Introduction

A response to the upsurge in community action in the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, was a request by the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, for Danny Kruger MP to produce a report covering a number of issues including ‘the contribution of faith groups in strengthening social capital and community resilience’.

The report Levelling Up Our Communities: Proposals for a New Social Covenant (frequently referred to as the Kruger Report) was published in September 2020 (Kruger, 2020). This report recognised that many of our public services, including the modern health, education and probation service systems, have their origins in Christian institutions. Prior to the establishment of the welfare state in 1946, independent charities provided social support for people in need. Bonner reviewed the work and research of 19th century social reformers including Joseph Rowntree (1836–1925), Lord Shaftesbury (1811–1851), Charles Booth (1840–1916), William Booth (1829–1912) and others (Bonner, 2006).

These significant philanthropic Victorian contributions to community resilience had their origins in Christian philosophy and belief. In 2021, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), Livability (formed from a merger of the Shaftesbury Society and John Grooms) and Barnardo’s play an important role as third sector organisations in addressing the unmet needs of people falling through the welfare net provided by the public sector in the UK. William Booth’s Christian Mission (which became The Salvation Army (TSA) in 1878) (Booth, 2014 [1890]), now operates in more than 130 countries and is the only one of those Victorian social initiatives to maintain a strong Christian tradition through its 600+ community churches in the UK and Ireland, which work collaboratively with the 100+ Homeless Services Unit centres (see Case study 16.1). William Booth and others were concerned with the social evils causing distress in individuals and families in the 19th century. Joseph Rowntree (1908) identified the evils of war, slavery, excessive drinking, gambling and the drugs trade as the social evils which undermined individual and community wellbeing. A century later a JRF report on modern-day social evils (Harris, 2009) explored the views of people with learning disabilities, ex-offenders, carers, unemployed people, vulnerable young people, care leavers and people who had experience of homelessness in discussion groups across the UK.