It’s been almost a week since we took the difficult decision to close our services due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We want to keep you updated with what we’ve been doing, and will continue to do, to support our community through these uncertain times. 

We’ll start though with a request – please, please follow the guidelines for social distancing currently recommended by the government and council.  It might seem too much, it might seem hard with the sunshine out. It’s important we all change our behaviours now though to help everyone in our community.

We have been talking and listening to as many of you as we can to find out how we best support you over the coming weeks. We are hearing concerns, and a need for clarity, around care for older people, the impact isolation will have on people and ability to access things like food and medicines. 

We are responding to these concerns in the following ways:

• We are working with Camden Council and local care providers to ensure that all older people accessing our day centre at Millman Street are safe and supported in their homes. 
• We have moved our befriending service to a telephone service, and have expanded our calls to a larger number of older people, as well as adults and young people that are particularly vulnerable. 
• We are forming plans to utilise the fantastic community spirit and huge number of local people willing to volunteer to deliver food and supplies to vulnerable people within the community. 
• From today we will be sharing daily creative challenges through local Whatsapp groups and our social media to keep everyone thinking and connecting in a positive way from home.
• We will be posting all the latest information on support available for members of the community on our website and social media

Alongside this response we have been working to ensure that we are able to try and bring some of our usual activities to you, albeit in a slightly different way. From next Monday, 30th March, we will be publishing a new temporary events calendar, which will include creative writing for older people, digital storytelling for adults, online masterclasses for adult carers, social media story chain and rhyme time for under 5’s, and daily creative challenges.

Volunteering

We are hearing from a number of you who understandably want to help to support your community in any way you can. We are asking anyone who would like to volunteer to sign up here: https://help.timetospare.com/camden

This database of local volunteers will allow us to best match people in need with those who can help, when the time comes that more support is needed. 

We want to thank you all again for your support, patience and understanding over the last week.

Paul and the team at HCA