Community power works. When the first Covid-19 lockdown was called in March 2020, communities instinctively leapt into action to do what they do best. They regularly checked on their neighbours, used their networks and digital platforms to organise help for people in need.

This report tells the story of this upsurge of community power. But its chief goal is to learn from the experience and deduce what national governments and local public services can do to continue enabling these approaches during and beyond the current crisis. The key lesson being that those public service organisations that responded best to the first lockdown were those that followed the lead of their local communities and enabled, rather than inhibited, their activities.

Published in January 2021 by New Local.