Insights
The SpareHand platform has been developed to match voluntary workers with charities that are helping communities affected by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Charities are being offered support through a free online platform to mobilise volunteers amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
SpareHand looks to help charities find, manage and schedule volunteers, who are key to the frontline community response to the outbreak.
Careful deployment and management of volunteers is particularly important amid the Covid-19 pandemic, due to social distancing measures and to tackle isolation among communities.
Charities already using the platform for Covid-19 community response initiatives include Magic Breakfast. Here Sparehand is helping manage volunteers delivering breakfast supplies from schools to households in need.
Another is Bicester Pioneer Volunteer, which is helping the Salute the NHS Project that aims to deliver a million meals in three months.
Meanwhile, SpareHand is finding drivers to help South Central Ambulance Service with personal protective equipment (PPE) deliveries.
SpareHand was launched last month by HireHand, which specialises in helping vulnerable people find work. It has been developed following discussions across government, humanitarian and private sectors.
Delivering meals
So far, 1,000 volunteers have signed up through SpareHand and more than 50,000 meals have been prepared and delivered through their work. In addition, SpareHand has mobilised nearly 2,000 volunteer hours across London and the South East.
It is now available nationwide and looking for charity partners who need support with their volunteer force.
“We know from matching hundreds of thousands of flexible workers to shifts that chat groups or social media discussions become nightmarish when you need scale, speed or accurate matching,” said HireHand Founder Scott Erwin.
“We wanted to ensure that charities addressing COVID-19 have ease and efficiency when organising their volunteers - so they can concentrate on delivering, not scheduling.”
HireHand has brokered more than 100,000 shifts for people since 2015 and is backed by Big Issue Invest, Mustard Seed and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
On 21 March 2024, we will be hosting a myriad of in-person workshops with the aim of giving charities tools and skills to tackle the most important challenges facing charities in the coming year.
The workshops aim to help you transform and thrive 2024 within four key areas: Fundraising, Marketing ,Strategy & Leadership and Artificial Intelligence.