Covid-19 Student Response Network
1494. Jack Elliott
Jack Elliott, from Bristol, is the CEO and co-founder of ‘Covid-19 Student Response Network’, a team of over 500 student volunteers across the UK and internationally providing free consultancy services to charities to help them respond to the pandemic.
Jack launched the network alongside fellow co-founders and University of Bristol students Ameya Vikram, Lee D’arcy, Immy Ireland, Jake Ireland and Tom Steggall, to enable students from UK universities to collaborate with charities in need of support due to the pressures of the pandemic, allowing students to build their skills and experience whilst helping to create social impact. So far, students have provided support to over 85 different charitable projects, through developing management strategies, service design, data analytics, and other consultancy services. In addition to their COVID-19 response, the network has also supported charities in Lebanon responding to the Beirut explosion which took place in August 2020.
In a personal letter to Jack, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:
“I was inspired to hear of your fantastic ‘Covid-19 Student Response Network’ through which you have harnessed the intellectual might of Britain’s brightest young minds to support charities across our United Kingdom.
“Your army of volunteers are turning their talents from analysing data to management strategies and showcasing a spirit of collaboration and ingenuity which embodies the very best of Britain.”
Jack said:
“It is an incredible honour to receive the Points of Light award, it means so much to all of us at CSRN to see the incredible work of our network recognised at such a level within the UK Government. None of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for my incredible team of co-founders, the quality of student talent within the UK as well as the support we received from multiple corporates and passionate individuals.
“It’s been incredible to see what students are capable of doing when they put their mind to it and CSRN has truly demonstrated the scale of the value that student volunteers are capable of adding to incredibly complex and impactful charitable organisations and communities.
“We hope that our success inspires talented and driven students from all over the UK to engage in third sector consulting during their studies. We launched CSRN at a time when the third sector needed it most and it is difficult to put into words just how proud we all are of what we’ve managed to achieve in the last 4 months.”