Crack the Crises: Standing together with the communities we serve

The Crack the Crises campaign is a call to action for our communities to work together to tackle covid-19, injustice, and climate change. It aims to harness the power of the collective kindness and solidarity we’ve witnessed throughout the past year of challenge.

Millions of us answered the call of a 100-year-old veteran and a 23-year-old footballer. We showed up when it counted — for our NHS, for our children, for each other.

At NCVO, we know our members, charities and volunteers show up every day for the communities we serve.

We’ve just signed up to the campaign and we’re asking you – our members, charities and volunteers – to join us. Learn more about this campaign by watching this introductory film.  

A plan to tackle these issues

In 2021, the UK will host two critical global summits.

• The G7 Summit in June 2021, which is the first significant in-person gathering of leaders during the covid pandemic.
• The UN climate talks in November 2021, which will be the largest gathering of world leaders the UK has ever seen.
• World leaders must seize this moment to act. These are complex issues – but they are not impossible to overcome if we all work together. 

Action on covid, climate and injustices 

Even as the virus forced us apart, charities, volunteers and communities came together against racism, gender-based violence, for our NHS and a better environment.

We built hope and made change happen – from free school meals, mental health, flooding, and supporting our frontline workers. 

It’s more important than ever to come together to call on the prime minister, and world leaders, to take action for a healthier, fairer and greener future. One that provides vaccines and healthcare for all, fights poverty and injustice, and helps end the climate and nature crises.

If you’d like to find out more, read about the specific policies we’re calling for.

Get involved with the campaign

Here’s how you can get involved. 

• Join the Wave of Hope. By putting up homemade ‘hands’ with messages of hope in our windows, adding photos to a gallery, and displaying them at the G7, we can show that we stand united. This will only work if thousands of us get involved. Will you join? If you sign up to the Wave of Hope, you can download the #WaveOfHope toolkit. 

• Get organised! Get your members, users, supporters and communities involved! Develop a plan for your campaign using our Knowhow tools and resources (and our campaign template for NCVO members). What events and opportunities do you have coming up? Can you spread the word about the #WaveOfHope?  
• Tell everyone you’re involved. Telling someone about the campaign and the action you’re taking is powerful. Share the Crack the Crises campaign video on your personal and organisational social media and encourage others to join the #WaveOfHope. 

The role of charities and volunteering 

For us, this campaign is an opportunity to talk about the role of charities and volunteering. That whatever the crisis, the members of NCVO – alongside citizens and communities – are a part of the solution. We won’t stop talking about how important our collective work is. We remain hopeful. 

We have hope in the millions of new volunteers, in our renewed sense of community, and that our country is more united than before.  So join us – and fellow NCVO members – to crack the covid, climate and injustice crises we face.