Adapting to COVID and emerging new resources

I have been amazed at how everyone is adapting to the COVID-19 situation!   Our partners at the university have managed to transform all of their first year syllabus to online learning in almost no time at all, supporting the student nurses who have just started. On Monday, many of the third year students will begin their extended placements, which will mean that they will be working on the front line supporting in hospitals, instead of finishing their planned degrees. The Nursing and Midwifery Council is working to amend qualifications and criteria to ensure that nurses are both fully trained and able to work immediately.

Within the voluntary sector too –groups and organisations have adapted their programmes of work, how they operate and how they support people – all in the blink of an eye. Derbyshire Voluntary Action is working hard with partners across local authority, health and care and is stepping up to the challenge of coordinating a COVID Response Hub for Chesterfield and North East Derbyshire.   In addition, we continue to lend support to our membership by: facilitating networking, offering moral support and disseminating information.  This crisis has also lead to the forging of new relationships and collaborative working - and an enormous surge in community spirit through  people wanting to help others, whether formally or informally.

Isn’t it fantastic what we can all do when we have to?  The adaptability being demonstrated is amazing and I hope when we all get back to normal we can remember it and use it as an asset going forwards.

Here’s what we’re doing to support this fantastic effort at Community Chesterfield:

Community Chesterfield Current projects

Community Directory

We have been working closely with Derbyshire Voluntary Action to create and community & statutory partners across Chesterfield and North Derbyshire to create as comprehensive a directory as possible listing all the services available during the COVID-19 period. 

COVID-19 Support Pack

We are also aware that some of our groups, many of whom offer a hugely valuable role in people’s lives, are not confidently using emails and computers to communicate. We want to make sure that these groups feel supported at this difficult time and that the group leaders have useful information and resources to support their members. We have created a ‘Survival’ Support Pack which will be sent in the mail to some of our groups.

Community Connecting Now

We hosted some introductory Zoom sessions to discuss the current situation and to find out how organisations were coping. These were very useful to the participants and the conversations we had covered: the challenges of working from home, supporting existing volunteers, how to ensure the local COVID-19 response is joined up, and gave users the chance to use and explore Zoom as a resource.

Training for Voluntary Sector Groups

We are also moving our upcoming training online, so that groups can participate and continue to upskill throughout this period of time.

With lockdown set to continue for at least the next few weeks, we are will continue to try out new ways to support the voluntary sector and the organisations we work with.  We will keep you all updated, and always welcome comments, feedback and ideas, please do get in touch.