Anna Leggett

Senior Research Consultant

Anna is a Senior Researcher at Stripe Partners. She has worked on foundational and strategy research for some of the largest global technology companies, including Spotify and Facebook, and co-authored an article on AI Alignment for the 2020 Summit.

Building Responsibility into Emergency Response

When emergencies happen, recent history shows us that chaos often follows: there is overlap in provisions of support between organisations and – critically – wide gaps in support for those who are most ‘at risk’ in society. But the pandemic is a strong example of how times of crises can also be times of immense innovation. Covid-19 catalysed efforts to develop more collaboration in the voluntary and community sector: in 2020 a partnership between local, regional and national organisations rapidly took shape with the aim of better coordinating emergency response. Central to this is a ‘request for support’ platform, which organisations can use to access additional support in times of emergency, and a regular survey to collect data on emerging needs.

In a crisis we turn to our friends and trusted contacts for support: this has challenges for marginalised communities. It became apparent that those on the fringes or outside existing networks in the VCS were not engaging with the request for support platform as much as expected – and less than proportionate to their expected level of need.

Research carried out by Stripe Partners in early 2021 set out to explore opportunities to connect with marginalised communities. We took a people-first approach and worked closely with a range of organisations working specifically with protected characteristic communities in Bradford and Leeds. This approach delighted the project team: while all were in agreement that understanding the needs of people at ground level was critical to delivering support, their first-hand perspectives and values had not been central to the system design. Time pressures of its rapid development were a contributing factor, as well as constraints imposed by government funding: so what could be done to guard against this in future?

Close collaboration with people who understand needs on the ground is the start of becoming more aligned with the marginalised communities the partnership seeks to support. Our conversations and interviews revealed the value of support being local-led, for greater resilience and equity in non-emergency times, as well as when crises hit. Sharing a workbook of our materials and methods with the team will enable this people-first process to be replicated and embedded in how the partnership delivers support in future emergencies.