IN the space of a year, Melksham Community Support has helped thousands of vulnerable residents affected by the pandemic.
Set up shortly before the start of the first national lockdown, the support service has worked hard throughout the year to provide support with essential shopping, prescription deliveries, dog walking, and friendly phone calls to residents living alone. Over 500 people have offered to help the scheme over the past year and the service has answered nearly 4,000 calls to its support line.
And as the town slowly emerges from lockdown, the service – which is now managed by Age Friendly Melksham – has plans to continue its work supporting the vulnerable and isolated in the community.
Chair of Age Friendly Melksham, Jon Hubbard, said, “It’s been a remarkable year. Never did we think when three of us sat down in a room and thought, ‘we need to something to help people in our community with this,’ that we would discover such critical need and that so much work would need to be done.
“Leading the collaboration between Age Friendly Melksham, the Town Council, Melksham Without Parish Council and the Wiltshire Area Board, we got to it and created a system that meant the people most in need got immediate help when they needed it most.
“The key was the huge team of willing community volunteers who carried out all of the tasks, but of course we first had to create a team of people to manage incoming calls and allocate to volunteers.”
Teresa Strange, Melksham Without Parish Council clerk, who was handling calls from the public from the start of the pandemic, said, “At the beginning it was unrelenting, emotional, stressful; for hours, days and weeks on end; but it is also one of the most rewarding things I have done.
“I think we can genuinely say that we made a difference, and for a period ALL we did was help people.
“I am really proud of what has been achieved, with its legacy to continue to provide help to residents who do not have a support network or are socially isolated.”
Phillipa Huxtable, Age Friendly co-ordinator added, “When I joined Age Friendly in September last year, I was amazed to hear that the systems had been set up and the team of call handlers trained in such a short time. It was an incredible achievement and many of our users have said how grateful they have been for the support they have received.
“Our small team have answered the phone nearly 4,000 times over the year, to people calling for help and support and we will be here for as long as the residents of Melksham community area need us.
“A dedicated group of volunteers have continued to give their time and energy to help; as one of our volunteers said, ‘It’s rewarding and helping during the Pandemic is important.’”
This year behind the scenes, Age Friendly have been busy with other projects too.
Phillipa said, “The involvement of a small group of volunteer cooks meant we were able to provide 55 Christmas meals to people unable to be with their families at Christmas and people are still talking about how special this was to them and how much it meant to have a volunteer visit on Christmas Day.
“We’ve also set up other ways of supporting people that will be launched once lockdown is over.”
Melksham Community Support phone lines are available 24/7; you can leave a message on 01225 809265 and the team will call you back to arrange support.
Or you can request support or volunteer to help by visiting: www.melkshamcommunity.co.uk
