VAST   |   Tel: 01782 683030   |   Email: sottogether@vast.org.uk

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#StokeonTrentTogether COVID-19 Support Network

Back in March 2020, the country entered its first lockdown to try and stop the spread of COVID-19. 

Social distancing, isolation, and home-schooling became the new normal, as a nation and as a community we faced some enormous challenges, and people in our local communities were struggling.

To try to ensure that support was there, for communities as well as the voluntary organisations supporting them, we teamed up with Stoke-on-Trent City Council to establish the #StokeonTrentTogether COVID-19 Support Network: a consortium of Voluntary and Community Sector organisations.

This support network was a city-wide response to support local people, aiming to ensure that everyone who needed help could receive it. It brought together volunteers, community organisations, and public sector partners to coordinate and deliver help quickly and effectively across the city.

Developed to ensure that no one in Stoke-on-Trent faced isolation or hardship alone, Stoke-on-Trent Together was developed rapidly and, the purpose-built website acted as a central hub for local community actions. The platform connected people in need with local volunteers and support services, from food deliveries and prescription collection to wellbeing support and community check-ins.

VAST worked with VCSE organisations across Stoke-on-Trent to establish the effect that the pandemic
was having on the sector both in terms of extra demand on capacity and also in lost financial resources
either from chargeable services that had to stop or from fundraising that could no longer take place. As the Local Infrastructure Organisation (LIO) in Stoke-on-Trent VAST campaigned both locally with the City Council and Nationally via NCVO, NAVCA and CFG to ensure the vital resource needed could be made available to the sector.

As the local infrastructure support organisation VAST was ideally placed to help and support the VCSE sector meet the inevitable increased demand on them once lockdown is over and our communities need to adapt to the new normal, facing whatever personal and economic hardships that may bring.

Demonstrating the strength of cross-sector partnership working and harnessing the goodwill of hundreds of local volunteers and VCSE organisations, Stoke-on-Trent Together helped lay the groundwork for more coordinated, community-led responses in the future.

The partnership went from strength to strength and has now evolved into a way of working together to best support and empower communities for the long-term, eventually leading to the Stoke-on-Trent VCSE City Alliance.

How did it go?

The infographics below show the key activity figures for the first three and six months of the COVID-19 Support Network in Stoke-on-Trent. The numbers show the huge requirement for support in the first lockdown of the UK’s response to the pandemic and how that need began to decline following people returning to work and the reopening of the services that had been forced to close.

Find out what Cllr Abby Brown, then leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said about it here.

Infographic titled “3 months of Stoke-on-Trent COVID-19 Support Network”. It presents key activity figures from the first three months of the pandemic response. 753 individuals and 175 organisations offered support. 326 news stories were shared, including updates, volunteering opportunities and organisational support. There were 3,332 requests for help, including 1,513 for food and shopping, 2,295 for prescription collection, and 169 for gas and electricity. 22,354 people visited the website. The helpline answered 9,696 calls, and 76,467 welfare calls were made to residents. 4,442 food parcels were delivered and 213 volunteers were placed with local organisations. Logos of partner organisations are shown at the bottom, including VAST, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Unitas, and the Community Foundation for Staffordshire.

In the first three months:

  • 753 individuals and 175 organisations offered support.
  • 326 news stories were shared, including updates, volunteering opportunities, and organisational support.

There were 3,332 requests for help, including:

  • 1,513 for food and shopping,
  • 2,295 for prescription collection, and
  • 169 for gas and electricity.

Other figures included:

  • 22,354 people visited the website.
  • The helpline answered 9,696 calls,
  • 76,467 welfare calls were made to residents,
  • 4,442 food parcels were delivered, and
  • 213 volunteers were placed with local organisations.

By month six as things were continuing to improve:

  • 760 individuals offered to help, 
  • 176 organisations offered their support, and
  • 26,250 people visited the #StokeonTrentTogether website.

There were 3,694 requests for help, including:

  • 1,610 for food and shopping,
  • 2,552 for prescription collection, and
  • 179 for gas and electricity.

Other figures included:

  • The helpline answered 10,757 calls,
  • 4,744 food parcels were delivered, and
  • 236 volunteers were placed with local organisations
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