The Volunteer Centre has been working hard with the local authority, NHS, local councils, community groups and individuals to support people across Dorset. During the pandemic, many people voluntarily stood up to help in such unprecedented circumstances, supporting their family, friends, neighbours and perfect strangers in their community. We have found since the height of the pandemic that there is still a huge need for all different kinds of help and support, however as life has returned to normal, there feels like there are now less people available to help.
We are looking for your help to make some connections. Since Covid, so much has changed with groups either starting, ending or morphing into something new. We want to connect with organisations, groups, clubs and individuals in your area who are active, or could be a good connector for getting an active group started or better supported. I was hoping you could let me know:
- Is your Council leading on any ‘community support’ work
- Who are the key organisations in your area providing:
- any kind of volunteer support;
- tasks for residents including shopping, prescriptions, dog walking;
- who are the organised volunteer groups eg church, lions, rotary etc
- is anyone providing community transport;
- is there a local meal delivery service;
- are there any befriending services specific to your area
- Are there any key individuals in your area who are ‘community organisers’? Are there people who are active in the community, well connected and could be a good person for us to be working with?
We receive referrals for help from Dorset Council, the NHS, social prescribers and the public direct asking for help. To help people quickly and in an organised way, we want to build a bank of people who we could call upon to support all sorts of requests (food shopping, meal preparation, welfare checks, dog walking, befriending) that we receive for help in your area – or work with these people to put out a further call for help.
This network will then be effective for any one-off referrals for residents as well as in urgent situations like a pandemic, natural disaster, etc. If you are happy to provide us with links to organisations or contacts, that would be great. Please also feel free to forward this email to anyone you can think of.
Thank you for your support.
Warm wishes
Lynita Harris
Dorset Volunteer Programme Co-ordinator
Office: 01305 269214
Mobile: 07919 288675
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