COVID-19: The effectiveness of mutual-aid groups and their lessons for post-crisis community care

新冠肺炎已表明，许多国有、公共部门、非政府组织和私营部门对危机的反应迟缓。在许多地区，互助组织已经更快地动员起来，对其社区和/或邻里存在的需求作出反应。通过这样做，它们突出了企业和国家主导的机构应急方案中的一些政治和程序上的“空白”，并有助于确定危机应对中没有预先计划的资源分配(例如，无家可归者的提供、国家卫生和社会护理政策、食品分发等)。然而，这些当地组织的组织往往会在事后消散，他们重要的业务和当地地理知识在危机后的“正常”环境下提供更有效和适当的社区护理方面得不到充分利用。该项目旨在整理、证据和概念分析“实地”互助组织(即那些主要在线下和面对面工作的组织)，这些组织已经动员起来，以应对“新冠肺炎”危机，照顾社区中的弱势群体：例如，受到保护、自我孤立的人、无家可归者、长期患病者等。这个跨学科的项目有三个不同的目标/阶段。首先，对疫情高峰期和经济衰退期提供的互助进行全面调查和主题分类。第二，深入研究选定的类别和地域案例研究，突出最佳做法及其与公司/政府应对措施的关联(或替代)。第三，制作一份多媒体在线“互助宣言”，解释互助的“如何”，最重要的是“为什么”，以便与有关政府和非政府机构一道，在危机后更好地执行政策。

Covid-19 has shown that much of the state, public sector, NGOs and elements of the private sector are slow to respond to a crisis. In many areas, mutual aid groups have mobilised quicker, responding to the needs present in their communities and/or neighbourhoods. In so doing, they highlight some of the political and procedural 'gaps' in corporate and State-led institutional emergency response programs, as well as help to identify resource allocation that hasn't been pre-planned in crisis responses (i.e. homelessness provision, national health and social care policies, food delivery etc.). However, often these locally organised groups dissipate afterwards, and their vital operational and local geographic knowledge goes under-utilised in providing more effective and appropriate community care in a post-crisis 'normal' setting. The project aims to collate, evidence and conceptually analyse 'on the ground' mutual aid groups (i.e. those working mostly off-line and in-person) that have mobilised in response to the Covid-19 crisis to care for vulnerable people in the community: e.g. people who are shielded, self-isolating, the homeless, those with long-term conditions etc. This interdisciplinary project has three distinct aims/phases. First, to comprehensively survey and thematically categorise mutual aid provision during the peak, and in the recessionary aftermath of the pandemic. Second, to undertake a deep-dive into selected case studies of categories and geographies to highlight best practice and how they related to (or substituted for) corporate/governmental responses. Third, to produce a multi-media online 'Manifesto of Mutual Aid' that explains the 'how', and crucially, the 'why' of mutual aid to effectuate better policy implementation post-crisis in conjunction with relevant governmental and non-governmental institutions.