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.