Good Neighbours
Sea Mills & Coombe Dingle
Community Hub Update #11
1 December 2020

Dear people,

Welcome to the recent volunteers! You can find the previous hub updates on the Sea Mills page of the website if you would like to catch up on the previous news. Do let me know if your Can Do Bristol registration is not progressing for any reason.

For everyone else - I hope the 'celebration of community action during the pandemic' went well. Do let me know if it was appreciated: it would be good to give the folk who set it up some feedback and appreciation.

Thanks for the feedback on Conversations – this has been taken on board, and the page has been updated. Thankfully, it was nothing major, but useful improvements, so much appreciated! Some more updates to the website and training material are planned, but I'm not going to rush them. Do say if there is something you would appreciate which is currently missing - this would help me prioritise the various items.

I hope you don't find this too impersonal, but I'm going to use numbers to refer to some of the people who would appreciate contact from one (or, possibly, more than one) of you. It helps me to keep track of who is who, and should make it simpler for you when you reply to say you are interested in contacting someone.

• (14) is a gentleman in Clifton, who already has one person phoning him each week, but he is very isolated following the death of his partner and would appreciate more conversation. He finds it hard to reach out to people, but recognises that he needs to build friendships where he can build trust and talk at a more personal level than he can with a stranger.
• (22) is a lady in a wheelchair, who can't get out of her flat on her own. You can't visit her now, but some phone calls would make a big difference: she is very sociable, and misses the company of others greatly. A couple of recent medical problems have made life more difficult, just as contact with others has been reduced. Contact in the afternoon and weekends would be particularly appreciated.
• (23) would like someone to ring him - ideally someone with some interest in cars and motorcycles, but that is less important than having somebody to talk with. He was in the army for a number of years, and then drove many of the massive vehicles you see on building sites. He is struggling with a recent family loss.
• (29) is a gentleman in Hill House, who needs a weekly shop, but we need to be careful about introductions here, as he is strongly independent and needs to feel it is a friend (or maybe a friend of a friend) for whom it will be no trouble.
• (30) - thank you: we have a volunteer to help the gentleman who would appreciate someone to walk with him to Shirehampton library and then maybe share a coffee in a local cafe afterwards when that is possible again.
• (32) is an elderly gentleman in Henleaze who would appreciate a regular phone call. His hearing is not great, so conversations are not likely to be long. He would prefer to talk in the afternoon if possible.
• (33) is a retired gentleman, who still retains his interest in electronic and electrical engineering. When he can get out again, he is looking forward to going out in the fresh air, flying his drone and running his radio controlled model cars, and maybe going for a coffee with someone.
• (34) is a married lady, but struggles with a number of health problems and needs someone to talk with.
• (35) is a gentleman who used to visit the Cafe on the Square. He has just lost his dog, and we are looking for a male volunteer to keep in touch with him.
• (36) is a friendly lady, very easy to talk with, but isolated and struggling with several health problems. She has a good number of interests, including crafts, collecting, houseplants and gardening.
• (37) is a recently bereaved gentleman, who I have not managed to speak to as yet. He gets bad headaches and cannot always talk when someone rings.

A quick reminder: I post urgent requests on the WhatsApp group, so please let me know if you would like to be added to this. We are not getting many urgent requests at present.

As always, thank you very much in advance for your help and feedback. And if you have any questions or need any support in what you are doing, do let me know.

All the best,

Paul.

 

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