Hope awarded funding to support the clinically vulnerable
The Hope Street Trust is delighted to have been awarded funding of £4990.82 from North East Lincolnshire Council’s Clinically Vulnerable Grant Scheme, which has been provided through the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG).
The objective of the Clinically Vulnerable Grant Scheme is to provide support to those with specific medical conditions which have made them particularly vulnerable to being seriously ill if they contract Covid-19. With lockdown measures easing, North East Lincolnshire Council offered the funding to local voluntary and community groups for projects to help these residents and other vulnerable members of our community with the transition and better equip them if shielding / lockdown is required again at some point in the future. The three key outcomes of the funding are that vulnerable residents:
Feel better able to cope with any future restrictions on movement and socialising.
Feel able to start to re-integrate into the community.
Have the digital capacity and capability to help them access support and social opportunities for the future.
During the Pandemic, the Hope Specialist Falls and Respiratory Service began delivering its rehabilitation programmes online, whilst the Hope Street Trust ran social and exercise groups via Zoom. Initially a stopgap to give vulnerable and isolated patients and volunteers some access to exercise and activities to prevent deterioration in their mental and physical health and wellbeing, our online provision proved so successful that we plan to continue delivering it alongside our face-to-face activities when they resume.
The funding will be used to purchase laptops, tablets, Facebook Portal and mobile wi-fi devices, as well as arts and crafts supplies, cameras and editing software and subscriptions to family history sites. With all this equipment, we will be able to deliver face to face and online activities simultaneously, so that participants at home can interact with those on site and feel fully engaged. In addition to expanding existing online activities (rehabilitation groups, community exercise classes, Hope Social and arts and crafts), we also wish to develop new activities, such as a local history group, photography club and Long COVID support platform.
Thank you to North East Lincolnshire Council and to Gaynor Rogers for making us aware of the funding.