Loneliness Awareness Week (15th to 19th June) is highlighting one of the great social scourges of our modern society. Community Action Norfolk is at the forefront of combating social isolation across our county, with a range of projects encouraging and enabling individuals to become involved in activities in their local communities.
One of the strengths of the voluntary sector is the way it adapts and transforms to stay relevant and engaging. Keeping your service users or clients informed and engaged is crucial, and never more so than in a time of change. For all VCSE organisations whose main activity is direct delivery to service users a major concern is maintaining contact with, and support to, their vulnerable clients.
Recognition of Community Action Norfolk’s experience in the planning and delivery of Social Prescribing has led to us being commissioned by NHS Norfolk and Waveney Clinical Commissioning Group to deliver professional support and training to the new Primary Care Network Social Prescribing Service.
CAN is hosting two Zoom webinars to discuss the practical issues to consider when returning to offices and other working environments. The first, this Friday, 12th June, is aimed at voluntary organisations and community groups based and operating in West Norfolk. The webinar will be repeated on Monday 15th June for organisations in North Norfolk.
Like many Norfolk parishes, Great Hockham is a close-knit community – and has become even more so during the Coronavirus pandemic. Community-spirited individuals got together early in the crisis, determined to help and support the vulnerable residents in and around their village. They contacted CAN via the Parish Council, knowing that through our existing Good Neighbour Scheme network we would be able to offer advice and practical support in setting up a structure, quickly and effectively.
This week (Monday 1st to Sunday 7th June) is Volunteers’ Week (link). celebrating the time, skills, experience and goodwill given by people up and down the UK.
At CAN we’ve seen the spectrum of community groups forming in response to the Coronavirus pandemic, seeking to help their vulnerable and isolated residents. We have, and are, helping many of them with safeguarding, insurance and legal advice and volunteer management, under the auspices of our existing Good Neighbour scheme network.
There are some inspiring examples of communities coming together during the Coronavirus pandemic, and one south Norfolk town has shown how it can be done.
A project that combats loneliness and isolation in Norfolk has adapted swiftly to the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic. Operation No Cold Shoulder offers free support to people in Dersingham and North King’s Lynn in the west of the county; Swaffham and Litcham in mid-Norfolk; Thetford, Fakenham and surrounding villages; and Mile Cross and Thorpe Hamlet in Norwich.
Many of you reading this will know that at CAN we’ve been surveying the Norfolk VCSE sector to compile a measured and accurate picture of how voluntary organisations and groups across the county have been adapting and modifying approaches to working with their service users during the COVID-19 crisis. The responses have been channelled into helpful data which will ultimately help present the voice of the voluntary sector to commissioning authorities and to government itself.
CAN has joined with other prominent public and voluntary sector agencies from across Norfolk to warn residents to be extra vigilant of new and existing scams during the COVID-19 pandemic.