Category: Coronavirus (Covid-19)

Supporting young learners and their families through a partnership of local organisations

Young people and their families have been affected heavily during the coronavirus outbreak and in its aftermath – with many families juggling home school, working from home, stresses of everyday life amplified by the health, job and finances worries. Those living in areas of low income have been affected particularly hard.

3VA is working with six local organisations and number of schools in Eastbourne, Lewes and Wealden to deliver emergency support in June and July. This programme is funded by the Office for Students through the Sussex Learning Network as part of the Uni Connect programme.

Our partner, Tubbs Computer Supplies, provided 36 refurbished computers to families in Shinewater and Willingdon Trees in Eastbourne in a space of just over 4 weeks. Machines which otherwise would go to landfill have been refurbished and delivered to families who don’t have suitable IT to help their kids access online learning and resources.

Towner and CraftyAnnies made nearly 300 activity learning packs for young people distributed across Eastbourne and Seaford and across Wealden District with the help of amazing local volunteers. Packs provided an attractive alternative – something to break the boredom and engage with quality educational content away from the formal school’s resources, helping young learners stay motivated.

Holding Space in Eastbourne is offering free support to parents and children and young people who struggle with mental health and wellbeing as a result of all the challenges related to

the coronavirus outbreak, helping everyone cope with the situation and supporting children’s learning and development. Four families are already receiving professional help.

3VA is proud to have brokered this partnership of amazing local organisations and to have helped secure almost £25,000 of funding to deliver the work this summer.

7 July 2020
Recovery & Rejuvenation Recap

Thank you to all Eastbourne groups who attended our first large event on Zoom!

Recovery & Rejuvenation. What are the challenges and opportunities for local charities and voluntary and community sector in Eastbourne post Covid-19 brought together 53 attendees. Most of these were from the local voluntary & community sector, including many of the smaller organisations. We were joined by Caroline Ansell, MP for Eastbourne & Willingdon, and representatives from Eastbourne Borough Council, health, business and elsewhere – a good mixed group with the focus on community responses and hopes for the future.

Faiza Shafeek representing local event company and Rotary Club said:

“Really enjoyed the Recovery and Rejuvenation Event Zoom meeting. Bravo. It was very well run and covered some really important post C-19 recovery issues.”

Adam Chugg, 3VA CEO, chaired the event. He opened the event saying:

“As we all know, there has been an amazing local response to this national emergency, and small local grassroots groups have led the way. Three months in, and with the initial emergency phase coming to an end, it’s a great time to reflect on what has been achieved, what we learn from this, and consider how we move forward.”

The message from four speakers focused on local business, the economy returning and reviving and the people of Eastbourne showing a strong local sense of community. Key areas for the recovery phase include continuing mental health support, encouraging people to use existing support and growing more, tackling the rise of loneliness and overcoming digital exclusion. Building on local social capital to create local digital connectivity to support and enable our communities has been a common theme.

A small group discussion explored what do we as a sector want to keep doing because it’s been working well and any new ideas that will help when it comes to rebuilding. Key issues included:

Supporting rise in digital, both for the organisations and the service users & residents
Training in safeguarding, especially in the new ways we deliver services and for organisations returning to providing some services and opening facilities has been requested.
Developing joint understanding and responses to ways in which BAME communities are affected by the outbreak and its fallout.
Many attendees expressed how blown away they were with the level of joint working shown during the crises. There has been a strong message coming saying keep collaboration going, create spaces to make it happen.

Notes and videos from the event will be available on this page shortly.

6 July 2020
Covid-19 Update 3: a message from our CEO

When the Covid-19 crisis began, and as the government announced lock down, 3VA issued a statement detailing how we were responding to the national emergency. We are now updating this statement to reflect the actions necessary as lock down relaxes and the next stage of the response gets underway and as our role, priorities and commitments evolve.

Meeting emerging social needs

We are reaching out to our local voluntary sector in Eastbourne, Lewes and Wealden that is responding to social needs and, especially, likely to see demand increase or at the very least remain high over the weeks ahead. This includes groups supporting people with disabilities, young people, BAME communities, victims of domestic abuse, those who are digitally excluded and older people. We want to maximise the capacity of these groups to meet the demands to come.

Capturing what is going on

Alongside this, we are also gathering intelligence from grassroots groups on what is happening on the ground to inform how stakeholders best respond to meet the challenges ahead and to inform how we can best support our local sector.

