Karshare Blog

One of the most difficult aspects of living through this pandemic has been not being able to support our local favourites who formed such a huge part of everyday life back when the world looked a bit different. Luckily, thanks to Zoom and some ingenious thinking, a lot of Bristol’s independent scene has made the move online, shifting their offer to suit our lockdown lives. To help you continue supporting your locals, we have listed some of our favourite at-home experiences, brought to you by the best of Bristol.

We’re coming up to our first weekend in Lockdown 3 and with nowhere to go and temperatures inching close to zero, we’ll be plonking ourselves on the sofa for some back-to-back binge-watching. If your plans are looking similar, check out our list of hard-hitting, truth-talking, inspirational movies and documentaries about the environment to get you through lockdown this month.

Part 2 of our Cared for by Karshare series sees us checking in with Julie Dempster, Founding Director of Bristol Outreach Services for the Homeless (BOSH), a charity in Bristol. Mum of two and grandmother to two gorgeous grandchildren, Julie has lived in Bristol for around five and a half years. BOSH have been working with Karshare to borrow a van throughout the pandemic to support their services across the city.

As part of our Cared for by Karshare series, we spoke to Esther, the Project Coordinator at Caring in Bristol. Her work primarily focuses on their food aid service ‘Cheers Drive’, running the day to day logistics and working alongside their group of amazing volunteers. Caring in Bristol have been making use of a Karshare van throughout the pandemic to support their services across the city.

When the pandemic struck the UK, Karshare asked local communities in Bristol to donate their cars to NHS, frontline and key workers so they could get to work safely. Public transport was less frequent and unreliable, so having immediate access to a car made their life and journeys easier.

The Karshare community scheme to help mobilise front-line workers during the Coronavirus crisis was first launched in Bristol – and as a Bristolian I was both inspired and grateful to the public and all the healthcare professionals and volunteers who jumped on board this car sharing scheme so readily. To see first-hand how it has changed peoples’ lives in my home town during this crisis has been a privilege.

As part of the operations team at Karshare I’m privileged to meet some truly remarkable people – not just car owners who selflessly donate their cars to people who can use them, but also the inspirational healthcare workers going above and beyond to help people during this Coronavirus crisis.05

On Friday I drove out of London and down an eerily deserted M23 to Brighton. I was on this journey to meet one of the teams we are supporting at the Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project, and my objective was to provide them with their first “donated” car from Karshare. It’s about two hours to Brighton from where I live in south London, but I didn’t realise how much of a trip it would turn out to be.