Project Director: Angus McCabe (University of Birmingham) / Rob Macmillan (CRESR)

Local Trust has commissioned in-depth research to look how communities across England respond to COVID-19 and how they recover. The research, undertaken by a team of researchers led by the Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC) at the University of Birmingham, looks at how 26 different communities fare during and after the coronavirus crisis. The findings will provide insight into the impact of unexpected demands or crisis on local communities, and the factors that shape their resilience, response and recovery. The research is addressing the following questions:

• How do communities react to, cope with and recover from major crises?
• What have communities done in reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak and how does this compare with community reactions to other crises?
• What support do communities need to make an effective response to COVID-19?
• What support do communities need to recover effectively from the impact of COVID-19?
• How do Big Local communities differ from non-Big Local communities in their response to COVID-19, their recovery from it and their support needs?
• How do communities in ‘left behind’ areas differ from the other communities in the sample in their response to COVID-19, their recovery from it and their support needs?

Research briefings

• Briefing 1. How will communities respond to and recover from this crisis (literature review)
• Briefing 2: Community resilience or resourcefulness?
• Briefing 3: Grassroots action: the role of informal community activity in responding to crises (literature review)
• Briefing 4: Blending formal and informal community responses
• Briefing 5: Volunteering through crisis and beyond: Starting, stopping and shifting (literature review)
• Briefing 6: Stepping up and helping out: Grassroots volunteering in response to COVID-19
• Briefing 7: Community responses to COVID-19: towards community-led infrastructure
• Briefing 8: Community responses to COVID-19: the role and contribution of community-led infrastructure
• Briefing 9: Community responses to COVID-19 communities and local authorities
• Briefing 10: Community responses to COVID-19: Striking a balance between communities and local authorities
• Briefing 11: Community responses to COVID 19: Power and communities
• Briefing 12: Community responses to COVID-19: Potential and limits of community power in a pandemic
• Briefing 13: Community responses to COVID-19: Community hubs as social infrastructure
• Briefing 14: Community responses to COVID-19: Sustaining community action
• Briefing 15: Community Responses to COVID-19: Changing community needs and looking to the future
• Briefing 16: Community responses to COVID-19: Connecting communities? How relationships have mattered in community responses to COVID-19

Report

• One pandemic, many responses
• Stronger than anyone thought: Communities responding to COVID-19
• Now they see us: Communities responding to COVID-19