Southside Traveller Action Group worked with the Council on ensuring that all their community programmes were kept running and that additional physical distancing resources were provided to people in the Travelling Community in their area. Serve the City worked with dlr Volunteer Centre and assisted in providing grocery delivery to cocooners across the county, recruiting a new army of volunteers who were looking to help where they could.
Making Connections volunteer agency worked on the ground with Airfield Estate to delivery over 2,000 hot meals to those who need them, help collect pensions for those unable to leave their homes and provided a voice and an ear to people suffering from social isolation, providing information and support.
Care and Repair Service were very responsive where there were requests from cocooners for minor repairs as well as the family resource centre who continued to engage with vulnerable families in very creative ways. Southside Partnership, HSE, Order of Malta and other agencies all provided invaluable coordination and information assistance from the very start of the crisis, with unique insights that assisted the response as a whole. dlr staff also put their hands up and worked on their own time to operate alongside these volunteers in providing much needed support. Though the worst has now thankfully passed and we find ourselves more comfortable in our reopening, many of the established volunteers groups are still working with the elderly and vulnerable. Many things have changed but volunteering is still a great way to connect with one another and causes we care about.
Agencies like the dlr Volunteers Centre and their Volunteer From Home initiative and Making Connections who specialise in linking in with the elderly, continue to provide assistance in a variety of ways and if you want to help, you can contact them at www.volunteerdlr.ie and makingconnections.ie
During this unprecedented time, despite all the challenges, the volunteers, organisations, agencies and the Council have come together and ensured that those who were most vulnerable living in our communities were the ones that were protected the most. As we move through the reopening phases into brighter days we do so in the knowledge that this county’s community spirit is something to be really proud of and be reassured to know that it can be relied on even at the most challenging of times.
