Our people, customers and communities have shown compassion, creativity and kindness throughout the coronavirus outbreak.
We’ve seen lots of people doing what they can to keep each other safe and well, which has been a wonderful constant in this time of change and uncertainty. There’s even been moments of joy, as people find new ways to connect, give, and have fun together.
Our report describes the ways we grew and adapted to safely meet the needs of our customers. Read the report
Our video 5 ways to work through lockdown was created with footage from our amazing keyworkers. From socially distanced exercise classes and singalongs, to organising our stocks of PPE, watch the video to see how they’ve been working:
Coronavirus in figures
From 23 March to 12 August 2020:
Our LiveWell teams worked with 3323 customers and welcomed 94 new customers to our services (of which 55 have started support with our homelessness services).
Our LiveWell at Home team made over 7000 calls to check on people’s safety and wellbeing.
Our Rotherham Dispersed Team moved 12 families (18 adults, including 4 pregnant women) into our temporary accommodation. They also moved 8 people from temporary accommodation into a permanent home.
Our social prescribing teams have helped 617 additional customers to stay well during the outbreak. This includes referrals to community mental health and adult social care services, support with prescriptions and collecting medicines, hot food deliveries, and working with people to understand government guidance around shielding.
Our volunteering team have supported a total of 101 people. 27 customers and 17 members of staff volunteered with us. We recruited new people to roles including telephone befriender, community responder, activity volunteer and peer researcher. Telephone befriending reached 52 people, with around 2080 phone calls made.
Find out more about how our volunteers have been using their talents to connect with and support people.
Creating moments of joy
Our Age Better in Sheffield team brought movement and music to residents in our extra-care housing. They worked with local musicians and artists to create safe, socially distanced performances and toe-tapping dancing sessions!
Find out more about Age Better in Sheffield’s Moments Of Joy programme
Age Better in Sheffield also created Hello Neighbour boxes. Full to the brim with activities and information on how to stay well, the free boxes were delivered throughout Sheffield to people age 50+.
And at Cuthbert Bank, our homes for families affected by homelessness, staff created activity packs for the children. They included sunflower seeds, mindfulness exercises, a simple recipe and art materials.
Capturing people’s experience of life under coronavirus
We have started a new research project to capture our customers’ and tenants’ experience of life under coronavirus. We’re really eager to hear how coronavirus has impacted you: what’s changed, what’s helped, what are your worries and concerns. The project is entirely customer led – our customers are designing the interview questions, doing the interviews with customers, and developing how we record and disseminate our findings. If you would like to get involved, either in asking the questions or in being interviewed, please get in touch.
