Toolbox Corona neighbourhood help

On this page, we collect all interesting materials for the launch of Corona (neighbourhood) assistance and care. These are provided by Give a Day and the participating 240+ municipalities to #OurCityHelps. Have a look at how other communities are organizing help, find inspiration and start coordinating your Corona help. We would like to thank the cities who agreed to share their material. Did you create your own material and do you want to share it with others? Email it to us and we will add it to this page.

Getting started as a municipality

Here is how to get started:

• Step 1: Request your free platform via the form on our home page. It is available in all 23 European languages.
  
• Step 2: Find out who in the municipality can help manage the back office, corona help phone line and mailbox. Services like community centers, youth, sports, culture, ... have all events canceled and could possibly be involved during the crisis.
  
• Step 3: Make announcements to create pools of volunteers: for example, shopping for the sick and elderly, making mouth masks, calling someone who is isolated,... Here is a quick guide to launch your platform in 3 easy steps. Find inspiration in our long list of active municipalities. When the platform is ready, don't forget to request validation. We will put this page online within an hour!
  
• Step 4: Communicate it to the citizens via online channels, local Facebook groups, distribute the phone number of the corona city help line to non-digital people for help questions. You can do this via flyers in their mailbox and send a press release (always nice if you also mention Give a Day!).
  
• Step 5: When you receive a help request via de corona help phone or email, search the back office for registrations of help offers and match them manually. You inform the volunteer and the person that requests help and ask if you can share their contact data with each other.
  
• Step 6: There is a big need for help. But people are often too shy to ask for help. You can do 4 things to improve that. a) Asking citizens to put a help card in their neighbours' mailboxes with the telephone number of the city assistance line; b) Asking citizens to hang posters on their window with the telephone number of the city corona help line; c) Working proactively with your community workers to detect needs for help; d) Setting up a crisis unit together with civil society (care institutions, community centers, elderly homes, hospitals, ...) and you actively involve them in capturing the needs for help, with a focus on the non-digital natives.
  
• Step 7: You add all matches in the admin back office. By using the export function, you can easily measure the impact and the number of help requests that have been processed, as well as the number of help offered. You can use these statistics in your communication to further stimulate solidarity and break the timidity of requesting help when in need. Because it is normal now to ask for help.
  

Suggestions to strengthen your communication

Here are some communication channels to keep in mind:

• Post your help platform www.impactdays.be/NAMEPLATFORM on your own Facebook pages, but also in groups set up by citizens locally to help each other. Use relevant hashtags such as #OurCityHelps or #NAMEOFYOURCITY helps together with the URL
• Make sure your help platform is also prominently displayed on the landing page of your municipal website.
• Distribute your helpline phone number, email and the URL of your platform offline thanks to cards and letters in mailboxes, your municipal magazine, posters displayed in the windows, etc.
• Communicate about your help platform on Instagram with hashtags such as #OurCityHelps together with the URL
• Are you already working with Hoplr or other local communities? Post the help platform in the different neighborhoods
• Do you work together with a civic participation platform such as Tree Company? They integrate this help platform into their civic participation platform for you, so that you can communicate everything centrally.

Repeat your communication regularly. Now is the time to build volunteer groups for neighbourhoods, which you can also use after the Corona crisis.

Guidelines and manuals

• Give a Day Manual explaining how to use the platform step-by-step as an administrator
• Give a Day Quick Guide to launch your platform in 3 easy steps
  
• Brussels Region: Confirmation email - card or drawing
• Brussels Region: Confirmation email - masks 
  
• Brussels Region: Confirmation email - general
• Brussels Region: Guidelines
• Brussels Region: Script contacting volunteers
  

Flyers

• Brussels Region: Tips & Tricks to volunteer during Corona