Voluntary Action Sheffield has been overwhelmed with offers to help out during the Covid-19 crisis. They now plan to build a network of community hubs.
The three-tiered response is:
- Informal and neighbourhood activity – street-level support such as doing errands
- Organised community hubs – trusted, registered organisations with systems/procedures in place for volunteering
- The statutory/city wide approach – for emergency response and planning.
A spokesperson for VAS, which is normally based at The Circle (currently closed) in Sheffield city centre said: “Thank you for offering to volunteer during these unprecedented times. The response from people across the city is fantastic, and massively appreciated.
“At the moment, the offers of volunteers is greater than the need or the capacity of charities to recruit and deploy volunteers. Over the next weeks, we will build the systems we need to manage volunteers and match volunteers to requests. Please bear with us at this time. We know it won’t be long before the need in the community increases rapidly, and the number of volunteers needed will sharply increase.”
The volunteering form can be found here and they are also advising people to look at Sheffield Mutual Aid network on Facebook.
