Melksham Community Response Weekly Round-up

Weekly Round-up 5th April -12th April

We have collected and delivered 71 prescriptions in and around Melksham.

We have shopped for and delivered essential items to 61 households.

We answered 209 phonecalls on our dedicated support line.

48 wonderful new volunteers joined our team.

We walked peoples dogs 18 times who would not have been exercised

We opened 91 new cases where we provided support to residents

Over the last 4 weeks we have supported a total of 857 calls, made 179 shopping trips, delivered 206 prescriptions and recruited 399 volunteers.

We wanted to to start with a massive thank you!

At our team meeting at the end of last week (well when we were are speaking into our computers hoping that we were seen and heard by everyone else somewhere down the line) we were reflecting on just what has been achieved in the first three weeks of lockdown.

None of us could have imagined a couple of months ago even the possibility of needing to run a service like this, let alone actually have got such a system up and running and working effectively and efficiently so quickly.

So, as I write this week’s newsletter, I want to not only say a huge thank you again to all of the amazing volunteers who are doing so much to help residents across the Melksham Community, but I also wanted to thank the epic team from Melksham Town Council and Melksham Without Parish Council who are staffing the phones and dealing with all of incoming queries, requests and offers of help.

None of them signed on for this, and for some I suspect it has been quite a journey going from their normal day jobs to, effectively, running a call centre.

The professionalism, the commitment and the dedication from every single member of the team has been apparent from day one, and we are so grateful to them for all that have put in so far to make this all happen.

If you speak or message them at all over the next few days, do me a favour and say thank you and well done to them – believe me they really do deserve it!

Important Reminder

It is important that we all remember to follow the Government guidance to stay safe during this crisis.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-how-to-help-safely–2/coronavirus-how-to-help-safelyAgain
If you think you, or anyone in your household, have any of the symptons of Covid-10 (Coronavirus) it is ESSENTIAL that you stop any volunteering and go into self-isolation as outline in the guidance above.
We are asking not only to protect and help you, but the majority of the people we are helping are critically at risk from the virus and must be protected.

Wow, can you people deliver!

My goodness, this week you all really stepped up to the mark when we asked for help with delivering some additional leaflets informing people about the support available.

Between you all, over 4,500 leaflets were delivered in 24 hours!

Thank you to every who helped us deliver this important message.

Are you doing a regular shop for someone?

Many of our volunteers have agreed to do regular shops for the people they are helping, for which we say a massive thank you!

However, if you do a shop for someone referred to you by the Response Hub, please remember to let us know so that we can keep our records up to date and will be able to confirm to the police you are volunteering for the hub if asked.

Can you help brighten people’s day?

Our Facebook page showing off some of the spectacular Window Rainbows across Melksham has proven to be really popular.

Can you help brighten the days of residents in the community area who can’t get out to see them all? Just take a photo of the displays in your house, and/or encourage you friends, neighbours and family to do the same – from a socially acceptable distance of course!

Melksham Community Response is a joint project being run and funded by the Melksham Area Board, Melksham Town Council, Melksham Without Parish Council and Age Friendly Melksham. We are incredibly grateful to the teams from Melksham Town Council and Melksham Without Parish Council who are working non-stop to keep the system functioning.