The idea
As a new charity Oasis Warndon Community Hub has been working hard to respond to the current Covid-19 crisis, and to react to the local community’s biggest concerns to provide vital support for vulnerable families. During lock-down some of these projects included:
• Providing 200 friendship/support calls each month.
• Distributing 350 frozen meals across the summer holidays, that had been prepared by our volunteer chef.
• Delivering food parcels 3 evenings per week, serving 75 meals per evening.
As we move into autumn we are looking to reintroduce some of our face to face services in line with government guidelines. We hope to offer 121 face to face appointments for those needing support, as we recognise that this can have extra value for those feeling particularly isolated or those who do not have access to technology. We also want to keep our food pantry well-stocked so that we have the ability to provide emergency food parcels for member of the community facing food poverty.
What we'll deliver
- 121 face to face support for issues such as: housing, benefits, food, debt.
- Emergency food and clothing parcels being provided
- Volunteers being recruited and trained
- Friendship calls to isolated members of the community.
Why it's a great idea
A caring community is a strong community. At a time when we have been asked to maintain physical distance from one another we must find ways to connect with those that may otherwise be left feeling vulnerable and isolated. At our hub community is at the heart of everything we do.
Many of the families we support come in through our doors for one thing but leave having gained practical information, advice and solutions for a whole host of things. Once this initial relationship has been built they know that they can always call on us to help in future situations and will often feel more empowered to tackle these themselves. Some people have said that hub is like a home where they know they’ll always be warmly greeted and asked how they are. Isn’t that something that everybody deserves?
Steps to get it done
- Reach crowdfunding target
- Deliver 25 1-2-1 face to face support appointments
- One new volunteer recruited
- Food pantry re-stocked to suit demand
