Panic, adaptability and building connections -The story of a social enterprise during the Covid crisis

Covid-19 (Coronavirus) is already having an impact on businesses across the country and social enterprises are no exception. We know these next few months are going to be ones of uncertainty and fear for all the challenges we are facing. Our innovative social enterprise model - which combines a care and support work service with a volunteer-led befriending service - has been significantly affected by the pandemic, and that is why it is time for us to reflect on what were some of the challenges that we have already overcome, what were some of the strengths that we could exploit to do so, and what further challenges lie ahead.

How did the pandemic affect us?

In normal circumstances, our one-to-one befriending service is run by volunteers and provides friendly social contact and helps to reduce feelings of loneliness as well as increasing motivation and confidence. Our volunteer befrienders are able to provide a listening ear, confidential support, regular contact, conversation and signposting to other services that might be of interest. 

During the pandemic, our volunteers have been redeployed from visiting homes to telephone befriending, calling vulnerable and isolated members of the community and giving them the skills and tools to call others where possible. Our befriendees tell us that the weekly contact with their befriender has sadly transformed from being a beautiful addition to their lives to becoming their lifeline over the past lonely and isolating months. Now more than ever we feel that the service we provide is absolutely essential. This has provided us with an imperative to tackle the challenges and embrace the changes we need to make to go forward. 

However, as a result of the pandemic, our capacity to generate income for our befriending services via our care service has been significantly affected. 

The No.1 Team on its team meeting - the new normal

How did we stay afloat during the pandemic?

As an organisation, The No.1 Befriending Agency is embracing the opportunities that Covid-19 has offered us. We have already needed to learn new systems and ways of working, and our activities must continue to evolve. 

The No.1 Befriending Agency is an organisation that is very much impact-led and with that in mind this enables it to be responsive and empowered to act for purpose. This approach helps us to solve problems, innovate, perform better and create lasting value. We have identified some of the strengths that set this organisation apart from others that are finding it harder to be agile and adapt to sudden change. Given the current situation we’ve implemented a remote working policy for the core office staff and provided them with the equipment to facilitate this.

Being successful in accessing the emergency funding showed us that we can actually scale up relatively quickly. As a result of the pandemic we’ve shown that we can increase resiliency and flexibility. Now we know we’re going to come out of this pandemic a stronger organisation.

Now we are working from home through a pandemic, where the biggest influence in our daily lives is our emotions: anger, anxiety, stress, health scares, sadness, grief, loss and everything in between. This crisis has been an emotional rollercoaster experience for us all and impacted on each of us in different ways. We need to be mindful of this, as we work through the challenges and changing restrictions.

Social resilience is all about connectedness; we are all in this together, as a team and as a community. We are regularly talking to our existing networks, exploring new partnerships, sharing and learning from each other. We will continue to be responsive to our clients and with our volunteers and staff team, our organisation will be stronger and able to expand and widen our reach to provide people with a way to connect and/or be connected and not be socially isolated and lonely.

How did we react to the pandemic?

New volunteers are being recruited, inducted and trained remotely (this used to be a face-to-face activity) and the organisation is still observing all of the checks and balances, including implementing revised risk assessment processes, required for volunteering within the COVID-19 restrictions.

We were uniquely positioned to respond quickly and allow staff to work from home. The past few months have proven we can continue to make that work. We’re proud of the early action we took to protect the health of our employees and our volunteers and clients. That will remain our top priority as we work through the unknowns of the coming months.

Now more than ever there is the urgent need of the hours that volunteers can connect with others on a deeper level to offer support and tackle loneliness in addition to our telephone befriending service. We are now offering virtual activities to those most in need of companionship, friendship and social connections using technology.

Loneliness is one of the most common reasons for seeking help and for many people it has been a distressing experience. Social isolation and loneliness are key reasons for looking for befriending support, but during the pandemic there has been a new group of people experiencing it for the first time and another group of people who now want to volunteer as they realise the difference this can make to someone’s life. They now understand how valuable human contact is and our connection to other people helps keep us well and reduces the significant risk to our health and wellbeing. We have now expanded our service from the over 60s to those aged 18 and over and in need of this type of support.

To make up for what we have lost in income, we launched a fundraising campaign in July, called #CaringCuppa, aiming to raise funds to help us to continue to provide the befriending services to tackle the demand for them. Donors are asked to donate what they would normally spend on a cup of tea and our aim is to raise the equivalent of 12,000 cups of tea by the end of 2020. 

Donations make a huge difference, enabling the continued support of sustainable loneliness solutions within the wider community. For as little as £5 meaningful engagement can be undertaken connecting those most in need. 

Visit our donation page to see how your kind and generous donation counts towards increasing friendship and tackling loneliness. 

What lays ahead?

The challenges are great, however, there are also opportunities for an organisation that provides the services that we do at a time when many organisations are in crisis. 

Thinking about the future The No.1 Befriending Agency’s biggest challenge is proving to be pivoting an established organisation so it's fit for the future and making it sustainable after the recovery phase and returning to a new normal. The loss of the income generated from our care services continues to be hard to replace. 

A lot of our services will run online in the foreseeable future, which is dependent on access to technology for some of the most vulnerable in our society. We are therefore fundraising to give socially isolated and lonely people the opportunity to learn how to use digital equipment to get connected with family, friends and their community via technology and where possible provide them with the equipment as well if they do not have the means to pay for this.

We believe that by incorporating our values - compassion, respect, happiness and independence - into our work, and by keeping on communicating the impact of our work to our stakeholders and the wider society, we will be able to tackle whatever lays ahead.

Sheila McPherson is The No.1 Befriending Agency’s Managing Director. She has 35+ years of experience in the voluntary sector, specialising in volunteer management, and has been on the board of various UK charities.