Good Neighbours
Community Hub Review, 8 May 2020
Dear people,
I think it is time for a progress update. This is my best understanding of what has happened so far and what is planned, but if some details are mistaken or missing, please let me know!
Firstly, you are receiving this because I believe you have expressed an interest in helping to support people through the Community Hub, or want to be kept informed about our progress. I aim to use Mailchimp for this in future. If you don't want to receive this, please let me know and I'll take you off the list. Thank you.
We have been talking about the "Sea Mills Community Support Hub", but would it be better as the "Sea Mills and Coombe Dingle Community Support Hub" – or is that too much of a mouthful?
The Community Hub is a partnership between Bristol City Council and Sea Mills Community Initiatives. SMCI was set up around ten years ago by the churches in Sea Mills, and in normal times it runs the Cafe on the Square and the Community Garden. It has four part-time staff, and a good number of volunteers, many of whom are actively involved in supporting people during the lockdown.
I am functioning on behalf of SMCI as the local contact person - the role seems to be given various names in different places. I'm doing this as part of my work for Local Friends – partly because this is what Local Friends was set up to do, and partly because it enables me to use the infrastructure which was already in place so we don't have to reinvent the wheel.
The purpose of the Community Hub is to act as a single point of contact for the Council regarding support needs in Sea Mills: they receive requests for support, undertake some basic filtering, and pass the appropriate requests on to the local community support hub. We pass the requests on to an appropriate volunteer, and report back when support has been provided.
Support requests appear to largely fall into three areas:
- human contact, where the main need is to have someone to talk to;
- shopping or prescription pickup; and
- dog walking.
Volunteers need to sign up as volunteers with the Council through their Can Do Bristol scheme, register to be part of the Covid-19 response, and agree to work within the principles set out by the Council. The details and relevant links are on the Local Friends 'Offer Support' page (localfriends.org.uk/gn/offer.htm). Please visit it and check that you are happy with my summary of the process people need to follow, and with the summary of the volunteer guidelines. Again, if you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know.
We have at present 15 people who have expressed interest, 4 of whom (I believe) are not local and not planning to volunteer. But that leaves 11 people offering to volunteer, which is a great start. However ...
So far, three people have registered with Can Do Bristol. Please register if you are providing support or are willing to do so - I cannot pass a support request on to you until this is done. Just go to the 'Offer Support' page and follow the steps. And, of course, let me know if you have registered but I don't know your Can Do Bristol user name.
We have already received our first support request - for a dog walker. But, where we can, it would be good to record through Can Do Bristol the support already being provided - partly so the Council know the real scale of the needs out there, and partly to give confidence that the system actually works. It seems likely that some kind of local support network will be needed for some time to come, and people may well appreciate knowing that there is an effective system to support them should they need it.
I believe SMCI and at least one of the local churches will be publicising the Community Hub, but spreading the news more widely would be good. If you need help with this, do ask me.
One final point: I do not believe there is, or should be, a sharp distinction between those who provide support and those who need it. One thing this crisis may be teaching us is to be better at both giving and receiving. It is perfectly reasonable for someone to be both helping others by keeping in touch by telephone or email, and also receiving help with their shopping, for example. And, as a matter of good practice, everyone in a caring role needs to be cared for themselves. So I see volunteering here not so much as committing to support others, but more as plugging in to a support network though which we can all benefit.
To summarise, please:
- Visit the 'Offer Support' page (localfriends.org.uk/gn/offer.htm), read it and the connected pages, and let me have any comments or feedback.
- If you are volunteering or able to volunteer, follow the steps listed on that page.
- Tell people about the Community Hub and encourage those who are volunteering or able to volunteer to sign up.
Thank you to everyone for your help, ideas and offers so far.
All the best,
Paul.
