To join a regional team, please fill out the signup form.
By joining a team you are applying to become a member of our "unincorporated association" and therefore agree to abide by the rules of our constitution. (Don't worry - this is just a formality that helps us become a registered charity. There are no membership fees)
This guide aims to provide comprehensive step by step advice for regional SCA teams.
Given the dynamic nature of our regional operations, and being entirely led by teams of volunteers, we use a non-hierarchical co-leadership model. This way, the regional teams may share tasks more effectively based on workload and availability. Applications to join the regional team must be approved by all team members through consensus.
Dismissal of any team member from a regional organisation, must also be done through consensus of all other regional team members. The national team reserves the right to dismiss anyone from any regional team or volunteer team at any time, so long as there is full consensus from a simple majority in the national team.
Cooperation and good communication is essential to the success of this model. We use an online collaboration tool called Trello in our teams to collectively manage projects, but WhatApps and Telegram also come in handy. Always ask for consensus before making an important decision or sending any important emails to partners. Keeping the team updated about what you are working on is really important, and so is letting them know when you are done working on a task, and how far you've gotten with it. Voice chat is a useful way to foster good long distance working relationships, so long as it doesn't become a distraction.
Many thousands of vibrant Mutual-Aid networks have sprung up across the country. This is a very good resource for recruiting volunteers.
Other methods of recruiting volunteers may be more or less successful. Try different approaches if you get disappointing results. These may include contacting local councils, church groups, community centers, student unions etc, via telephone or email (remember to include the important site links, so they can pass them on to their wider community contacts). Always maintain a spreadsheet of places you have already contacted to avoid duplicating work.
The signup forms on this site are linked to Google Sheets. Once a regional team is established and you have joined, you will be given access to the details of volunteers from in your region. This information includes personal contact details, names and addresses, as well as availability in days / hours per week etc. Do not share this information with third parties. Should you be found breaching the strict data protection laws, you will be immediately stripped of your membership of this organisation and your details will be passed on to the police.
Making a weekly rota for new volunteers based in your region, using a spreadsheet or a Signupzone page, is one of the most important jobs, after recruiting volunteers. Then the team has to contact the volunteers individually to discuss their availability.
Post a provisional weekly rota in the groups and ask if everyone can do their shift, making changes wherever necessary. Try to organize shifts around specific pick-ups/drop-offs (take note of availability and distance of volunteer travel). Provide individual couriers details of their self-isolation drop-offs each day privately. Tell them to notify self-isolating benefactors of their arrival time well in advance. When leaving food outside their doors, ensure they are aware of that you are there with their food by calling or texting them or knocking on their doors. Ensure they follow QueerCare Guidelines for protecting themselves and others from contamination. Ask volunteers to give live updates of when they complete each step; pickup, drop-off etc. Success / failure - explanation. Road block, stuck in traffic etc.
When contacting local authorities, social services, community groups, institutions, established NGO's and potential partners, it is important that you show confidence and enthusiasm in the initiative. It's also important that you understand exactly where we stand legally as an organisation, and the safeguarding protocols we have in place to prevent data misuse and the potential spread of contamination by our volunteer teams. Maintain a spreadsheet of places you have already contacted to avoid duplicating work.
Donations may come from a variety of places, such as supermarkets, farms, veg-box companies, surplus food redistribution charities, generous individuals, wholesalers, food markets, etc.
Do mass outreach to all potential local partners, but arrange food collections from new partners gradually so that you will always have enough volunteers to actually collect and distribute the food. Avoid missing scheduled pickups from donors at all costs as this will seriously damage the reputation of our charity making it more difficult for us to build relationships in the future. Confirm partnerships once you are confident about attracting enough volunteers to collect the food.
Make sure food is collected punctually, by keeping the most reliable and trustworthy volunteers for these roles. Create a spreadsheet of pickups locations and times + amount of food and variety. Only share this privately with trustworthy couriers responsible for these pickup locations. Organize a weekly rota with dedicated volunteers picking up donations and taking them to community hubs / food banks. Make a separate WhatsApp or Telegram group for food pickup volunteers to arrange the schedule, so locations of pickups are not compromised. Volunteers must not share pickup times / location! The risk of the impostors turning up at one of our collection points pretending to be one of our volunteers is not to be taken lightly during this epidemic. Make sure volunteers couriers have contact details of partners at collection and delivery points in case something goes wrong along the way.
The community hub / food banks most likely to be an indoor space where we may either have partners working alongside us or a team of our own volunteers sorting food donations. Do not share personally identifiable information about benefactors with other organisations, such as name and exact address. Collection times, dietary requirements and similar non identifiable details that are essential to the operation may be shared when necessary.
Supplies such as plastic reusable bags or boxes for food parcels should be sourced in advance through our partners. Otherwise couriers may have to go out of pocket to buy plastic bags themselves from nearby shops if any are open.
Organize volunteers to sort donations into parcels ready for redistribution, making sure all dietary requirements of benefactors are strictly followed. Make sure they are aware of contamination risk and are following guidance on how to avoid contracting or Spreading contamination. Make sure all volunteers are following the updated QueerCare Guidelines.
If not enough or none exist make efforts to establish community hubs for food donations to be taken to in strategic towns and areas. Partner with businesses/councils/church groups etc to find spaces. Find out who owns a particular building and ask if they will provide space for food to be sorted and redistributed there. Closed pubs, restaurants, libraries, cinemas etc may make great places community hubs. Always keep a spreadsheet of places you have contacted to avoid duplicating work. Update new community hub / food bank partners in separate spreadsheet of partners.
The kinds of partnerships we desire at the regional level (so that regions feel more supported in their endeavor) are as follows:
local government / councils - for potential funding, and volunteers.
Health and social care service providers - to make ourselves known to potential benefactors in self isolation, so we can distribute food to their front doors.
Organisations whose closed buildings we may be able to use as temporary community hubs to store and sort food donations.
Already established local NGO's and voluntary groups who may be interested in supporting our strategy and initiative, with funding, advice, volunteers, help, etc.
Regional food suppliers such as, supermarkets, farms, fruit and veg markets, etc.
Surplus food redistribution charities.
Having a vibrant social media presence will also improve our chances of forging partnerships. Placing links to volunteer sign up forms, paypal donations, and our home page, under pictures of what we actually accomplish each day is an good model for an effective outreach strategy. Social media is an important part of outreach. Through effective use of social media we aim to reach:
Potential benefactors in self isolation or at risk of food poverty, who can submit their details through our form and be given food.
Volunteers to join one of our many exciting teams.
Potential new partners or sponsors.
Other aid organisations willing to collaborate and provide mutual support.
Again maintain a spreadsheet of places you have already contacted to avoid duplicating work.