A beautiful day in our neighbourhoods
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” So said American TV icon Fred Rogers in the mid-80s, but Mr Rogers’ words ring as true today as they did then.
In the face of the Coronavirus pandemic, it’s been our helpers who have allowed us to continue to provide essential services, as well as reach out to people in a time where the effects of social isolation can be even more impactful.
Engaging with the community
Although they’ve been often-led by local councils, community resilience hubs have been largely staffed by volunteers, providing support to people made more vulnerable due to the pandemic.
We’ve reached out to over 60 community resilience hubs to help them understand what services we offer, and how we can help people who their services cannot.
We also put out a call for volunteers, via the Community Resilience Hubs, and received over 60 applications from people wanting to help their community.
Sharing the load
There’s been no shortage of important tasks for our volunteers to help with.
We’ve had people preparing and delivering meals, providing in-home services such as cleaning and laundry, calling our customers for a chat, as well as letting them know what services we can offer.
Our helpers have gone shopping on behalf of others, delivered PPE and testing kits to our extra care schemes, and provided access to the internet or other devices to help people stay in contact with their loved ones via video chat.
One of our volunteers, Katie, said “I just really wanted to get involved and help out in any way possible whilst on furlough, to try and give something back to the local community, especially when other healthcare providers and key workers have been absolutely stretched to the limit.”
Saying thank you
So this Volunteers’ Week, we want to say a huge “thank you” to everyone who has helped us help others. We looked to the helpers, and you were there. We couldn’t have done it without you.
We still need people to help us provide services and support to vulnerable people. If you’d like to volunteer with us, please contact volunteer@a2dominion.co.uk