Warwickshire County Council (WCC) facilitated the set up an easy access, countywide, community- led directory to identify where, when and what support was available within each District and Borough.
Over 300 groups were on this original list which was made available on the WCC website and to those colleagues in the contact centres on the Government’s 0800 number (District and Boroughs) who were taking calls from those who were originally identified as shielding in the first lock down and clinically extremely vulnerable in the second.
Some of these groups are still operating and, by working with WCAVA, WCC have set up several webinars to help identify what support they need going forward as well as utilising their contacts to work with Public Health in organising Test and Trace webinars. The directory continues to be kept up to date by the WCC team on a regular basis.
WCC’s nine Community Development Workers, Time Bankers and Armed Forces staff were re-deployed during the first lockdown, to field calls from the contact centre and assist/signpost those who were shielding to suitable sources of support i.e., food, prescriptions etc. They were stood up again for the second lockdown to support the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable and used the WCC directory to signpost.
A specific COVID-19 Support Fund (technically the first round of the County Councillors Grant Fund) was launched at the end of March 2020, which was designed to provide rapid and flexible funding to support communities to do their bit and to make sure the voluntary and community sector continues to thrive now and after the crisis.
Across the county over 165 groups were supported, and some benefited from further funds in the second round.
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Support services
- COVID-19 Community Led Support Groups Directory has been produced to provide useful information about local organisations, groups and agencies that are providing activities, advice, and services to support people during the pandemic.