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The Matthew Project - Norfolk VCSE Covid Stories

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The Matthew Project would shut their offices on the 18th March, switching immediately to offer services remotely, through the phone, online groups, and doing door-step visits when a welfare concern was raised as the Police were unable to do this due to capacity limitations.

The charity as able to respond immediately to the practical needs of their clients as they arose from food vouchers to help with mobile phone data. For 30 people in the early stages of recovery, whom they would normally have daily contact with they created care packs. Children would engage well with new online support offers and packs would provide positive activities.

For some clients with mental health issues lockdown would reduce the pressure to leave the house and have to deal with lots of people. For others, the isolation would exacerbate issues. Relatively easy access to drugs and alcohol would challenge many in recovery as well as likely result in increased service demands as lockdown eases.

This is part of a series of short examples of the huge contribution made by local VCSE organisations in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. To understand more about the pivotal role played by Voluntary and Social Enterprise organisations in Norfolk’s Covid-19 response effort please read our Norfolk VCSE Covid-19 Story page.