Mobilising Croydon Volunteers
I know there is deep concern across our community about the spread of coronavirus, but that there are also many people asking how they can help. This is not a time to panic, but a time to prepare.
In my last email I sent a request for volunteers to help across our community over the coming weeks. I’m delighted that over 1,000 of you signed up to volunteer, and received my first COVID-19 Community Mobilisation Newsletter.
You can read the first newsletter here – this will be a weekly email every Thursday which will act as a signposting service for activity happening across the Croydon community, in support of those most affected by the disruption and social distancing measures.
I am liaising closely with Croydon Council and Croydon Voluntary Action who are putting in place a borough-wide system for coordinating volunteers and will be sharing more information on this in the next email update.
You may have also noticed the growing presence of the ‘Covid-19 Mutual Aid’ groups across the constituency, set up to help those who are most vulnerable and unable to leave their house at all at this time.
There are a number of hyper-local groups being formed under the banner of Croydon Covid-19 Mutual Aid. The group now has around 3,000 members across Croydon now, and it has been heartening to see just how much these difficult times have brought out such community spirit. I will be working closely with this group over the coming weeks.
Croydon’s foodbanks are urgently in need of food donations right now due to a combination of increased demand and insufficient donations. Some people have kindly donated money directly to the food banks, however this is proving difficult for the foodbanks to use due to the new supermarket restrictions in place on bulk buying.
