please send feedback and suggestions on this content to knowledge@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk

This page was last updated: 21 July 2020