Throughout the period of the Coronavirus crisis News OnTheWight has heard heart-warming stories of people and organisations around the Isle of Wight coming together to help each other.
One of those is the West Wight Hub.
When it became clear the level and size of the impact of Coronavirus, those at the West Wight Sports and Community Centre did an amazing job of refocusing their time and attention.
News OnTheWight caught up with Clare Griffin today to find out more detail. She really summed up how good things are happening in and around the West of the Wight community, “We’re going to come out of this even stronger than we were before”.
Lots of people being helped – and helping
The set of figures are really impressive and tell a clear story of how many people have been helped – and quite how many are helping:
- 489 people have asked for help
- 314 people have volunteered to help and support
- 392 people have been assisted with prescriptions
- 32 people are receiving hot food deliveries
On top of all of this, the community around the West Wight have made 200 sets of scrubs and face masks, plus 160 wash-bags have been made for local Care Homes.
Strengthening the community
Clare told News OnTheWight that she was looking for a positive from the situation – “From all bad things, good things come” – and one of those was connected to the already-strong community around the West.
By way of illustration: From the outset, the West Wight Hub paired the volunteers with individuals who were requesting help – that way, even beyond the time of Covid-19, those relationships will remain strong.
“The volunteers aren’t just the sort of people to drop those people once it’s all over – We’ve set people up to continue supporting each other.”
Of course, being positive in nature, West Wight Sports Centre are keeping one eye on what will happen after this current period of lockdown.
With such a strong growth of volunteers in the area, Clare says they’ll be able to expand how they can help the community once things start moving to a more normal basis.
Their “Our place” sessions, the drop-in cafe, is a good example.
“We’ll almost certainly be able to run that more often than once a week as it was pre-C19.
“We’ve got more volunteers on the team now and we’ve made contact with more vulnerable people.”
Can you support them?
It’s clear that everyone at the West Wight Hub are doing all they can to help the community.
If you are able, please actively consider supporting the West Wight Sports and Community Centre fundraiser, which continues.
