Captain Philip Sutcliffe from the Northern Rivers Salvation Army knows the community is doing it tough through the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It will take a long time to recover from because of the huge financial impact on our society,” he said. “As soon as we open the doors again, everything won’t just fix itself.”

Captain Sutcliffe said the services of the Salvation Army are now in more demand than ever and the success of this year’s Red Shield fundraising appeal is crucial to keep the work of the Salvos happening.

“We are seeing huge increases in numbers of people unemployed around Lismore and in the CBD, some business closed doors for good,” he said.

“It’s a situation people never expected themselves to be in and already people are reaching out to us for the first time.”

“It’s had a similar impact in the long term as natural disasters like floods and fires do. It can take two to three years to work through this with affected communities.”

Red Shield appeal does digital

Every year, the Salvos choose a weekend to fundraise by knocking on people’s doors and asking them to donate money to the service.

But with Covid-19 restrictions in place, this year, the door knocking is going digital.

Captain Sutcliffe encourages people to fundraise, or donate what they can online instead.

Normally, the Salvos would collect about $4.6 million nationally over one weekend of doorknocking, but the digital doorknock will be open through the month of May, with the weekend of May 23 and 24 being the main focus for activity.

To get involved, you can sign up to become a digital fundraiser and use your connections to collect money for the Salvos.

Captain Sutcliffe suggests people could create a fundraising page and share it amongst family and friends to encourage them to donate to the appeal.

“You can join our Northern Rivers team and set your own fundraising goal and whatever you raise will stay in our region,” he said.

“With people doing it tough, they may be not able to donate what they did in previous years, but even a couple of dollars adds up and will help us reach our goal adds up reach our goal of $26,000 in our local region,” he said.

“This money is used for projects like giving Christmas assistance - providing toys, financial assistance and food hampers.

“Without the money, it will be hard for us to support people coming up to Christmas at the end of the Covid period.

To sign up and help out the local Salvos fundraise, visit

https://digitaldoorknock.salvationarmy.org.au/t/northern-rivers-salvos

To leave no one in need, please donate at http://www.salvationarmy.org.au or call 13 SALVOS (13 72 58)