Semington, Little Marsh and Littleton Support Group (updated)
Update from the Semington, Little Marsh and Littleton Support Group:
Hi everyone,
There are a few sections below, please take time to read through, maybe over a beverage enjoying the sunshine 😀
How Semington, Little Marsh and Littleton support group came about
First of all we want to let you know that the community effort currently happening is from two initiatives that very early on thankfully merged. So the A4 Ask Me Flyer and the “Here to help!” leaflet with your road team leader details on which Vicky and Laura initiated are all connected, all genuine and will ensure that everyone gets the support they need. The only reason for the two deliveries is that I had lined up the parish magazine deliverers with the help of Julia Wade to do a drop over the weekend. We didn’t quite have all our “Here to Help!” leaflets ready and our road team leads weren’t quite all in place. We also didn’t know how long we would be able to continue leafleting so as the Ask Me flyers were ready they were distributed.
If you want more detail about Ask Me’s support to this community effort there is more info at the end of this statement.
How the network can support the community
So, we are all working together. If someone contacts Ask Me that needs help, if it is prescriptions/food/contact, it is passed straight on to the road lead who will coordinate help. If it is something such as collecting sheep feed that may require larger transport than the car ,then Nick Farley, a self employed locksmith and glazier has offered his services for free with his largish van to help in any way he can.
If Ask Me is contacted by someone wanting to volunteer, it is passed straight to the road lead to make contact. If the road leaders are struggling with what’s being asked of them, Vicky and Siobhan will step in to support.
The road lead team play a vital role in this effort as they are coordinating help in small groups and are also contacted directly by people.
So,whilst I understand there may have been some confusion about the A4 Ask Me flyers and the “Here to help!” leaflets posted by the road team through every door, I hope that this clarifies how it happened. We were all working with a constantly changing situation and still are. However the most important thing for you to be confident in is this is one unified group working in an organised way to support you all.
Volunteering
Those people who have volunteered in the village, we urge you to sign up for the NHS volunteer responders scheme here – https://www.goodsamapp.org/NHS
The jobs available are
- Transport for patients to medical appointments
- Delivery of food and prescriptions to those being shielded
- Contact and keep in touch phone calls – this can be done anyone who has the means to make a phone call.
For the volunteer positions that require you to physically be in close proximity to people, you need to be healthy and not self-isolating.
Vicky, Nick and I have all volunteered as we are sure some of you have too – do let us know and we can add to our growing list.
Weekly newsletter
We will be aiming to get our first newsletter out to you Thursday and then every week for the now. Please sign up to receive this news letter and contact one of us if there is any problem. This statement is being sent first to the road team leads, on Facebook and then we will each bcc emails that we have on record, please then forward on and spread the word to particularly those without a computer that information is being communicated and we will use phone buddies to chat to people on the phone about things they need/want to know. The newsletter will also be available on the Facebook group page each week.
Click here to sign up to the weekly newsletter
Where to find information
Meanwhile you can access information on our Facebook group – Semington, Little Marsh and Littleton Support Group
Support your local
We are sure that there is a lot more cooking and baking happening in the village at the moment but when you fancy a night off, treat yourself to take out food and drink from The Somerset Arms – Visit the Somerset Arms Facebook page
Vulnerable residents
If you have been classed as a particularly vulnerable household, (received a letter from nhs) which requires shielding, please do let us know and we will help you however we can. We are conscious that systems are being put in place to assist you, however until that is in place please do let us know how we can help. If you need something urgently, let your road leader know so we can take the best steps we can locally.
And finally thank you to absolutely everyone in the village, the support and care that has been shown particularly to our must vulnerable residents has really given Semington something to be very proud to.
We are all doing our best, together we are stronger and remember those acts of kindness however small mean so much to that person.
Keep safe
Emma, Vicky, Laura and Siobhan
Semington, Little Marsh and Littleton Support Group Team
Ask Me’s connection and support of the community effort
So for those of you that don’t me, I run a small handywoman business called Ask Me mostly working in Semington and most of my customers are those people I’ve met through working at the village social club, village hall, choir and other places.
The reason I am posting this is that I have heard that some people were unsettled by my logo being on the flyer I produced. This was all prior to linking up with Vicky which thankfully we did at the very early stages as both our approaches were wanting to support the community of Semington and in some ways although people we knew overlapped it meant we were better able to enable those connections.
In no way whatsoever has Ask Me been seeking to make money or generate business out of this. I did not want to even put the Ask Me would step in and ask for a small fee for any costs incurred but through talking to some people in the village before Vicky and I connected, they said I should as I too had to keep my head above water being self employed.
Having initially been prepared to print the leaflets out at Ask Me’s expense I did ask if the Parish Council could contribute anything at this unprecedented time. They have offered, however, as my business logo is on there we have agreed to go halves on the cost of £89 done through Martin at Nettl printing who I happen to live above (I moved to Melksham to rent my own little place) . They also printed an extra 100 flyers to the 400 I asked for as a gesture of goodwill. The only other expense incurred was purchasing 32 plastic folders at the cost of just over £20 – I know Sam at Edwards stationers and in the circumstances she knocked some money off.
So while I understand there may have been some confusion about the A4 Ask Me flyers and the “Here to Help!” leaflets posted by the road team through every door. I hope that this clarifies how it happened, we were all working with a constantly changing situation and still are.
Thank you
Emma