Supporting for a return to activity

As lockdown is relaxed, community groups have to decide whether to reopen facilities, explore if they can restart commercial activities, identify how best to support their clients and maximise resources when many of the ways they generate income remain impacted. We are working to support these decisions by, for example, updating the comprehensive Covid-19 information sections on our website, highlighting support and useful resources in our weekly e-Newsletter and convening online training or network meetings on key issues.

Planning for the way ahead

We are continuing to support grassroots groups online via Zoom, WhatsApp and one-to-one support. We are also hosting and convening opportunities for sector groups to discuss plans for the future, both together and with other stakeholders.

Maximising the voice of the sector

Our local sector led the way in responding to this national emergency, so it’s vital it is involved in – and listened to – in planning for the future. We are doing all we can to get the voluntary & communities organisations and social enterprises involved in decision-making processes and also to express the voice of our sector ourselves.

Maintaining Covid-19 readiness

Finally, having played a key role in the emergency response, we of course remain prepared to respond to any spikes or re-emergence of the infection, should this be the case.

Our sector continues to play a vital part in responding to, and re-building from, this global pandemic and 3VA will do all we can to maximise the part they can play.

30 June 2020
Covid-19 update 2: a message from our CEO

It cannot be said too many times just how amazing the responses are that 3VA and seeing and working with in our local area. So many have stepped up to volunteer and so many voluntary groups, both old and new, are doing so much to support those around them or particular people or communities of greatest concern to them. It’s fantastic!

At 3VA, we are doing all we can to support this effort – including the comprehensive Covid-19 information on our website, the expert support of our team, the weekly Zoom meetings we are hosting for local groups and the register of new volunteers who can add to the effort where needed. Please do draw on these resources or come to us if you need any help on finding out what is going on, how to help safely, where to get additional funds if you need them, or to help with planning for what is still to come.

I am pleased to announce that we have, this week, made some important additions to our 3VA team supporting you. Three temporary community development officers – one for each of the areas of East Sussex that we serve – will all be adding their knowledge, skills and energy to our work with our local VCSE. In particular, we are very conscious that many social needs within our community are rising and will continue to rise as the effects of Covid-19 and lockdown are felt. If you are part of a group meeting some of these needs – such as vulnerable children and families, people with disabilities, mental health, domestic violence, digital exclusion, social isolation, those economically impacted – we would love to hear from you about how it is going and if we, or others can provide any support at this time. Please email info@3va.org.uk and we will get back to you.

4 May 2020
Covid-19 update 1: a message from our CEO
There continues to be an amazing response to the Covid-19 crisis across communities throughout Eastbourne, Wealden and Lewes District. 3VA is connected to many of the groups responding, but if we have not connected with you…tell us. We’d like as many local groups as possible to be part of the networks of Covid-19 groups that 3VA is supporting and connecting with via WhatsApp and Zoom meetings and offering specific support where needed.

We also want support for these terrific supporters. Whether you are a business with resources or volunteers to offer or an advice or counselling service that can offer call backs to those who are volunteering on the front line, we would love to hear from you.

Since March, we have been doing all of the following:
- Sharing what we know of community responses via our website and social media.
- Making sure NHS/Government advice to everyone on staying safe and minimising risk of infection was on our website, which has acted as a one-stop shop and source of trusted information for our local sector.
- Offering advice to any groups responding and to individuals who want to volunteer – people stepping forward to volunteer have been connected to local community responses, from delivering hot food to making masks.
- Compiling a wide range of resources to help VCSE organisations, including funding opportunities.
- Reaching out to new groups that are springing up and offering support.
- Putting up on our website our expert advice/resources/materials about volunteering for groups and for individual volunteers. We have backed this up with online safeguarding training, and a volunteering forum on zoom.
- Finding out how people are responding through surveys with small groups and larger organisations and through our own local intelligence. This has included capturing the responses of the local VCSE and also encouraging groups top complete the Sussex Community Foundation survey.
- Connecting people together including new responders and existing sources of support in the community, through regular zoom meetings, whats app groups and enabled peer conversations.
- Enabling peer support and connections between voluntary sector leaders responding to the crisis.
- Working with partner organisations from all sectors on the most effective responses to this crisis, including playing a pivotal role in the successful implementation of community hubs in Eastbourne, Wealden and Lewes.
New sources of funding, such as the Sussex Crisis Fund, are available for voluntary groups responding to Covid-19. More information about these is on the coronavirus response funding page of the 3VA website – and, if you need help with applications, ask us!
29 April 2020