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We have been inspired by the community response to COVID-19 crisis and we are hugely grateful for the support being provided to people in their neighbourhoods by individuals, localised self-organising groups and local charities. This community spirit and desire to support the most vulnerable members of our communities is what makes Waltham Forest so special. Thank you.
The Council, in partnership with Age UK Waltham Forest and local food banks, launched the Community Help Network to provide help for eligible residents to get them essential supplies like food, prescriptions and safe social contact. The service was introduced as an emergency provision at the beginning of lock down for the most vulnerable residents who had no other means of help. We’re proud to have delivered more than 1,500 food parcels and to be working closely with food banks to provide food supplies, as well as providing other help through our partners. As the Government is now rolling out food provision for those community shielding and supermarkets are adapting to their new business as usual, we are continuing to review the role of the network.
Local voluntary and community organisations will continue to play a vital role in helping residents and responding to the crisis. We have set up a dedicated team to assist you in doing so by sharing information, resources and expertise, and by helping to co-ordinate and linking groups together.
Below are some of the ways we will do so.
Thanks,
Cllr Ahsan Khan, Lead Member - Community Safety and Voluntary Sector
The Government announced £750 million in financial support for charities last week. We await further details and will provide regular funding and sector updates and will actively work to pull out and share the latest information and funding opportunities available.
A funding opportunity that is currently available is through the The London Community Response Fund where there are two funds open for applications. See here for more information.
If your organisation would like support with applying for funding, we have dedicated support available to help you in preparing bids.
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If you are providing support to residents around the delivery of food parcels, prescriptions or befriending, we would love to hear from you and discuss how you can work with existing providers across the borough who are delivering similar services. This way we can share valuable intelligence and foster greater collaboration between groups.
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We have a pool of around 2500 volunteers, many of whom have signed up to help the community response to COVID-19. If your organisation could benefit from more volunteers, or volunteers with specific skills and capabilities please get in touch.
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We would like to shine a spotlight on the work that your organisations are doing to respond to the COVID-19 crisis through the Council’s communication channels.
Please get in touch and share your stories. A member of the communications team will be happy to collaborate with you to highlight your organisation and its valuable efforts.
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There has been a massive groundswell of support from local businesses who want to do their bit to support the community, in particular by:
- Providing temporary storage or cold storage
- Providing food transport from other areas in London
- Being a drop-off or pick up point
- Providing takeaway and / or delivery services for elderly & vulnerable residents
If you own a local business in Waltham Forest and want to help support the community, or you’re an organisation that needs support please:
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The Connecting Communities team have been working tirelessly over the past weeks to develop our response to support the charity sector. We will be providing further updates as the programme evolves in the coming weeks.
The team includes many faces that you will be familiar with from Connecting Communities, including your local network managers. The whole team is committed to supporting your efforts, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if there are specific challenges that you are facing at this time that we might be able to help with.
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