Maintaining wellbeing before, during and after Covid-19

What is Time Peace and what do you do?

TimePeace mission is to bridge the social gap between refugees, asylum seekers and locals in the UK by creating informal opportunities for people to connect, chat and do activities together both online and in-person.‍

Have you had to change what you do because of lockdown? 

‍In response to lockdown we shift our focus from in-person Speed Friending events to growing our online Slack community; a private space where members can chat, share events and seek support.
We mobilised to facilitate regular online activities ranging from mediation, english conversation, reading club to jam sessions and quizzes. The aim was to keep people feeling connected and the sense of community alive during incredibly challenging times. As of July 2020, we’ve had over 570 people attend our events. 

How has lockdown affected your members’ wellbeing? 

Absolutely. Lockdown has exacerbated the fragile situation many of our community members find themselves in. We experienced a spike in members seeking mental health support, in addition to a number of emergency cases in need of housing or food. We have been working closely with our partners to connect those individuals with expert support.

What challenges have you encountered?

Two specific challenges we have faced with growing the online community are:

1. Digital literacy and confidence coupled with lower levels of confidence in English has made it more challenging for some. But to resolve this we offer 1-2-1 support with onboarding as we believe putting the time into building someone's digital confidence is incredibly beneficial in the long term.
2. Limited access to consistent/good WIFI. It’s a travesty that huge numbers of people living in the UK, especially the most marginalised, do not have access to wifi perpetuating their exclusion. 

What have you learnt?

We are constantly learning how to do what we do better everyday! The most important thing we’ve learnt over the years is to have an open, on-going dialogue with our community and not be afraid to get it wrong. We strive to iterate based on community feedback and data points we collect around attendance etc. and are continuously testing out new ideas. 

What feedback have you got from members?‍

Here is a lovely piece of feedback we received in May 2020:

“Thank you for your generous support to me during this Corona pandemic. I am thrilled to have your support. Through your precious time & support regarding food I have been able to maintain my mental health & hunger during isolation and continue participating towards your online sessions. You truly make the difference for me , and I am extremely grateful!”

What practical advice would you give to other organisations?

1. Don’t be put off by using technology. There is a wealth of free platforms and tools available to test out online solutions without put in an upfront investment. If you would like to chat, feel free to drop us an email at team@timepeaceapp.org. 
2. Set up feedback loops and strive to have an open conversation with your community that shapes your decisions. 
   

If you are interested in what we do or joining the TimePeace community please do get in touch. We welcome all organisations working in this space to join our growing community as we strongly believe collaboration is key to improving social inclusion. 

Sign-up to join TimePeace Slack community at bit.ly/tpjoinslack‍