The power of community has been evident in the immediate response to the coronavirus pandemic. Local community innovation was seeing a resurgence before the coronavirus pandemic, and this was observed in our first phase of work on the topic of lifelong learning and renewal of democracies where we engaged with individuals focused in this area. The necessity for local innovation has been expedited in response to the pandemic but there will soon be questions as to where communities and their individual members will go from here, particularly in their learning initiatives. How can the community action that we are seeing at the moment be leveraged to provide communities and their members with new opportunities for learning? And what should this learning actually be based on? Should the focus be on development of skills with a focus on jobs, or perhaps activation of individuals’ talents and gifts that are impactful within the places they live? will be the appetite and potential role of Universal Basic Income or similar measures? What will be the role of digital in such a shift and what will be the impact of employers as far as their own work-from-home policies are concerned? What is the role ‘civic universities,’ particularly if international student numbers are to decline given concerns around international travel?