Throughout the pandemic we have had to change and adapt how we do our day to day tasks such as our learning courses and face to face teaching.
We took part in different projects to ensure our learners and customers were able to stay connected with each other and with us, one way was working with LCR Cares where they supplied us with devices and connectivity which we found suitable homes for, from people who were shielding to people with no internet connection or devices. We managed to get 62 devices with connectivity out to different members of the community to help them stay connected with family and friends or to help children with schoolwork.
We also adapted to deliver both food & hygiene packs to those who were unable to leave their homes due to shielding. This resulted in us delivering an average of 14,000 food and hygiene packs to those most in need, spending an average of £80,000. We also delivered around 2,000 activity packs to families to help occupy the children when they were unable to see friends and family.
We gained members of the public who were furloughed who wanted to volunteer and give back to their local community come in and help us bag everything and deliver the packs to those who had been referred to us.
We worked in partnership with different organisations, one of which was The Reader who made delicious soups and stews which were then frozen and we included these in our food packs each week.
When restrictions relaxed a little we started up a community walking group. Walking in groups of 6 this gave people who had been socially isolated a chance to get out and socialise with others whilst staying socially distanced and safe. This helped with people's mental health and gave them a little something to look forward to each week.
