"Can I please say a big thank you for my slow cooker and delicious vegetables! Such a wonderful initiative and valuable for the health and wellness of our community!" - Irene.
As the children start going back to school and communities try and adjust to the new normal, we are still delivering over fifty food parcels to the vulnerable and isolated members of the community in Riverside. By still doing deliveries we have the opportunity to speak to families and signpost and reassure them during this ever changing environment and anxious times.
Another activity besides our weekly phone calls we have developed as part of keeping in touch with our community groups in Riverside has been the setting up of a COVID safe mobile library. Our Tuesday group at Riverview are all avid readers. Their range of genre includes crime, romance and thrillers. When we visit it also gives our readers a chance to pass on birthday cards and gifts to other members of the group .
Doreen - "What a great idea of keeping in touch with our friends from the Riverview Community Living Room. We have always swapped books but since lock down and most of us shielding we haven't been able to."
June - "I have been reading a book a day while I have been shielding and these books have been a life line. I also love the visit from yourselves. I look forward to them so much."
GTDT was thinking about starting a local walking group early this year but due to the lockdown this was impossible to do.
Now GTDT have started their walking programme, which is aimed to help people transition from isolation and shielding to some type of normality.
For this reason our walking groups are small, only 6 community members per session, this way we can remain socially distancing but are still able to meet new friends and have a natter.
If you would like to get involved with these small , friendly walking groups then please email info@gtdt.co.uk for more details.
On Monday 17 August 2020, GTDT held its first Clothes Rail event at the newly opened Phoenix Foundation, based in Duke Street, Liverpool city centre.
Due to the Covid pandemic, both GTDT and the Phoenix Foundation exercised high levels of safety, which included having our temperature taken on arrival, the wearing of face masks, hand sanitiser and social distancing were all put in place for everybody's safety.
GTDT donated some much needed clothing, shoes, toiletries, books and some food to the residents of the hostel.
The Phoenix Foundation is a men only hostel and at full capacity can support 25 residents, in doing so it takes 25 homeless men off the streets of Liverpool. The staff and residents were very happy to have GTDT's support and Jane, one of the support workers said "we are so very grateful for your kind donations".
I was quite touched to learn that The Phoenix Foundation run an outreach service 2 evenings a week to support other homeless people that are still living on the streets, and even have an onsite vet "Paws for the Poor" to help look after and treat any pet that may belong to either the residents of the Phoenix Foundation or those less fortunate still living on the streets.
Watch this space for updates as GTDT have arranged another event in the next couple of weeks.
One learner Shaun used to work with someone who was deaf and was never able to fully communicate with them. He has also recently found out that he is slowly losing his hearing so he decided to enrol on the course to learn skills and knowledge around British Sign Language.
