During a time of crisis, it is natural to want to help, express care, and give comfort to those most vulnerable. However COVID-19 sets many limitations on our ability to meaningfully connect with people. Some individuals must take extra precaution to self-isolate or are under institutional quarantine to stay healthy and safe. These stories highlight how communities are able to express human-centered design and connect with others in caring, thoughtful ways, despite the constraints of social isolation.
To explore stories about Care & Compassion, click on our collections or any of our tags below.
Volunteer groups like Invisible Hands, COVID-19 Neighborhood Volunteers and thousands of others...
Solutions Journalism Network
https://www.yesmagazine.org/health-happiness/2021/02/25/bread-baking-mutual-aid
Lynn Freehill-Maye
Yes! Magazine
25 February 2021
Text / 1500-3000 Words
A community effort to help provide food to those who are food insecure during the pandemic has brought together local bakers to bake bread for food banks. The initiative, known as Community Loaves, has amassed 700 volunteers and donated 15,000 loaves to 11 food pantries across the Seattle area, and is now also gaining momentum in Oregon.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/how-some-frustrated-covid-19-vaccine-hunters-are-trying-to-fix-a-broken-system
Danny Westneat
The Seattle Times
17 February 2021
Text / 800-1500 Words
Retired software engineers in Washington have joined together and created a website that aggregates all available COVID vaccine appointments by using "screen scrapers." Although the site doesn't allow the visitor to book an appointment, it has routinely averaged "10,000 visits a day from anxious shot hunters."
https://tol.org/client/article/ppe-for-the-people.html
Kathrin Yaromich
Transitions Online
10 February 2021
Text / 1500-3000 Words
During the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, volunteers across Belarus worked together to collect and deliver personal protective equipment to frontline workers, despite the Belarusian government denying the spread of the coronavirus. Using social media to organize, the volunteers "served as a kind of SWAT team able to bypass the bureaucracy to obtain the necessary equipment."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/09/nyregion/vaccine-website-appointment-nyc.html
Sharon Otterman
The New York Times
9 February 2021
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Online volunteer assistance efforts in New York have played a crucial role in the dissemination of the COVID-19 vaccine, while city and state appointment systems have caused confusion or created barriers for many. Although these efforts can't address all barriers, such as lack of computer access or literacy, they have been used by thousands of people each day to find available appointment times.
https://www.secondwavemedia.com/southwest-michigan/features/When-church-goes-online-Battle-Creek-congregation-finds-opportunity-in-pandemic-imposed-012821.aspx
Jane Simons
Second Wave Michigan
28 January 2021
Text / 1500-3000 Words
In Battle Creek, Michigan, a church has turned to holding online Sunday service during the pandemic, and in doing so, has gained a larger congregation. While there are limitations to attending online services, and some don't feel like "Internet-based connections" are real, around 200 people still attend each online service, including some individuals from overseas.
https://www.wbez.org/stories/how-promotoras-de-salud-are-fighting-vaccine-conspiracies-in-chicagos-latino-communities/675155b6-60d8-4924-b0f6-c2e965fee88d
María Inés Zamudio
WBEZ
26 January 2021
Multi-Media / 800-1500 Words
Promotoras de salud, also known as community health workers, are helping to connect Latino immigrants with reliable and factual information about COVID-19. Using a peer-to-peer outreach model, a team of seven promotoras de salud from Centro San Bonifacio have "interacted with more than 4,000 Spanish speakers in Chicago."
https://crosscut.com/news/2021/01/olympic-peninsula-quinault-indian-nation-beats-back-pandemic
Manola Secaira
Crosscut
21 January 2021
Text / 1500-3000 Words
In Washington state, the Quinault Indian Nation has taken an aggressive and proactive approach to control the spread of COVID-19 amongst their community, and these efforts are showing success. Using a combination of tactics including contact tracing, closing the borders to their reservation, isolation procedures, and partnering with the local county, the tribal region has seen fewer cases compared to other areas.
