Thousands of community support groups have come together across the country to support the most vulnerable in our communities. Despite being in lockdown and new daily challenges, we’ve come together to respond to the coronavirus outbreak with such positivity and we’ve seen overwhelming acts of kindness and community spirit.
We’re looking out for our neighbours as well as our family and friends, and more than ever before, we’re beginning to identify the most vulnerable and isolated people within our communities.
Some people will be self-isolating, some will be staying at home because they are most at risk of being hospitalised by COVID-19, some will be struggling to carry out everyday tasks, and some may have already been isolated and lonely and will be at increased risk.
Our East Coseley Big Local team have been presented with many new changes and challenges since the beginning of the pandemic. These challenges have become opportunities to find new creative and inventive ways to connect with and support our Coseley community.
Whether it’s dropping off shopping or medication, a chat from a distance, a friendly phone call, or tackling technology together as a way to keep in touch, we’re finding new ways to help people to stay connected and well, supporting them through their daily challenges.
Our Community Changemaker, Neil, has been working with the Integrated Plus team from our local trusted organisation, Dudley CVS, to establish a COVID-19 Support Network for Sedgley, Coseley and Gornal. Our partnership with Integrated Plus has enabled us to find the most vulnerable in the community in desperate need of help.
Neil, now co-ordinating the localities response to the outbreak, “We have always known that there are more lonely and isolated people out there and we know how difficult it is to get to them, to make them aware that someone cares. The need for food and medication has opened my eyes to exactly how many lonely and isolated people there are just in my area of Coseley let alone the Dudley borough, which means that when this pandemic is over, there is a lot of work to do.
Myself, Shona and Dave are still trying to do as much Big Local work as possible and helping those who need food and medication. I receive calls and referrals from people in need and then find the right volunteer to carry out those requests. Shona is out shopping, and Dave is on medication runs, dropping off to people with a smile and a chat. I’m so proud of my co-workers out there in the community but that’s what being part of a Big Local is.
Through what I’m doing now for Dudley CVS as a co-ordinator I am seeing some fantastic community spirit.”
Our East Coseley Big Local Community Connectors, Dave and Shona, are supporting people by volunteering with the Network and finding new ways to connect people through virtual coffee mornings.
Dave has volunteered to help with the efforts by carrying out collection of medication from chemists and deliver them to vulnerable people.
”One man, in particular, stated that I was the first person he had seen face to face for a week and it was so refreshing for him. We chatted for about 20 minutes (at a safe distance of course). He said that he had plenty of telephone calls but it was just nice to actually see someone and have a conversation.”
“Shona and myself make regular contact with many of the participants who were attending coffee mornings prior to lockdown. We have done some shopping for them and have regular chats. Contact has until recently been by phone or text. However, last week we started a virtual coffee morning using Zoom and those who dropped in really enjoyed it and want it to be a regular feature. For those that weren’t sure, we spent some time on a 1-2-1 basis coaching them through the process.”
An application has now been approved by Big Local to purchase tablets to enable people to join in with coffee mornings if they don’t have the IT equipment.
“We can now invite more people, and when we eventually come out of lockdown we can use the tablets for future basic IT training in the community.”
Shona has been thinking of new and creative ways to keep people connected, “Covid hit us like a brick and the dust that settled left a place we didn’t recognise and a community in hiding. Almost like stages of grief, we all had changes happening around us that were out of our control and hard to comprehend. We have definitely felt a loss, an anger, confusion and frustration knowing that being isolated from our community when they needed us most would be just as hard, if not harder for them.
But what has come from this? We are communicating more, we are being creative, we are trying new ways to keep in touch, which we will continue to use when this is over and we are making steps to getting people connected who never have been before. We are also speaking to new people with this new ‘thing in common’ and we are being signposted to people who are in particular need for extra help through Dudley CVS referrals.
We are in weekly contact with our community through phone calls, letter, texts, Facebook posts, by referring them for extra help and through video meet ups on Zoom as well as out in the community picking up shopping or medication for those people who normally attend our sessions. The support we are able to give these people who are usually well able and independent is strengthening our relationships further, in now their time of need.
Covid is concreting the foundations of our community and encouraging new shoots to sprout just like the springtime it consumes. Now we understand what living with this virus around us means, we can work alongside it and will continue to support, entertain and communicate with our Coseley community.”
If you would like to find out how you can get involved in the local #Covid19 effort in Coseley visit https://bit.ly/2xd1Yrx or contact Neil Langford at neil@eastcoseleybiglocal.net
If you are interested in joining Dave and Shona at their Virtual Coffee Mornings, visit https://www.facebook.com/pompoms4loneliness/ or get in touch on 07726 210092 or email Dave drobertsjst@gmail.com or Shona shonajst@gmail.com
If you would like to donate to Coseley Foodbank they operate from Darkhouse Baptist Church and is open Tuesdays 10am-2pm only to receive donations and issue food parcels.
