The Quarantine Project: stay connected with your peers during COVID-19

Faculty of Arts and Bachelor of Teaching student, Luke Mollet, spoke with us about The Quarantine Project, an online platform created for peers to stay connected during COVID-19.

• Tell us about the quarantine project and why you started it?

The Quarantine Project is basically an online platform where people can learn skills, host social events and stay connected with like minded people who are stuck inside during isolation and quarantine.

We host 2 “Crash-Courses” a week that range from cooking to dancing as well as an interview with an Expert in their fields, people like sports stars, professors etc...

The Project started because myself and my two mates were not seeing our friends and were left inside the house and basically just bored. So this was a way we could provide a service as well as staying connected with friends and like minded individuals.

• How did you start it?

The idea for the project actually came to me while training for my first marathon, whilst running i was thinking about ways i could stay connected that wasn’t just phone calls and what not with friends. I then contacted Casey with the idea and he was onboard with it so we reached out to Millie. Then basically we got straight to work on it. Within a fortnight we were calling at least twice a day and we had it up and functioning with about 25 tutors singed up and about 50 classes we could teach from the get go.

• Who did you start it with?

I started this project with two High School Friends, Casey Cammans and Amelia Sharrad. 

• How has it gone so far?

Within our first month of operation, our page had reached more than 1,000 page likes, we had only positive reviews and everything has been smooth sailing. The page overall has been a success in bringing together people, we also now has a “Social Hub” (a private group for members to join) and basically ask questions, start book clubs and movie nights etc.. thats a really social space for people to get involved with to stay connected. 

• Can you give me any stats on how it has grown from day 1?

I remember our first day and the beginning of our project, i think there was so much need for a service like ours and in our unique fashion. I can recall within in the first hour of operation sitting at something like 200 page likes and a real buzz around the project. 

Our STATS from beginning on April 1st:

17.1k minutes viewed

1.2k followers

Majority of our videos now reaching over 11k people globally. 

• What are you hoping to achieve in the future?

Personally, I would love to see this project continue even after Quarantine. Wether that be to promote community events or host workshops etc... that’s something for discussion with the team, but honestly i think with the success we have had on this project, it’s not something we would be ready to just give up on after COVID-19.

Find The Quarantine Project on Facebook.