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-coronavirus-pandemic-7b1d14f25ab717c2a29ceafd40364b6e
Christine Fernando
Associated Press
21 January 2021
Text / 800-1500 Words
Although many mutual aid networks have formed to serve a need during the coronavirus pandemic, the concept has been in practice for centuries and has "deep roots in communities of color." While these grassroots community efforts aren't always referred to as mutual aid, they have nonetheless come into existence to provide economic stability for communities and individuals when governmental structures have failed to do so.
https://www.thelandcle.org/stories/it-take-a-village-community-yahoos-help-slavic-village-cope-with-the-covid-19-pandemic
Lee Chilcote
The Land
19 January 2021
Text / 800-1500 Words
In Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood, a community effort is underway that aims to do "nothing but positive things." During the coronavirus pandemic, the group of volunteers has held fundraisers for community members who are facing financial struggles and handed out masks and face shields. The efforts resulted in the group receiving a Covid-19 emergency support grant that helped them create the Garden of Life – "a grassroots gathering place where people can celebrate life and remember those who have passed away."
https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/more-dayton-residents-have-conflict-during-covid-19-mediation-comes-to-the-rescue/KGQQBGLZAJGPDKMFJSJ6ZY4QPU
Cornelius Frolik
Dayton Daily News
18 January 2021
Text / 800-1500 Words
In Dayton, neighbor disputes and other conflicts ended up in mediation far more often in 2020, thanks to the Dayton Mediation Center's online services at a time when local court operations were limited by the pandemic. A 23% increase in cases can be seen as both bad news and good: more conflicts among people frustrated by social distancing, but more willingness to address conflicts constructively through dialogue mediated by trained volunteers. Dayton police, who are often called to intervene in neighborhood and domestic spats, will be trained to refer cases to the free mediation center in 2021.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2021/1/15/22231241/california-coronavirus-vaccine-availability-moderna-pfizer
Kelsey Piper
Vox
15 January 2021
Text / 800-1500 Words
Residents of California are working together to crowdsource where COVID-19 vaccinations are being offered, and who they're being offered to. While the state has failed to implement a transparent dissemination strategy, 70 volunteers joined forces to create a spreadsheet that keeps track of what clinics are offering the shot and what parameters must be met to receive it. Users have reported that they were able to schedule an appointment because of this effort.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/barbershops-black-communities-provide-information-covid-19-vaccine/story?id=75198074
Becky Perlow
Kenneth Moton
ABC News (American Broadcasting Company)
12 January 2021
Broadcast TV News / 5-15 Minutes
In an effort to help get accurate information to the communities who are being disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, a program called Live Chair Health has started to train barbers "on chronic issues that disproportionately affect Black communities" and teach them "how to have conversations with their clients about the diseases." Aside from providing COVID-19 information, the initiative has helped patrons access primary care and address other medical issues such as high blood pressure.
https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2021/01/11/at-teen-lifeline-teens-help-in-ways-only-they-can
Jordan Elder
Cronkite News - Arizona PBS
11 January 2021
Text / 800-1500 Words
A hotline staffed by teenagers for teenagers has been providing peer-to-peer support and counseling services in Arizona for years but has played an even bigger role during the coronavirus pandemic. The group quickly pivoted to reduced staffing shifts to limit exposure to the virus and implemented longer hours for texting services. Not only have calls to the hotline increased, so has the number of those who want to volunteer.
https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2020/12/29/ajo-group-bands-together-to-fight-food-insecurity-during-covid-19
Katherine Sypher
Luke Simmons
Cronkite News - Arizona PBS
29 December 2020
Multi-Media / 5-15 Minutes
The Ajo Center for Sustainable Agriculture has helped the town of Ajo in Arizona distribute affordable and nutrient-dense food to the community after the coronavirus pandemic created a significant financial strain on many families. Additional support has come from the town's participation in the Environmental Protection Agency's program Local Food, Local Places which "provides technical support and expertise to help towns leverage food systems to boost economic development."
https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-italy-coronavirus-pandemic-holidays-nursing-homes-80812d24bf8b0da6110f23ea8478c0e5
Colleen Barry
Luca Bruno
Associated Press
24 December 2020
Text / Under 800 Words
In Italy, the “Santa’s grandchildren” program is helping to connect nursing home residents with volunteer grandchildren for visits and gifts during the holiday season. While the coronavirus pandemic has caused the meet-ups to move to virtual settings, the nursing home residents have still reported that it has been "a wonderful experience" and helped to create ties to the community.
http://www.thelocal.com/20201215/let-children-be-children-supporting-young-refugees-mental-health-in-wales
Marta Viganò
The Local
15 December 2020
Text / 1500-3000 Words
In Wales, the African Community Centre which has previously offered culturally competent mental health care services to youth in the African community in the city, has expanded its services to "Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) young people from asylum backgrounds, ranging from three to 18 years old." The center focuses on using play therapy and one-to-one counselling, but amid the pandemic, they have also introduced online options.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/06/world/europe/uk-mental-health-suicide-coronavirus.html
Megan Specia
The New York Times
6 December 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
The Bearded Fisherman, a mental health charity formed by two men with their own past struggles with mental illness and homelessness, runs a weekly, virtual community support group, takes crisis-intervention calls, and runs the Night Watch suicide-prevention patrol to help people find ways to survive and cope with pandemic-driven unemployment and isolation. In addition to intervening in the moment to prevent a suicide, and providing informal counseling, the group refers people to counseling as England endures Europe's highest COVID-19 death toll and a deep recession.
