The undercurrent of anxiety hasn’t been the only constant in the midst of the coronavirus crisis; kindness and community spirit is shining through in these uncertain times. People checking in on their neighbours, sending care packages to NHS staff or simply picking up the phone to a vulnerable friend or relative.

To champion this community spirit, Manifest have designed and built a new platform called Lend a Hand to help people who are self-isolating during the coronavirus crisis. The platform has been created to pull together a community of helpers to support those who are struggling.

The platform has been built to bring together those who need help and those who can ‘Lend a Hand’. A simple navigation on the platform’s homepage buttons direct you either to click ‘I need a hand’ or ‘I want to help.’

Those in need of a helping hand can ask for assistance with anything, whether it’s walking a dog, picking up groceries or medicine or just finding someone to chat to over the phone. The form encourages people to write in their postcode so that the system can match helpers with those in need in their local area.

The Lend A Hand platform places people’s safety, both of those helping out and those staying at home, at its heart. It also directs users to the NHS website to determine whether they’re experiencing any coronavirus symptoms.

We have never needed a unified community more than we do now and Lend A Hand underlines the power of the creative industries to bring those communities together. As over half a million people sign up to become NHS volunteers, we continue to see small acts of kindness every day. It’s these that we need to focus on and shout about; people helping people to help people and businesses stepping up to help facilitate that.