Exeter Community Wellbeing - Connecting Communities
Published: 7 May 2020
Exeter Community Wellbeing is now in its seventh week of operation.
Providing a service that links people who request support to volunteers, groups and services is now the daily work of the hotline’s staff members.
This week we launched the Wellbeing Support Fund, aimed at helping those who find themselves in financial difficulty due to the Coronavirus outbreak and who can’t access funds through other initiatives. The scheme is funded by Devon County Council, you can learn more about it here: https://news.exeter.gov.uk/wellbeing-support-fund-launched-in-exeter/
The Exeter Community Wellbeing hotline is receiving calls from volunteers and individuals requesting support, as well as delivering outbound calls directly to shielded people, to make sure they have access to everything they need. ECW are also now delivering fortnightly top-up dietary food packs to shielded people, from the Matford Centre depot.
A spirit of sharing
We all have networks of support, from family and friends to our neighbourhood groups and local communities.
Working together in response to the current crisis has given us a chance to see just how many brilliant connections have been made by different individuals and groups over time, as well as the further connections that are being forged now to make our local and wider communities even stronger.
Within these communities, people are doing some marvellous things for each other.
Lily Harvey, an 11-year-old Exeter resident, has been showing considerable skill by making facemasks for a nursing home in Alphington.
Lily’s mother Neli posted on a local Facebook group asking for spare fabric donations. The community responded positively and Lily is keeping busy with her sewing machine.
Neli said: “Lily is making 50 masks for the Endeavour nursing home and if she has enough materials she will make free masks for the elderly and vulnerable in Alphington.”
Zoe and Sophie, of Art Club Exeter, have been producing art packs for older and vulnerable people who are isolating. These have been well received at sheltered accommodation in St Leonards and are forming part of looking after wider wellbeing.
Chloe Burrow, Independent Living Advisor for Guinness, has been supporting the wellbeing of residents by starting a jigsaw puzzle library, and Sonya Ellis is coordinating a lending library of sports equipment for the St Leonards area.
This free library movement is really evolving, with the Hill Barton Vale Little Free Library extending its range from books, which it was already sharing among the community before the COVID-19 crisis, to become a ‘Little Free Pantry’.
Cori Spurway, who started the free library initiative in Hill Barton with her husband over a year ago, said: “We offer free food to the community and are receiving so many donations we are now offering free emergency food hampers. We’ve gifted six hampers so far, the furthest away being in Tiverton.”
Over in Sandford Walk, Newtown, residents are enjoying socially distanced workouts and gardening during to keep active during this period, they have lots of plans for their community garden.
The people who live in the Clifton Street flats in Newtown are also keeping their outside area looking lovely.
Digital technology and nature have been connected by people in St Leonards and St James, who created a WhatsApp group in which they decided to plant some sunflower seeds in their gardens as ‘Seeds of Hope’. We look forward to seeing the seeds grow over the coming weeks.
Behind the scenes
We’ve heard some truly uplifting stories from the hotline staff this week. One of the members of the Exeter City Wellbeing team said: “I’ve gained valuable skills by way of using new systems and I am proud to be part of an amazing team. We have one goal in mind: to connect vulnerable members of the public to local volunteers to enable them to get the support they need.”
One example of a successful connection is when a man called with concerns about his 90-year-old mother, who lives in Exeter and had limited food.
The son lives over 100 miles away and felt helpless that he could not come to help his mum. We made contact with the Exeter City Community Trust, and a food parcel was delivered the same day. We also sent the man a list of local companies who deliver so that he was able to arrange further supplies for his mother.
When the City Council’s local welfare support team called ECW regarding a women with a baby who only had one nappy left, the local network sprang into action.
The mother and baby were housed in temporary accommodation and had food vouchers, but it wasn’t possible to purchase other supplies with these. The ECW team was able to match the local Pinhoe volunteer group and within an hour nappies donated by a member of the local community were delivered to the mother’s door.
The hotline recently received a call from a lady thanking us for her food parcel – on her birthday! The staff member who answered the call was touched: “She said that we all need to proud of ourselves for the work we are doing and that we made her day. The whole process for setting up and communicating with our team regarding her food parcel was smooth and efficient for her. I wished her happy birthday from all of us.”
What better way to sign off this bank holiday weekend than with the words of an ECW team member, who said: “I find it really rewarding working for and alongside the wellbeing team, I feel even if I only help one person, it’s been worth it… we all support each other.”
That’s it in a nutshell, really. We are a community; we all support each other.
To volunteer your time or to request support, get in touch with Exeter Community Wellbeing. Call 01392 265000. Lines are open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat-Sun 9am-12 midday.
BANK HOLIDAY FRIDAY lines open 9am to 12 midday
For more information visit https://exeter.gov.uk/clean-safe-city/community-safety/coronavirus/exeter-community-wellbeing/