To all the volunteers and Good Neighbour Scheme supporters
To all the volunteers and Good Neighbour Scheme supporters,
On behalf of the local authority, I am writing to you once again to thank you and all your volunteers for your support to our community. During what has been, and will continue to be, a very challenging time, it has been so uplifting to see how local residents and volunteers have joined together, and made a significant and meaningful difference to the experience of our elderly, vulnerable and less able in our local communities. We are immensely proud and grateful to you all.
We recognise that your local support arrangements may now be changing i.e. some volunteers have or may be returning to work, demand for community support may have eased off a little, previously established groups may be trying to return to more of their core work, or if people have volunteered for the first time they may wish to continue. With this in mind, I am also getting in touch to set out the range of support, including financial support that is available to voluntary groups and volunteers:
There are a number of support options available to both established groups, and those wishing to establish a new group, or individuals wanting to continue to volunteer within the Borough:
- Register with the Hinckley and Bosworth Voluntary & Community Sector Partnership – full details are set out in the attached leaflet, but essentially by registering you will:
- Have access to local funding opportunities, including a Volunteers Fund of up to £250 a straight forward and concise application process to support community activities – you do not even have to be a constituted group. These details are also attached
- Find out about volunteering opportunities within the borough, as well as being able to promote your group and recruit volunteers
- Have access to the regular VCS Learning Forums
Contact Next Generation at: VCSINFO@nxt-gen.org.uk or telephone on 01455 632984
- Setting up a Good Neighbour Scheme – YOU have already done this, and made a great success of it too!
The Rural Community Council (RCC) can offer initial advice for those communities in Hinckley & Bosworth wishing to explore the idea of establishing a more permanent community scheme to deal with the ongoing support needs relating to Covid-19 and beyond, such as a Good Neighbour Scheme. For further information please contact John Preston, on 01455 856317 or by e.mail jpreston@rural.org.uk
- Hinckley and Bosworth Befriending and Fitness Friends Service
In response to the Covid19 pandemic the Borough Council in conjunction with our partners set up a specific borough wide Befriending Service offering a regular phone call to those who were self isolating/vulnerable, and more recently a Fitness Friends Scheme where a volunteer will offer to take a short walk with someone to help them regain their confidence outdoors and get some gentle exercise. These schemes will continue to operate going forward.
You can refer someone for this support, or they can self refer by contacting the Borough Council on 01455 238141. If you would like to register to volunteer for one or both of these schemes contact Next Generation – details above, or visit the website at www.nextgenhinckley.org
We hope that you find this information helpful, and please feel free to share this with other groups and individuals within your neighbourhood, who may also be interested.
Thank you once again, and we wish you well with any of your future support work. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any queries.
Kind Regards
Tracy O’Grady
Community Planning Officer