Chorlton Voice Bulletin April (1) April 3^rd 2020

Here is some more information for you that you may not be getting from elsewhere. Please do pass on to others.

We hope you are still keeping well and keeping talking, one way or another!

Carolyn, Chair@chorltonvoice.org  0161 881 6887

Listen to the birds sing

Have you noticed how many more birds you can hear, now that vehicular traffic is less? I heard a radio programme that suggested that some of the birds that keep away from us in urban areas may come nearer now everything is quieter. Great!

Manchester Libraries

Manchester Libraries have a new newsletter, to be found at https://manclibraries.blog/2020/04/03/new-format-library-newsletter/ . In the current edition there is information about ebooks, virtual reading groups, learning new computer skills, free digital newspapers and magazines and more.

They also remind us that the National Theatre is having weekly streaming of performances – go to https://tinyurl.com/rh9pmce . They also have other performances that can be viewed for free.

On the matter of all things audio, BBC Sounds has podcasts of readings, including the latest Hilary Mantel book – to be found at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m000gbff

Manchester Support Line: 0800 234 6123

If you are over 70 and self isolating with  little support, then the Manchester Support Hub should be able to help. Primary needs that call handlers can help with are:

• Delivery of food
• Delivery of medication
• Combating loneliness
• Managing fuel top-up payments

The Hub’s freephone number is: 0800 234 6123 and lines are open Monday to Saturday, between 8.30am and 5.30pm. The helpline is being operated by redeployed Manchester City Council staff.

What if you become vulnerable or know of people who are?

If you have concerns that someone may be vulnerable, or could potentially become vulnerable in the weeks ahead due to having limited connections/family support, please contact the Care Navigator Service and /or Be Well:

• Care Navigator Service – Tel: 0300 303 9650 or email carenavigators@nhs.net
• Be Well – 0161 470 7120

Notices from the Chorlton Park Councillors – Mandie, Joanna and Dave

Getting Up to date Information

To keep in touch with local developments we really do recommend that you sign up to regular email updates from the council. Just copy and paste  the link below into google. Please do share what you learn with friends and neighbours who aren’t on social media.

https://secure.manchester.gov.uk/info/500286/health_protection/7903/wuhan_novel_coronavirus_-_public_health_england_information

This way you will have the best up to date useful and helpful information –  about the virus; help to manage your mental health whilst staying home; how and where to volunteer; and how to get support if you yourself are vulnerable – right down to the all-important bin collections.

 Bins

And on that one – hope fully you will already have seen that next week, for one week only (starting Monday 6 April), in response to feedback from councillors and residents, there will be one final green bin collection. Put out your green bin instead of your brown. After that the green bin collection will be suspended, so please put your food waste in your compost bin or grey bin if necessary. This is so that that the essential grey bin collections can continue for everyone, at a time of inevitably high levels of sickness and self- isolation in the BIFFA teams.

We are still here for you…

As your councillors we, too, of course, are staying at home. You may not see us, but we are still here for you. So if you have any particular queries or worries or concerns about local issues, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by email or phone – we are regularly checking in.

Our contact details are:

Mandie Shilton Godwin 07834 869204 cllr.m.shiltongodwin@manchester.gov.uk

Dave Rawson 07904947851 cllr.d.rawson@manchester.gov.uk

Joanna Midgley 07795 635059 cllr.j.midgley@manchester.gov.uk

Please stay safe and look after yourselves and your families

Interested in Volunteering?

MACC are looking for people to register their interest in becoming a volunteer:

https://www.manchestercommunitycentral.org/covid-19-community-volunteering-0

If you are a group / organisation and require would benefit from the help of to support your work, you can log the support you need here: https://www.manchestercommunitycentral.org/coronavirus-advice-and-resources/covid-19-support-voluntary-sector-organisations.

Your needs will matched to those people who have signed up to volunteer.

