Corona help volunteers fall short: 'mismatch between supply and demand'
During the first months of the corona crisis, voluntary help turned out to be insufficient for a third of the needy in the Netherlands. Although thousands of people took action and the supply often exceeded the demand, many people were still without help.
“The problem is not over yet, some people mainly miss social contact. That is why we are taking measures," says Jeroen de Punder, director of NLvoorelkaar, the largest volunteer platform (170,000 participants) in our country. Through its digital marketplace of supply and demand for unpaid aid, it reached 28,000 'matches' during the (intelligent) lockdown months. The number of volunteer registrations was nine times higher than before the corona crisis.
(Credits: Aurélie Geurts)
High amount
“That is a high number and we are very happy about that, but our research led by Lucas Meijs, professor of strategic philanthropy and volunteer work at Erasmus University, shows that not everyone has received the right help. Particularly on the social level, a third of those in need felt lonely more often and asked for more contact. That was often difficult given the restrictive rules and the fear of being infected. But the research among 1800 participants also shows that some of the people did not dare to ask for help, the threshold turned out to be too high. There is still a taboo on loneliness. Fragmentation of supply and demand also did not help, the overview was sometimes lost."
Many people offered to do their shopping, but there was especially a need for green fingers
Not only was the social contact missed, there was also a lack of 'green fingers'. In other words: handy volunteers for jobs in the garden. ,,Many volunteers offered to do the shopping, but there was mainly a lack of handy men and women who could do chores in the garden and in the house. Now that we know that, we can recruit more specifically and we will specifically ask volunteers what their skills are, so that we can respond more quickly to the demand in the event of a second corona wave," said De Punder.
NLvoorelkaar takes more measures to prevent mismatches and to better match supply and demand. “This crisis has taught us that we have to think creatively about help behind the front door. How can we provide the essential contact that people have now missed, without involving health risks. It is important that not only we, but the healthcare professionals in particular know in advance what they need from those in need. This way, the 'request for help' has already been mapped out and we can search more specifically for the right volunteers."
To combat the fragmentation of supply and demand, NLvoorelkaar is working on refining the central match database. “We work together with 65 municipalities and can thus be active at a local level. But thanks to the national database of supply and demand, we can also help if, for example, someone in Etten-Leur has a specific request for help that cannot be answered by anyone from that place. It may just be that we find a suitable volunteer who does not live in Etten-Leur, but who does work there. The volunteer capacity of the Netherlands can be increased by at least 35 percent if fragmentation is prevented.”
Campaign
In collaboration with the Ministry of Health (VWS), among others, NLvoorelkaar will launch a campaign against loneliness in September. “The realization that you are not the only one who misses social contact is important to take the step to help. In addition, you see that part of this lonely group has started doing voluntary work to get in touch with others more. We want to further encourage that thinking.”
According to director De Punder, the thousands of extra volunteers who registered with NLvoorelkaar this spring have not run away en masse. “We have created a special corona platform and we do not see an increase in the number of deregistrations. We must use that potential of extra volunteers more efficiently. We now know what they like to do, so that their help ends up in the right place.”
Note for editors
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About NLvoorelkaar
NLvoorelkaar is the largest volunteer platform in the Netherlands. Every year the platform is visited more than 1.5 million times by anyone who wants to make a difference or who can use voluntary help themselves. From running errands for the neighbor to doing something good for charities: you will always find something that suits you in the 10,000+ current doing good activities. Resulting in more than 10 million hours of voluntary commitment! More information: