In the recent findings from our Covid-19 Community Needs research, Kiwi charities across the board identified "mental health" as the most important issue affecting their communities during times of lockdown. 

“Since covid lockdowns the levels and complexities of issues young are having has increased our workload by 50% with an 80% increase in risk and spike in mental health issues around anxiety and depression, suicide ideation and self-harm, abuse and with the need for more care and protection interventions from our teams” - Nationwide Youth Charity

The survey conducted by the Catalytic Foundation received 560 responses from New Zealand charities across the three different COVID-19 lockdown periods in 2020 and 2021. The top three issues identified by charities in regards to the communities they serve were "mental health", "adequate housing" and "financial security" (which includes access to food and basic needs).

Practically all charities have been affected by the pandemic and many experienced an increased demand for services this year. For many charities, obtaining additional funding remains a priority and the amount needed has increased compared to last year, largely due to operational costs/expenses, and efforts to keep staff employed. 

“We are witnessing much higher levels of anxiety in our clients and staff” Social services charity in Otago

As community charities and not-for-profit organisations seek to address major social issues, most of them lack the resources, secure funding or even volunteers to help them work effectively and Covid-19 has only added to this strain. Charities have similar costs to commercial organisations yet they are trying to operate on the smell of an oily rag and they need our support!

“There has been a huge increase in demand for our services, especially for food parcels, emergency housing and mental health support” Community charity in Northland

In response to the findings from the Community Needs Surveys, the Catalytic Foundation has established donation pages for the following mental health charities: Youth in Transition (Auckland) and Life Matters Suicide Prevention Trust (Otago).

Please click on their names for further details about how you can help