Volunteering in Hospitals

The Hospitals have also put out a call for volunteers to do all sorts of things, including administrative support, ward support: comforting patients, re-stocking shelves, helping with mealtimes, brewing up for clinical teams; pharmacy support with collections.

If you are, or know of anyone in good health, aged 18-69 who would like to volunteers, ask them to contact volunteer.services@mft.nhs.uk  or email to volunteer.services@mft.nhs.uk

Not just clapping but singing for the NHS

Thursdays at 8pm people across Chorlton and further afield have been clapping from their windows, balconies or gateposts for NHS and care staff. This week singing was added, and in some parts of Chorlton renditions of the Beatles’ song ‘I’ll get by with a little help from my friends’ could be heard.

Next week? Who knows, but keep your eye on the Chorlton corona virus facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/chorltoncovidresponse/ . On this site you can find your nearest Street connector – if you haven’t already, do make contact with them. Or if there is not one near you, why not start a street group?

So – Keep talking, especially to anyone you know who doesn’t have many people to talk to. And we hope you all keep safe and well and manage to get some of the weekend’s sunshine.

Chorlton Voice Committee.

c/o chair@chorltonvoice.org

Chorlton Voice Bulletin. March 2020

 Keep talking!

The impact of the Coronavirus is escalating, and more and more of us are staying at home. We hope you are well and continue to be so – don’t forget, if you are staying in, to try and keep talking in some form or another.

Across Chorlton there are street level groups offering help and support. You may have already been contacted, but if not, and you are a Facebook user, you can find information and contacts for a group near you at

https://www.facebook.com/groups/chorltoncovidresponse/

Or there is an interactive map created by former Secretary of CV, Phil Robinson with the details on at

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1eT4QleVSGHlnM1XqOFiDHXwwYXq7TwzX&ll=53.44705623490322%2C-2.2807835484608745&z=16

If you are not a Facebook user, contact us and we may be able to put you in touch with a ‘street connector’ near you.

We don’t know how long this will all go on, but if other countries are anything to go by it may be several months. Chorlton Voice has always been a friendly, supportive group and even if members don’t know each other very well, we still support each other. There is enormous strength in ‘weak ties’, not just in close friendships or family.

Some members may be confused about what we are being told or may begin to feel lonely as  confinement to our homes continues.

We know that there are lots of people offering help (us included), but we also know that it is much, much harder to ask for help.  PLEASE ASK!

Please do get in touch if you would like a regular email or telephone conversation with a Chorlton Voice member, or need some kind of assistance.  In times of isolation we do need to keep talking somehow.

We know it is hard, but PLEASE ASK.

Contact Carolyn on chair@chorltonvoice.org or 0161 881 6887

Cath Brownhill : catherine.brownhill@ntlworld.com 07722958541 or 0161 881 1941

Mary McGovern: mmcgovern1@sky.com  077911 78011

Frontline workers

If you are a health worker, or care worker, and feeling overwhelmed by your daily experiences or the expectations laid upon you, and would like a friendly ear to listen, then please contact us. Contact Carolyn on chair@chorltonvoice.org or 0161 881 6887

Volunteering

MANCHESTER SOCIAL SUPPORT VOLUNTEERING

There’s now a scaled-up central system for volunteering to help in Manchester during the corona crisis, which will sit alongside street support groups (many people may be in both)*.This is being coordinated by Manchester Community Central (Macc) who will match people up with needs in support services across the city.

👉Go here if you wish to volunteer your services

👉Go here if your organisation wants to request help.

If you volunteer you will be asked a series of questions  including whether you have an up to date security check (known as a DBS check).

‘The team are working with community groups to assess what their needs are, in order to direct appropriate volunteers into roles where the need is greatest’.

Events and Cancellation of Meetings

Along with everyone else we have cancelled forthcoming meetings and activities:

·       The April Bring and Share Social is cancelled, and so is the May meeting (due on 12^th May). We may have to cancel the July meeting too, but will let you know at a later date.

