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Cooperation – creating new networks
#newnormal #cooperation #care
The last few months have been devastating for our country, but during the Covid-19 pandemic one thing that has shone through has been the willingness of ordinary people and organisations to reach out and help each other. There is more talk of cooperation and community, and many of us are more connected to our neighbours and those around us. Organisations from different sectors have come together to address hardship and need where they have seen it. There is a huge amount of goodwill out there, and we have also seen this in our own sectors: housing, charity, and social care.
Working together to address need
We have been pleased to see similar initiatives to our own “we are thinking of you” from successful organisations in the housing and charity sectors coming together to offer cooperation and help to smaller, struggling charities and social care providers.
Recently the Regulator of Social Housing and some of the larger housing associations have been working together to find out what assistance they could offer to small care and support providers, as these seem to be the most at risk. Whether it be due to difficulties in sourcing PPE or coping with the inflated cost, staffing problems due to illness or staff self-isolating, or financial difficulties, these problems need to be addressed in cooperation so that the companies can be supported to continue to provide their services to the vulnerable.
In the charity sector, fifteen organisations who have expertise in managing and using data have come together under the initiative ‘Catalyst’ to look at how they can share this knowledge with other organisations to help them to function better and ultimately to better meet the needs of their beneficiaries. Although set up before the Coronavirus pandemic they are now helping charities in cooperation to get through the crisis as well as taking on board new ways of working for the longer term.
https://www.civilsociety.co.uk/news/civil-society-organisations-call-for-a-data-collective.html
These organisations include 360Giving and Citizens Advice Bureau, and they are working together in a collaborative way by collating information and data held in different places by different organisations. They are using this data to analyse the changing needs of vulnerable people and to find out how charities and services can best respond.
https://www.thecatalyst.org.uk/blog/why-were-calling-for-a-data-collective
We are thinking of you
As a successful charity Zetetick has been keen to reach out to offer help to other small charities who might be struggling to cope during the pandemic. In April we put out a call to ask small charities working in supported living, or with people with physical or learning disabilities and autism, or the disadvantaged, to get in touch if they were in difficulty to see if there was any way we could work together during this crisis that might give them a lifeline. We are looking to work in cooperation with a couple of charities to explore this possibility. If you are such a charity in difficulty get in touch.
https://zhc.org.uk/we-are-thinking-of-you/
Working together in a spirit of cooperation is part of the ‘new normal’, and it will help us to address the challenges of Covid-19 and beyond.