http://middleburymagazine.com/features/hunger-fight
Jessie Raymond
Middlebury Magazine
3 December 2020
Text / 1500-3000 Words
When the coronavirus pandemic forced a restaurant in Vermont to close its doors and lay off hundreds of employees, the owner worked with investors to shift his business model so that he could provide meals for those now without work using the backlog of perishable foods. His initiative has now expanded with donations and contributions from community corporations and has even received funding from the state as it has grown to include “collective community gardening.”
https://madison.com/ct/news/local/neighborhoods/how-madison-s-latino-community-is-pulling-together-to-survive-covid/article_93c5c507-e781-5b9d-8458-e5f77fc5a23b.html
Natalie Yahr
The Cap Times
2 December 2020
Text / Over 3000 Words
In Madison, Wisconsin, the coronavirus pandemic is disproportionately impacting the Latino population, but the local community has joined together to advocate for better access to care and information. The efforts have included pop-up testing sites equipped with Spanish speakers, better-targeted messages, and non-medical support like food boxes.
https://scalawagmagazine.org/2020/11/food-mutual-aid-durham-nc
Courtney Napier
Scalawag
30 November 2020
Text / 1500-3000 Words
Mutual aid programs run by Black women have filled critical gaps in public assistance during the pandemic by feeding hundreds or thousands of people in multiple Southern cities. From Durham's Mustard Seed Project to St. Louis' Potbangerz to others, these community-based care programs center their aid on prepared meals, but they often add other donated goods for people in need: personal protective equipment, groceries, and household and baby items. In some cases, the nonprofits' organizers have formed intercity friendships and alliances that help spread their tactics.
https://fierceforblackwomen.com/2020/11/12/rural-black-women-turn-to-each-other-mutual-aid-and-activism-to-survive-covid-19
Connie Green Freightman
Fierce for Black Women
12 November 2020
Text / Over 3000 Words
Across Mississippi and Georgia, mutual aid groups have formed and existing groups have expanded to address increased racial inequities in the health care system during the coronavirus pandemic. Several of the groups are specifically focusing on food insecurity and access to basic needs, while others are raising money for personal protective equipment.
https://missionlocal.org/2020/11/whos-leading-covid-outreach-among-the-homeless-the-homeless-themselves
Hayden Manseau
Mission Local
12 November 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
In the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, local community members are leading the effort to reach out to those experiencing homelessness during the coronavirus pandemic. This effort has been successful in coordinating and distributing testing that is accessible to the population. As the director of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations explains, “any public health response that does not center the voices of people who have lived the experience of homelessness is going to come up with the wrong solution.”
https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/11/this-medical-team-is-working-to-reach-those-most-at-risk-for-covid-19
Eleni Avendaño
Honolulu Civil Beat
1 November 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
A group of health care workers and social workers formed to help connect hard-to-reach communities in Hawaii to COVID-19 testing and information about the pandemic. So far, they have been able to test more than 200 people who were showing symptoms or who had been at high risk of exposure. The director of the Hawaii Public Housing Authority has also reported that compliance with mask-wearing and other safety measures has increased since the effort began.
https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/minority-us-contract/SG4OIZO7LJVENQKRWHJNA7EAPQ
Julie Watson
Associated Press
31 October 2020
Text / 800-1500 Words
A contact tracing program jointly launched by San Diego State University and San Diego County is helping to combat misinformation and dispel fears for immigrants, refugees, and minorities in San Diego by employing ethnically and racially diverse community members. The contact tracers help those who need to quarantine devise a plan to do so safely, while also acting as community health care workers to help those families get the necessities they need.
https://outride.rs/en/favela-vs-covid-19/paraisopolis
Priscila Pacheco
Alexander de Maio
Cecilia Marins
Alessandra de Maio
Outriders
28 October 2020
Multi-Media / 800-1500 Words
Lacking assistance from the government during the coronavirus pandemic, residents in one of the largest favelas in Sao Paulo, Brazil organized to raise funds and launch a series of initiatives to protect their community. Although not all were supportive of the efforts – which included residents acting as neighborhood monitors and using two schools as quarantine shelters – the community has been able to reduce transmission and keep the case count manageable.
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