How community centre has met challenge of Covid-stricken year
WESTFIELD community centre in Hinckley has become the go-to place for Covid support services.
While the centre has more than 40 years’ experience of working with socially isolated people, Westfield staff and volunteers were very quick to reshape their in-house services when the virus struck last March.
Unable to bring service users into the community centre they took their services out to elderly and disabled people and those forced into isolation.
Since the onset of the crisis 12 months ago, Westfield’s childcare services, nursery, pre-school and kids’ club remained open to support
NHS staff and key workers with much-needed childcare, enabling hundreds of people to remain at work throughout the pandemic.
Dave Roberts, head of the centre, said: “Forty-eight hours after the government announced the lockdown last March, the Westfield virus volunteers were established.
“In the intervening year, Westfield staff and volunteers have made a major contribution to the national effort to tackle the challenges caused by the pandemic.
“The centre has provided outreach services to some of the most vulnerable in the Hinckley area.”
With financial support from Leicestershire County Council, Hinckley and Bosworth Borough
Council and numerous local national grant-making trusts, community centre has been a key player in providing a wide range of support services.
To date, this has included more than 5,000 “check-up and chat” phone calls.
During the winter, volunteers delivered more than 2,000 hot meals to the elderly, the disabled, or people forced to isolate.
Hundreds of trips to hospitals and and the
GP appointments have been organised, including transporting elderly and disabled people to vaccine appointments.
On top of this, the centre has also offered hundreds of weekly shopping or prescription deliveries and hundreds of books and jigsaw deliveries from Westfield’s community library. In recent weeks the centre has played host to a lateral flow centre aimed at getting people back to work and the economy up and running. Mr Roberts said: “Throughout the last 12 months staff and volunteers have risen to all the challenges posed by the pandemic and they all remain on call to help in whatever way they can.
“Hopefully, before long, we will be able to have all our groups return to what has always been a very busy community centre.
“I’m very proud of the contribution the Westfield staff and volunteers have made throughout the last 12 months, which we know has been much appreciated by the community.”
For help or support in the Hinckley area, ring the helpline or leave a message on 01455 637516.
Or you can email westfieldvolunteers@westfieldcc.org.uk.
I’m very proud of the contribution the Westfield staff and volunteers have made throughout the last 12 months