How the pandemic affected the NFP sector – and what happens next

In late December 2019, a mysterious cluster of pneumonia-like cases centred around a wet market in China was about to detonate a global crisis unlike any that recent generations had witnessed.

And when the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a global public health emergency on January 30, 2020, the world as we knew it changed forever.

Australia reported its first case on January 25, less than a month after China’s early cases. The federal government enacted a program of containment as the first instance of community transmission was registered in early March.

Just two weeks after the March case, Australia effectively transitioned into a full-scale shutdown to protect an already creaking health system, with border restrictions beginning to bite, particularly in Western Australia over the longer term.

Support packages, amounting to $176 billion, kept many businesses afloat as the uncertainty of COVID-19’s effects spread through the corporate sector.

Workers stayed home and RATs (rapid antigen tests) took on a new, everyday meaning.

Vaccines were developed and administered, cases began to drop, and a new way of life began to feel more ‘normal’ after all.

However, for the not-for-profit sector, the period had some significant impacts beyond the effects of COVID-19 itself.

In this series of features for Hearts & Minds, some of WA’s leading NFPs discuss how the pandemic has affected their operations and what the future looks like in the ‘new normal’.

Adapt and survive

Like the rest of the community, Vinnies (Vincent De Paul) had to adapt to the pandemic quickly, and in unforeseen ways.

“It meant changing the way we do things while continuing to look after those most vulnerable in our community,” Vinnies WA chief executive Susan Rooney said.

“By implementing a range of measures, we were able to continue to provide our services at a high standard and with minimal disruption.

“This allowed, among other things, our homelessness services to remain open and accessible to clients throughout the year, our trucks to deliver items to families, and our members to continue to support West Australians in need.”

Finding new ways to deliver services was a priority – and it had to be done on the fly as the fast-changing nature of the pandemic was sometimes unpredictable.

However, this enabled an organisation like Vinnies WA and other nimble NFPs to excel by adapting and evolving against the odds.

“The flexibility of the Vinnies service model allowed us to adapt to the pandemic quickly,” Ms Rooney  said.

“For example, when restrictions made providing home visitation to clients impossible, we provided food hampers instead.

“This meant that we could still offer an important support for people in need.

“Once restrictions eased, we were able to return to visiting clients in their homes.

“We also knew that once vaccines became widely available, people experiencing homelessness were disadvantaged in accessing them.”

In response, Vinnies’ Passages Youth Engagement Hubs hosted vaccination clinics in collaboration with the Department of Health.

This ensured young people who used the service also had several opportunities to access to vaccines.

Caring for the homeless a particular challenge

St Bart's, a NFP with a focus on assisting the homeless, had the challenge of maintaining its service levels despite the lockdowns and restrictions over the past three years.

To complicate matters, the economic impact of the pandemic meant the number of Western Australians experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness increased significantly.

The value, impact and outcomes of the work by St Bart's were highlighted and elevated over this time as COVID-19 and its ripple effects continued to disproportionally affect the most vulnerable.

“Each year since the beginning of 2020 has provided us with opportunities to showcase our agility to respond quickly to the persisting pandemic and our value as a partner of choice to deliver best practice accommodation and outreach services across homeless aged care, mental health and homelessness,” St Bart's chief executive Samantha Drury said.

St Bart's CEO Samantha Drury at the new COVID isolation entry gate funded by Woodside

“Compounded by the impact of Perth’s housing affordability and supply crisis over the past 18 months, we’ve seen many people who were, for the first time in their life, finding themselves under real housing stress and at risk of homelessness.”

However, St Bart's has received incredible support from its supporters and partners, with the corporate community adapting its funding capacity to accommodate the changing requirements.

BHP extended its funding of the NFP’s Reconnecting Lives Program, ensuring vital, wraparound outreach support services were maintained for consumers moving out of their transitional and supported accommodation into secure, sustainable housing in the community.

BHP’s WA-based petroleum team also took part in a company fitness challenge during isolation and raised $44,000 for St Bart’s, with funds going to those residing in St Bart’s Women’s Service.

The ability for St Bart’s residents to isolate safely in the early days of COVID-19 was enabled through generous funding from Woodside that allowed the creation of an isolation unit when ‘congregate’ living was not suitable.

In 2022, St Bart’s partnered with the Department of Communities and the Department of Health to convert a government-owned East Perth property into a COVID-19 support facility to provide up to eight rough-sleeping adults with a safe, secure and supported environment to isolate when they tested positive.

“We’ve adapted to be able to work almost seamlessly through lockdowns and within the limits of restrictions over the past few years,” Ms Drury said.

“Finding innovative and effective solutions to homelessness has been more important than ever, and we look forward in 2023 to drawing on these moments of flexibility to continue looking at any challenges we face with a fresh and innovative approach.”