Dear Colleagues,

This is a special Covid-19 bulletin to tell you what we are doing here at THCVS and the ways we are organising to help you manage and sustain your services and organisations through this pandemic.

Our working arrangements

We have closed our office and the team are all working remotely.  Our voicemail system does not work remotely so our main point of contact is initially by email, either to info@thcvs.org.uk or direct to the person you want to contact.

Emails to info@thcvs.org.uk are monitored daily and we will get back to you on the day or within 2 working days at the latest.

For now, our priority is to support groups and organisations with adjusting to the Covid-19 situation.  We will resume general one to one support from Monday the 6th of April.   

We have also had to cancel all our training, networking and forum events for the next 2 months and possibly 3.  If you are booked on an event, we will be contacting you shortly, if we haven’t already done so.

And we are suspending our fortnightly – General and Health and Wellbeing bulletins.  We have however set up a new Covid-19 page on our website where we will be posting briefings, news updates and a range of resources and guidance to support your organisation in the coming months. 

Volunteering support

During this period of adjusting to the Covid-19 situation, our key priority it to ensure that there is support in place for the most vulnerable Tower Hamlets residents.   We are therefore working with the Tower Hamlets Volunteer Centre (VCTH) to co-ordinate the local volunteering hub which will link volunteers with volunteering opportunities.  

If you need volunteers to help you keep services open – especially where you are having to change the way you deliver your activities, please complete this survey.

We are co-ordinating responses to the survey with the Volunteer Centre, so you will be contacted either by the Volunteer Centre or THCVS.

Supporting your organisation – Our Covid-19 Web Page

We have created a new website page to collate and develop a comprehensive set of resources to help you navigate the breadth of information and offers of help that are being generated from a range of agencies.  The page will be updated on an almost daily basis from a small range of reliable resources with information organised in easy to navigate sections that are relevant to the main activities needed to sustain your services and organisations.  

Two things we would urge you to bear in mind with managing your response to this Pandemic.

Firstly, the restrictions on movement are likely to endure for 12 weeks, so you need to plan how you will manage your current arrangements for at least that long.  One way to think about any changes you are planning is as though you are preparing for a marathon, not a sprint!  And to bear in mind that what you need now, may change as the weeks go by. 

The second thing to bear in mind, is that the situation we are all dealing with is unique and has not happened before in our lifetimes.  So, whatever guidance is being issued, it may not pick up on all the issues you need to manage or the support your team or service users need.       

On our Covid-19 page, you will shortly be publishing a survey for you to tell us about any changes you are making and the challenges that you need support with to keep your activities and services running and to sustain your organisation.  We will use your responses to do 4 things –

-Develop a map of what VCS services are available where, when and for who

-Research and pull together resources that will help you address the challenges you are dealing with to keep services open  

-Share our experiences and possible solutions with each other through a FAQ that we are developing for our site   

-Advocate on your behalf with local, London wide and National Governments and Support agencies where the problem can’t be resolved through existing resources and guidance   

Visit our Covid-19 page here and if you can’t find what you need or would like further information or just want to give feedback on the site or anything in this email please email us at info@thcvs.org.uk

Stay safe

The THCVS team  

The NHS advice to individuals is:

You must stay at home if you have either:

-a high temperature – you feel hot to touch on your chest or back
-a new, continuous cough – this means you've started coughing repeatedly

Do not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital.

You do not need to contact 111 to tell them you're staying at home.

Testing for coronavirus is not needed if you're staying at home.

How long to stay at home?

- If you have symptoms, stay at home for 7 days
- If you live with other people, they should stay at home for 14 days from the day the first -person got symptoms
- If you live with someone who is 70 or over, has a long-term condition, is pregnant or has a weakened immune system, try to find somewhere else for them to stay for 14 days. If you have to stay at home together, try to keep away from each other as much as possible.

You can read more about this on the NHS website

The Volunteer Centre Tower Hamlets are recruiting volunteers to help local residents through the Coronavirus COVID-19 emergency. After the application the VCTH will put you in touch with organisations providing services to local residents. A variety of roles are available and more will become available during the crisis.