Introducing a Drupal based Covid-19 Volunteer Management system for Mutual Aid Groups.
We at Freely Give have just released a public gitlab and early release of a system to help Mutual Aid groups manage their support requests and match them to their volunteers. An early video demonstrating the system can be found here: https://www.loom.com/share/28a35b0706924a3e96914ed18f6cd48d
If you would like to access our Gitlab and follow the development or collaborate directly, you can find it here: https://gitlab.com/freelygive/covid-support-system/
Since the announcement of the Covid-19 outbreak accelerating, Freely Give has been considering how to provide support to vulnerable members of our society during this difficult time. We reached out to our local MP who was asking for volunteers to support people. We were also speaking to the organisers of various Whatsapp and Facebook groups who were finding that the current method of using Google forms, spreadsheets, Whatsapp groups and emails would be unlikely to scale.
Therefore, over the last two weeks, we have been working on a system to assist Mutual Support Groups manage their grassroots volunteers and process support requests. Starting by re-purposing software we’d already built for existing clients, we are now branching out to hopefully include our local MP, County Council, members of the wider Drupal community and organisers of support networks both regionally within the UK and abroad.
Initially our tool will help staff take their data obtained from a variety of different sources and match them up to relevant volunteers using filters and mapping information.
Staff Dashboard for an individual contact
However we have also built tools enabling people to go directly to the site, post a request, see a list of requests and even reply directly to requests, without receiving any personally identifiable information. Volunteers can only view private information when needed, and all initial data visible is fully compliant with data protection legislation. These tools are still being finalised and we are exploring how to improve safeguarding before releasing them fully.
An example of the front-end map view
An example of the list view, it shows people asking for their requests and the tags are the categories of the different requests. Eventually people may be able to directly reply to support requests through this system.
We are excited to be working with like-minded volunteers who are eager to support vulnerable people in their communities, and help facilitate the link between volunteers and those needing assistance. From picking up prescriptions and shopping for essentials to walking dogs, there are many different ways that people can help those who are self-isolating. We welcome involvement from any developers and content producers who have time to commit to this project. Whilst it is currently a pro bono endeavour, we are hoping to apply for funding which will enable us to offer our services at scale to community organisers.
Jamie
Freely Give
