Learning from the community response to COVID-19 in Wales

The Research and Evaluation Division at Public Health Wales, in partnership with University of Bristol and Wales Council for Voluntary Action, have launched a national survey to hear from volunteers and those who have informally given up their time to help their communities respond to COVID-19.

Since the start of the pandemic, we know that record numbers of people in Wales have given up their time freely to help other people in their community, through acts like shopping, picking up medicines, cooking a meal or providing some care and emotional support. We also know that this kind of grassroots voluntary action is really important when it comes to building strong and supportive communities and for the wellbeing of individuals.

But we want to better understand what helped people to respond in this way; and for others what were the barriers to doing as much as they may have wanted.

Adults who have volunteered in any way – from group-based support to assisting a neighbour – are invited to answer our short survey here, to contribute to this important research. The survey is hosted by Strategic Research and Insight and is open to people aged 18 years and above, living and/or working/or volunteering in Wales.

The findings will help Public Health Wales and its partners to better understand and inform their planning to improve population health in Wales. It will also help to ensure community-led volunteering can be better supported in future.

This project is supported by the Health Foundation, committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK. Public Health Wales has a statutory responsibility to conduct and commission research that provides information that can protect the health of the people of Wales. For information on this, please visit the UK Government website here: The Public Health Wales NHS Trust (Establishment) Order 2009

For more information on the survey, please go to; phw.nhs.wales/communitysurvey