How social media brought people together during COVID lockdowns

Social media has played a key role in the Burnham community in recent years, and was used extensively during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide help.

The Burnham Village Facebook Group has 13,000 members and the Burnham Village Residents Page stands at 5,600.

Both groups are used to raise community issues, seek advice and announce events. They have also played a key role in positive community acts.

This year, village resident Ian Dodimead cut back an overgrown footpath in Burnham after seeing a post about it on the Burnham Village Facebook group and father and son Matt Keating and Steve Keating have also cleared fly-tipping in the area at their own expense after seeing a Facebook posts on the

Burnham groups.

Facebook groups set up during lockdown have also played a key role in helping people stay connected.

Beth Booker founded the Burnham Lockdown Babies Facebook group – which now has more than 340 members – in August 2020.

It supported parents and children during the lockdowns.

Beth said: “The group has grown into a

space for people to look for someone to go for a walk or coffee with, a place for people to find out what local baby or toddler groups are on and when, and a place for recommendations of businesses or venues people have been to and enjoyed with their preschool-aged children.”

The Burnham Resilience Facebook group, now has more than 980 members.

Paula Prince, trustee and vice-chair, said: “We wanted it to focus on what the residents could do for each other and what was out there to support them.”

She added that having the group meant that they could let people in the community know how to get support and where from and enabled small businesses in the local area to advertise.

Paula explained that the group has been used in a variety of ways, including to inform people about the help and support available, posting quizzes to keep people entertained, and providing updates on what was going in on the village, including vaccination clinics and general neighbourhood news.

She added: “It was good to provide a platform to help the residents.”