·       We have cancelled this year’s Arts Festival and will plan for next year’s  from 15-23^rd May. We are looking into the possibility of putting on a virtual Arts Festival.

·       CPR training will be postponed.

·       The Exhibition that the Chorlton and Whalley Range Dementia Action Group was planning in the Library has been postponed.

·       The Chorlton Alliance meetings have been postponed.

·       The Chorlton Park Climate Action meeting on 26^th March has been cancelled

·       The Chorlton Climate Action bid to the Lottery is still in progress, contact Claire.stocks@gmail.com if you would like to be actively involved in the bid preparation

·       The meeting of the South Manchester civic Societies and the AGM of the NW Associaiton of Civic Trust and Societies have all been postponed.

·       All our planned visits are off for the moment.

Planning

We will continue to look at planning applications lest some unscrupulous folk try to slip in unacceptable plans during the crisis. The Committee will be meeting via video conference, rather than face to face.

We will probably issue more bulletins than usual and hope this is OK with you. In the meantime we are in regular contact with our members who do not use email.

Library: message from Manchester Libraries

Don’t have a Manchester Libraries card but want to borrow our ebooks? You can now sign up to borrowbox without needing to visit the library – just register on the link below and use the number you are given when opening up their site.

https://manchester.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/wPAC/JOIN

Please get in touch if you would anything from, or to contribute to Chorlton Voice.

In solidarity with you all at this difficult time,

The Chorlton Voice Committee.

If you or anyone you know needs help in any way and cannot find it, contact us and we may be able to help directly or point you inthe right direction. Chair@chorltonvoice.org or 0161 811 6887

There are a number of street-level groups offering support to anyone who needs it. to find one near you go to https://www.facebook.com/notes/chorlton-coronavirus-community-response/

In addition the NHS has a volunteer scheme and manchester has its own similar scheme. Here you can sign up to volunteer for differnt roles and also if your group or poganisation needs help it can ask via the Manchester scheme.

NHS VOLUNTEER RESPONDERS

This national scheme has launched to support the NHS during Covid-19 outbreak.

You can sign up for one or more of tasks listed below (170,000 signed up in the first 24 hrs).

Once you’ve registered and checks are complete you will be provided a log-in to an app, you switch it to ‘on duty’, and you’ll see live and local volunteer tasks to pick from nearby.

We need an ‘army’ of volunteers who can support the 1.5m people in England who are at most risk from the virus. Our doctors, nurses and other professionals will be able to refer people and be confident they’re matched with a reliable, named volunteer.

Types of roles

Community Response volunteer: collecting shopping, medication or other essential supplies for someone who is self-isolating, and delivering these supplies to their home.

Patient Transport volunteer: providing transport to patients who are medically fit for discharge, and ensuring that they are settled safely back in to their home.

NHS Transport volunteer: transporting equipment, supplies and/or medication between NHS services and sites, it may also involve assisting pharmacies with medication delivery.

Check-in and Chat volunteer: short-term telephone support to individuals who are at risk of loneliness as a consequence of self-isolation.

MANCHESTER SOCIAL SUPPORT VOLUNTEERING

There’s now a scaled-up central system for volunteering to help in Manchester during the corona crisis, which will sit alongside street support groups (many people may be in both)*.

This is being coordinated by Manchester Community Central (Macc) who will match people up with needs in support services across the city.

👉Go here if you wish to volunteer your services

👉Go here if your organisation wants to request help.

If you volunteer you will be asked a series of questions  including whether you have an up to date security check (known as a DBS check).

‘The team are working with community groups to assess what their needs are, in order to direct appropriate volunteers into roles where the need is greatest’.

(* NB: we’ve been advised that grassroots mutual aid being facilitated through Facebook groups / Community Connector street groups is seen as complementing formal volunteering – and different approaches all work well together to ensure no-one falls through the cracks.)

Learn all about the Chorlton Arts Project at www.chorltonarts.org

Or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/chorltonarts/

Or Twitter at @chorltonarts