This report is based on Rose Rickford’s PhD research into the ways that grassroots community organisations responded to need in their communities during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in England and Wales.

Rose interviewed 35 organisers, workers, and group members from 35 community organisations, and also recorded eleven hours of online committee meetings from three community organisations. Based on this information, she analysed the activities of these organisations during March-July 2020, including how they assessed need in their communities, how they responded to that need, and how their work related to the work of the public sector.

By comparing different community organisations to one another, as well as to parts of the public sector response to the pandemic, Rose developed a theory of what mechanisms within organisations help them to respond well to people’s real, diverse and changing needs, and what the barriers are to enabling organisations to meet need effectively.

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