HELPING OUT... FROM PPE TO RECRUITMENT
Community group aims to expand services
A COMMUNITY group created during the Covid-19 pandemic hopes to expand the support it can offer to North Staffordshire residents.
Ppe4community launched in May 2020 after a Sentinel article inspired Paul Smith, a recruitment consultant from Bentilee, and barber Leeroy Chakanyuka, from Birches Head, to do something for care homes.
Since then, the community group has had support and funding from the National Lottery and The Community Foundation for Staffordshire, which has enabled them to donate hundreds of PPE items to North Staffordshire care homes and make several deliveries of food and essential items to local homeless shelters.
So far, they have worked with organisations such as the Macari Foundation, Beth Homes Organisation and BOSS (Bethel One Stop Service).
As Ppe4community grows, the team behind the community group are keen to expand the support that they can offer to local people – and hope to get involved in recruitment.
Ppe4community director Paul Smith has 20 years of experience in community work, having previously worked with elderly adults in his hometown of Wolverhampton.
He said: “I moved to Stoke-on-trent about eight years ago and it was always my dream to do something like this. I met Leeroy when he was my barber and we work really well together. We’re quite visionary, and Leeroy has a really good standing in the local community.”
Leeroy added: “The network we have through Chax Barbers has made it easier to get in contact with different people in the city.
“We have a lot of relationships already and we have been able to get in touch with people to support us, or to help support them.”
Ppe4community even set up a newsletter with funding and grant opportunities, which was then distributed to good causes.
Paul added: “Initially, we set up to help care homes with PPE and food donations. Since then, we’ve diversified into supporting vulnerable people across the board.
“This has included employment support and training, as well as signposting people to other agencies as well for a number of issues, including mental health support.”
Paul, a recruitment consultant for Smarter Recruitment Services in Newcastle, added: “Long term, we’d love to have some kind of training academy with Ppe4community.
“It’d be nice to have our own facility that could be a one-stop service for people to get CV writing skills and see what job roles are available.
“We also want to help people with volunteering. A lot of people have the skills, but lack the experience.”
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