Covid-19: The Sharing Economy Companies Taking Positive Action to Help Combat the Coronavirus Outbreak
Our members are leading the way to help combat the Coronavirus Outbreak.
Businesses around the country are helping communities through this unprecedented time, from offering free rides to free accommodation, they’re doing their part to support those working on the frontline, read their stories below.
Karshare Car Sharing Community Scheme
A car sharing scheme launched by member Car & Away and local partners, is asking residents of Bristol and Brighton to donate their unused cars for one week. The cars will be made available to volunteers in order to get medical and food supplies to the vulnerable. Karshare will return the cars fully cleaned at the end of the week. Any NHS, hospice, care home, community meal service or food bank worker/volunteer, struggling with transportation will be able to simply fill out the form, and Karshare connect them with vehicles donated by community members.
Andy Hibbert, CEO & Founder of Car & Away and Karshare, said:
“The average car lies unused for 96% of the time, even more so when offices and schools are shut. It seems like a waste when there are many charities and locals within the community that need transportation support right now.”
Kay Libby, Co-Chief Executive at Age UK Bristol, said:
"This is a great idea that we fully support. Car & Away's plans are very much appreciated by the voluntary sector who may need this sort of help to ensure their staff and volunteers can deliver essential supplies to vulnerable older people over the coming weeks"
Jumio Donating Identity Verification Solutions
AI-Powered Identity Verification provider Jumio are donating its identity verification solutions to any (qualifying) organisation helping with COVID-19 relief efforts, whether they be NGOs, healthcare agencies, schools or delivery services. More than ever, it is important to establish trust remotely. If you’re an organization dedicated to the COVID-19 relief efforts or involved in helping students, patients and vulnerable populations during this difficult time, we encourage you to apply for our free identity verification services program.
Dean Nicolls, VP of Marketing at Jumio:
"Jumio Go for Good extends not only to healthcare agencies, but to sharing economy companies as well as NGOs, charities and universities whose students are now all at home trying to take classes and tests online. So, this offering is fairly broad.
The initiative is designed to help any of these organisations that need to verify that someone is who they claim to be online. We’re going to provide our service free of charge, at least until the pandemic subsides. And right now, we have June 30th as the rolling deadline, but that may change as circumstances change.”
Airbnb Facilitating Free Stays for UK Medical Professionals
Airbnb is helping to connect UK medical professionals on the frontline with hosts offering free places to stay during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hosts with entire homes that comply with safety and cleanliness protocols can opt in.
Patrick Robinson, Director of Public Policy at Airbnb said:
“The entire country is behind our heroic NHS and medical staff as they battle the coronavirus outbreak. We have made it our priority to stand with the Airbnb community to do what we can to help. By working together, we can ensure that frontline workers can find a free and convenient place to stay as they continue their critical work. We thank our doctors and nurses across the country from the bottom of our hearts and are grateful to hosts who have already opened their homes during these difficult times.”
Patchwork Waiving their Fees to Provide Food for Hospital Staff
The group gift and experience fund platform, Patchwork are helping group fund raise food boxes for the workers of Lewisham Hospital. A group of local South East London businesses have come together to organise and fund food boxes.
Olivia Knight, Founder of Patchwork and Chair of Sharing Economy UK said:
"We were approached by a group of local people to see how we could all support our local NHS workers in Lewisham hospital. One of the people runs a local food shop called Provender and so we decided that if we could raise funds through Patchwork then Provender could source and provide food boxes for staff at the hospital. Recognition that they are working so many extra hours, are finding it hard to get to the shops and also just as a way to show our love and appreciation for all they do!
Using Patchwork made sense not just because we're a local business happy to waive our fee to support our NHS, but because our platform is so visual it really allows people to see all the gorgeous ingredients that were going into the food boxes. It really brings the idea to life and enables people to choose what items they want to fund - whether that's £2 for some biscuits or £25 for a whole box! “
AnyGood? Are Helping Solve Current Recruitment Issues
The recruitment marketplace where professionals recommend other professionals for roles, are now sharing COVID-19 roles for free and are able to respond to new market demands. AnyGood? also provide a service to employers so they can recommend employees who have been made redundant into new roles, effectively supporting the redeployment of labour.
Juliet Eccleston, CEO and Founder of AnyGood?, said:
"Recruitment has experienced the quickest decline in activity since 2009. Redundancies are increasing and key worker positions need to be filled quickly. Marketplaces need to be flexible to support the efficient redeployment of labour to not only maintain their own business, but support the economy now and throughout it's recovery."
Hiyacar Providing Free Cars to NHS Volunteers and Emergency Service Staff
The peer to peer car rental platform is providing free car rental to NHS volunteers & emergency service staff on the front line. In addition, Hiyacar have also provided a comprehensive information page on their website for those who want to help or need help with transport during the lockdown.
Rob Larmour, COO & Co-Founder of Hiyacar, said:
“We started a car-sharing business to put under-utilised cars to better use and there is no better use than this.Seeing NHS and key workers forced onto packed tubes and trains is not good enough so we want to give them free access to cars so they can travel safely. They are the heartbeat of the community and we want to help them as much as we can.”
DePaul Charity Providing Emergency Accommodation for Rough Sleepers
Our charity member Depaul responded immediately to the Government’s call to ensure that people who are rough sleeping are safe from infection. Depaul UK are now managing two hotels, one in Waterloo, central London, and one in Potato Wharf, Manchester, for people leaving homeless shelters or sleeping on the streets who are not showing any symptoms of Coronavirus so that they can effectively isolate and avoid the virus. Together the hotels can accommodate 200 people and to date in London, DePaul have 106 rooms full out of a capacity of 150. With 3 meals a day and 24 hour staff provision, for many of those staying, this will be the first time in a long time that they have had a secure, warm and supported place to live.
Alexia Murphy, Executive Director of Operations, Depaul UK, said:
“We are all facing unprecedented challenges in our daily lives at the moment, no-one more so than people who are homeless. Depaul is working flat out to provide safe accommodation for people who would otherwise have nowhere else to go and who would be particularly vulnerable to Covid-19. The fact that we’ve been able to set up a new 150 bed hotel based service in these testing times shows the incredible dedication and determination of Depaul’s staff, as well as of our partners at Travelodge, the Greater London Authority, central government and partner charities.”
TaskRabbit Launches Tasks for Good
TaskRabbit has created “Tasks for Good,” a program that connects at-risk and vulnerable individuals in need of essential services to local volunteer Taskers who are donating their time and skills. The service is now available in 20 major cities in all six countries where TaskRabbit operates, including London, where we hope it can bolster ongoing efforts to assist those impacted by COVID-19. Those in need of assistance -- including the immunocompromised, elderly, disabled, and healthcare workers -- can book a volunteer Tasker here. They will be presented with a page of recommended Taskers who are willing to offer their services at no cost. Across categories, all tasks on the platform must be done in a contactless or virtual manner, to protect all users' health and safety and in accordance with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines.
Stacy Brown-Philpot, CEO of TaskRabbit, said:
“We heard from people in our community – from existing Taskers and clients, to our own employees – that they wanted to support their neighbors during this trying time. Realizing that we were in a unique position to help, our team worked quickly to build upon our existing platform to connect volunteers to those in need. We applaud these volunteer Tasker heroes, and will do whatever we can to support them as they provide critical services to vulnerable and at-risk populations.”
