Together Co is working hard to respond to the challenges Covid-19 places on our community. Our volunteers and our staff are fully trained in supporting isolated people in our city. Many in our befriending community are older and/or have health issues that could leave them feeling worried.

We are striving to find the best ways to support our members, while keeping them, and our volunteers, as safe as possible. We are writing to, and calling, our 1000+ members to ask them what they might need help with over the forthcoming months, including dropping off food and medication and help with setting up technology that might help them stay in touch, such as WhatsApp or Skype. We are also looking at how we might fast track checking and referencing on new volunteers who might want to help.

In light of government advice, we have asked all our befriending volunteers to switch to regular phone befriending, rather than face to face visits. Some are also doing small tasks such as dropping off shopping. We are looking at how we can grow this response safely and responsibly over the next few weeks, with our partner organisations.

We have also moved to phone only appointments for both Together Co Social Prescribing and Together Co Befriending volunteer appointments. Staff will be in contact with those who have face to face meetings in place to advise them on this.

We are still processing new volunteers and welcome people to sign up. Please bear with us, as our services are in high demand and we may be understaffed at points. www.togetherco.org.uk/volunteer

For the latest advice on Covid-19 please see www.gov.uk/coronavirus

This post was originally published on 16/03/2020 and was updated with new information on 18/03/2020.