Stimulating and Building Compassionate and Humanising Networks for Promoting Sustainable Safer and Healthier Communities: Researcher Reflexivity on the Local Network of Care (LNOC)

"COVID-19 plunged the world into a crisis, but also highlighted the possibilities of networking as a key asset to coordinate resources and provide support, and foregrounded human agency and solidarity."

Networking among social actors is a strategy for ameliorating the multiple challenges and inequalities in disadvantaged and under-resourced communities. A network can be regarded as a partnership for combined or collective action - a coalition - that involves sharing resources, ideas, and information to achieve shared objectives. In the wake of the national lockdown imposed by the South African government to contain the spread of COVID-19 in March 2020, the non-profit sector realised they needed to coordinate their efforts in order to improve their effectiveness. This study reflects on networking as an approach for strengthening relationships among service providers to address issues such as social justice, health, and safety and to mobilise limited resources in disadvantaged communities. The study examines the work of the Local Network of Care (LNOC) in the Strand, Western Cape, South Africa, a place with high rates of unemployment, insufficient infrastructure, and social ills such as intentional and unintentional injuries.

The qualitative reflexive case study draws on Community Coalition Action Theory (CCAT), which offers a methodology for assessing the efforts of coalitions that work to effect community-level change. CCAT postulates that networks develop in stages that serve as a foundation for evaluating coalition fidelity and success. CCAT's 15 propositions cover stages of development, community context, lead agency or convening group, recruitment of coalition membership, processes, leadership and staffing, organisational structure, member engagement, pooled member and external resources, assessment and planning for action, application of strategies, enhancement of community capacity, evaluation of results, and health/social outcomes.

The LNOC is used as an illustration to reflect on the operational processes and values of a network seeking to foster just, sustainable, and safe communities. Originally established in 2015, the LNOC was later dissolved due to a lack of funding but then revived in 2017 by the South African Medical Research Council-University of South Africa Violence, Injury and Peace Research Unit (SAMRC-UNISA VIPRU), which was previously invited by local organisations to join the initial network. Consisting of 69 active local organisations and social actors, the LNOC is part of the broader community engagement (CE) approach of SAMRC-UNISA VIPRU. LNOC conceives of itself as a compassionate, coalition-based network seeking to systematically strengthen relations among service providers within the Strand area by combining scarce resources in local communities and sharing resources and learnings from each other's experiences. With monthly meetings followed by networking that continues among the different organisations, LNOC intends to serve as a multi-sectoral skills and services platform to address challenges in the local 57 communities in the Strand area to engender safety, social justice, peace, and health.

Primary sources of data for the study of LNOC include newspaper clippings, the LNOC social contract, institutional annual reports, monthly agendas, attendance registers, and reflective notes of members of the LNOC. The following themes emerged:

• Networking as an egalitarian and transparent hub of coordination - LNOC's social contract, developed to elicit collective ownership and commitment by members, provides a framework of the implicit rights and responsibilities as well as the commitment and accountability agreed upon by each organisation and its members. The notion that all people, especially those with lived experiences, have vital forms of expertise necessary to bring about meaningful change is foregrounded. LNOC's process of CE is rooted in a community-based participatory approach that is transformational and reflects a reciprocal process of engagement embedded in co-learning, co-management, and co-sharing, thus promoting or enhancing advocacy and social justice. The collective embraces an engaging and participatory ground-up ethic and ethos that champions safety, health, social justice, compassionate solidarity, and sustainable community building.
• Co-sharing, co-learning, and participatory engagement - Resources and information are exchanged by all partners, and collaboration takes the form of joint proposal writing for funding, information on grant writing, fundraising opportunities or strategies, organisational building and development, free internal and external training opportunities, employment opportunities, information on campaigns, and mutally beneficial forms of support (e.g., referrals in instances of substance abuse, child abuse and neglect, homelessness, gender-based violence, behavioural challenges with youth). Communication is vital to the success of a network, as is the case with LNOC. Partners engage and converse with each other using multiple platforms, such as a web-based group with all LNOC partners using WhatsApp.
• Engendering capacitation and training to strengthen agency and organisation - For example, a member of the Phambihli non-governmental organisation (NGO) highlighted the plight of unemployed and/or substance-using women and asked LNOC for assistance. Different organisations within LNOC offered and provided training and support for these women.
• Fostering equity in participation and embracing voice and plurality of knowledge - LNOC is a multicultural, non-sectarian, non-partisan, diverse cultural network with a decolonised ethos. It operates within a safe and participatory space and seeks to be cognisant and respectful of differing opinions. All LNOC meetings are chaired voluntarily by a rotating chair, which prevents any one particular organisation from being "in charge" and negates any power dynamics between the different members.
• Promoting social justice, sustainable community building, and praxis - LNOC members have an opportunity to develop relationships, increase their interaction with multiple network organisation members, get to know organisations' work in the community, and recognise similar goals and aspirations to bring about change in their community. This realisation of common goals and aspirations with other LNOC members creates a sense of community where members feel they belong for the greater good. Partner organisations with links to specific local safety and health services provide access to multiple services for referral purposes, such as counselling, substance abuse treatment, education, and social welfare services.
• Reimagining networks and readiness during and after COVID-19 - The pandemic brought with it multiple psychosocial and economic challenges and prompted the LNOC to mobilise and provide support for the most vulnerable communities in the Strand. In the LNOC WhatsApp group, organisations shared information/messages on food security, safety and health, free counselling services, and free community testing for COVID-19, amongst others. This information was then shared with the broader community. "Through their efforts, representatives of LNOC displayed courageous, agentic, altruistic, and cooperative behaviour, even when they were at great risk of contracting the virus themselves. COVID-19 has seen the mass mobilisation of community solidarity behaviours....The responses of the LNOC collective were swift and resourceful, and because they had a pulse on the ground, they were able to reach hard-to-reach vulnerable communities quicker than the government, and often they were the only form of support during COVID-19 that reached certain pockets in the communities. Beyond Covid-19, the sustainability of existing networks is vital...LNOC [is] motivated for the existence and sustainability of the network to not be dependent on the availability of funding, but rather on mobilising and sharing assets and resources and generating a social contract that emphasises commitment, mutual support, and collaboration that strengthens the network, and help promote and build compassionate and sustainable communities."

The study identified the following barriers to the effectiveness of networking: competing priorities and limited staffing, which hampered regular attendance of meetings; ineffective communication; scarce resources; and competition for limited funding.

Enablers of networking include: mobilising and sharing assets and resources; collectively developing and endorsing a social contract; providing a safe space; undertaking effective and continuous communication; ensuring strong organisational commitment; and fostering mutual support, sharing, and collaboration.

In short, the researchers suggest that, while COVID-19 exposed the vulnerabilities and fragility of disenfranchised populations globally, it also highlighted the role of networking in coordinating resources and aiding those in need. The study of LNOC shows that people are more likely to be able to develop shared responsibility for others during a crisis if they focus on actively building social networks and connectivity. Human agency and solidarity through networking can be valuable in addressing the psychosocial and economic challenges that economically poor communities - during times of crisis and beyond. The study indicates that networks: create connections and build capacity; bring together resources to improve and nurture relationships between groups; and facilitate collective efforts to address common community challenges so as to generate positive and sustainable change. The findings show the possibilities and value of creating and sustaining local networks that allow people to participate and collaborate.