In this context paper, we explore how community-based volunteering building upon existing social
structures and practices can foster both resilience to crisis and sustainable development. The
connection between volunteering and community resilience is now in sharper focus than ever due
to the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has highlighted how communities come together to support
each other at times of crisis, through the emergence of organised and spontaneous volunteering to
help people to protect themselves from the coronavirus disease and get through the tough social and
economic measures put in place to contain it.
