In the midst of the current crisis a glimmer of light has been witnessing the way individuals in their thousands have risen up again (or ‘Resurgo’d!), together, to respond to the challenges the most vulnerable are facing in these troubling times.

 

 

 

Alongside our existing programmes, a number of the Resurgo team have partnered with a few other organisations to form an emergency response team called #loveyourneighbour which has quickly formed to create a network of pop up foodbanks and other support structures through churches in local communities across the UK in close consultation with various government departments.

 

At the same time, the delivery of Resurgo’s core programmes has changed in response to the current crisis. Spear Programme trainees will receive support remotely, the Resurgo Ventures Accelerator is paused and Resurgo Consulting will run through online platforms for the time being.

 

The current lockdown has meant our staff are working from home, and our current cohort of Spear trainees have completed the programme virtually.

 

Despite the challenge of not being able to meet face-to-face, the team and the young people have worked hard to make this a success, including mock interviews with volunteers using Zoom and an online Spear Celebration.

 

Going forward, three priorities have been identified to manage the Spear Programme during this period of lockdown:

 

1. 1) Supporting the young people from Spear during a challenging time. Support will continue in the form of regular one-to-one calls, including ensuring that our trainees understand and are following the Government guidelines on practicing social distancing.  For others who have just completed the programme, or have lost their jobs due to the slowdown in the economy, help with applications for ‘essential jobs’ will be the focus.  Our referral partners will still be able to refer vulnerable young people to us for coaching support.
2. 2) Exploring the development of a digital Spear Programme. As the whole country has been learning to flex in how we communicate, learn and relate over the past few weeks, we too have assigned a team to test how Spear might do the same.
3. 3) Ensuring that Resurgo is prepared and resourced to support the young people we haven’t yet met who will be coming out of this crisis with more barriers to employment than ever.  It is clear that it is the cohort of young people we specialise in supporting that will be worst affected by the economic downturn we are now anticipating. Resurgo’s Spear Programme will be needed more than ever. As an organisation, we need to be ready for an increased demand for our support that will inevitably emerge from a damaged economy and a cohort of young people who’ve missed a key part of their education.

 

These priorities represent a great deal of work, but not enough to occupy the whole Resurgo team. To that end we have taken the difficult decision to make use of the UK Government’s Job Retention Scheme, which allows us to furlough a significant proportion of our staff for the next seven weeks.  A small, strong core team remains to focus on the priorities outlined above over the coming months.

 

Meanwhile we will continue to offer support and coaching to our clients through Resurgo Consulting to help them navigate the challenges to organisational culture, line management, productivity and staff resilience recent events have created.

 

The Resurgo Ventures Accelerator will be paused, yet we will continue to support the entrepreneurs we have worked with to date. We are confident that on the other side of the crisis there will be more of an appetite than ever among entrepreneurs to create businesses that bring lasting social change, and we look forward to helping them succeed.

 

Resurgo Chief Executive, Jo Rice, said, “As always, we remain so grateful to those who partner with us in our mission. Your support is going to mean more than ever in the coming months.”

 

Click here to donate to Resurgo.