Posted on May 01, 2020
27 April 2020, Tokyo, Japan
COVID-19 Intermediary Social Solidarity (CIS), jointly established by NPO support centers across Japan including Japan NPO Center, has launched a website for NPOs to respond to the new coronavirus.
Background
As the impact of the Coronavirus expands, it has a major effect on NPOs.
According to a survey conducted by NPO Support Centers around the country, 80% of NPOs responded that the Coronavirus affected their activities.
It is expected that the number of people experiencing complex difficulties would increase due to the acceleration of economic poverty. In this moment of crisis, we are concerned that the situation would worsen due to a lack of NPOs that support people with difficulties, if it so happens that many NPOs may have to choose to suspend or abolish projects, or dissolve the organization altogether.
Some regions have only one NPO to support the disabled; therefore, it is difficult to find an alternative in case that organization ceases to exist.
Also, it may cause projects supported by active citizens — not only in welfare but culture, sports, education, town development, and support for remote islands and mountainous areas — to disappear or recede, and social failures would occur as a chain reaction. In order to avoid such situations, it is necessary to support the continuity of welfare projects among NPOs.
We, the COVID-19 Intermediary Social Solidarity (CIS), are the platform to support NPOs by bringing together the efforts of NPO Support Centers and sharing information in order to survive this crisis.
We aim to unite all NPOs nationwide to continue their activities and to resolve social issues through joint actions and campaigns.
Our projects entail:
（１）Informational provision for NPOs
（２）Consultation and management support
（３）Policy proposals and survey research for understanding the actual situations
Proposers:
Satoru ONO, Executive Director and Managing Director, Ibaraki NPO Center Commons
Kenji YOSHIDA, Managing Director, Japan NPO Center
Michihiro HORAKU, Director, SEIN Community Lab
Takeshi JITSUYOSHI, Chairperson, Hyogo Community Foundation
Hisaki SHIBA, Vice Chairperson and Managing Director, Wakayama NPO Center
Tatsuya ISHIHARA, Chairperson, Okayama NPO Center
Hiroki MATSUBARA, Managing Director, Hiroshima NPO Center
Office:
Japan NPO Center
Shin-Otemachi Bldg #245, 2-2-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0004
Tel: +81-3-3510-0855 Fax: +81-3-3510-0856
Contact:
Kenji YOSHIDA & Yuko MITSUMOTO
Supporting organizations: 61 organizations as of April 25, 2020
Supporting individuals: 18 individuals as of April 25, 2020
Contact us if you are an NPO supporting organization who would like to support our projects.
Website creation collaborators:
Miyu NIWA, Hironori MASUDA, Taiyo MASE, Yoshiya GIBO, Gabriele SATO, Hikaru INOMATA, Kento MORITA, Volunteers of Rakuten, Inc.
Fujii DAISUKE, Akihito SUGANO & Ryo YAMAGUCHI, Project on establishment of Code for Japan Social Technology Officer