Hundreds step up to volunteer in Hackney

Joshua Whitehead with employee Claire Holdreith socially distancing at Benjamin’s Chemist in Stoke Newington High Street. Pic: Joshua Whitehead

Hundreds of extra people have signed up to be community volunteers in Hackney since the lockdown began.

More than 2,000 people have regsitered with Volunteer Centre Hackney since the end of March, double the usual yearly enrolments.

The news comes during the celebrations for the Volunteers’ Week, as the UK pays tribute to everyone who offers their contribution to helping people who are struggling under the lockdown. 

Joshua Whitehead, 50, who lives in Stoke Newington signed up for VCH in April. He’s been doing 4 day-weeks for the last couple of months, helping with different deliveries. He said “My main assignment has been delivering prescription medicines for pharmacies in Stoke Newington to people who are vulnerable and need their medications regularly. I’ve also been delivering for the food bank”

“The deliveries for the local pharmacies are done by cycling, while the food deliveries are of course done by car.”

Whitehead highlighted some special deliveries volunteers are asked to do: “St. Leonard’s Hospital, in Hoxton, had blood pressure monitors that needed to be delivered to doctors’ surgeries. I picked up 40 monitors and delivered those to 40 different surgeries across Hackney.”

“When delivering the medication and the medical equipment, I leave it on the doorstep and then walk away to make sure I don’t have to go near vulnerable people. With food deliveries, I make sure I don’t touch the plastic bags. All of this is done wearing gloves and mask, of course.”

Whitehead has the time because his regular job working on television documentaries is on hold: “My project has been postponed until August due to the lockdown. That’s why I had this free time.”

The Centre has become the volunteer hub for the borough of Hackney thanks to a partnership with Hackney Council. The Council allocated its trained team of helpers to the places most in need of support. 

The collaboration resulted in placing over 250 volunteers in local charities including Hackney Foodbank, St Joseph’s Hospice, Young Hackney and BlindAid. 

The charity said helpers have so far delivered more than 2,000 prescriptions. They are also supporting GP clinics by turning in special equipment. 

VCH’s chief executive Lauren Tobias said in a statement: “The huge volume of interest in volunteering that we have seen over the last two months has been incredible, particularly when people are dealing with so much stress and uncertainty in their own lives, and often still working and caring for families”. 

Hackney’s Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Policy and the Voluntary Sector Caroline Selman also explained how they “were inundated with sign-ups to the Volunteer Centre Hackney volunteer hub, just one of many examples of how our communities have been rallying together to support their neighbours and our NHS during this national crisis”. 

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