Wotton Area Mutual Aid Volunteer Newsletter WAMA NEWSLETTER #64th May 2020 We know that many people will look to family and friends for assistance during the Covid-19 outbreak, and Wotton Area Mutual Aid group is here to make sure that no one is left alone, by connecting people in need, with volunteers who are available to help out. INTRODUCING OUR NEW WEBSITE Thanks to a lovely volunteer, we now have our very own website: On the website you will find everything in one place - all of our contact forms if you need support, information about all of our schemes, a link to become a volunteer, information on how to make a donation, all of the useful information links we have posted on Facebook, a list of the shops in our area who are still open and the last 5 issues of our Newsletter. We are very excited about this. We encourage you to have a look and pass details over to your neighbours who may need support. CALLING ALL SEWISTS: We have had some requests for PPE from local key workers and need people with sewing skills and machines! If you are already a WAMA volunteer please e-mail us at wottonareamutualaid@gmail.com letting us know that you've got sewing skills and want to help. If you haven't already signed up, please do so here and indicate that you have sewing skills NEW LEAFLETS As WAMA has developed quite a lot over the past few weeks, we are about to distribute a new leaflet detailing the support people can access: general help, picking up prescriptions, WAMA Boxes and the free soup. If you would like to print one off to give to a neighbour, please CLICK HERE. SAFEGUARDING Wotton Area Mutual Aid is committed to the protection of children and vulnerable adults who we come into contact with. Our Safeguarding Policy sets out the best practice for our Group to respond to safeguarding concerns and applies to all volunteers and those requesting help. If you have any concerns about a safeguarding issue, or the welfare of someone you have signed up to help as a WAMA volunteer, you can follow the procedures set out in this policy by contacting our Safeguarding Officer. You can do this even if you are unsure and just want to talk it through with someone. If you sign up as a volunteer for any of our jobs, please read the policy here. MEMBERSHIP OF WAMA Although we aren’t a charitable, registered organisation, WAMA has a set of guidelines and a basic constitution which can be seen here. In the constitution it says that all of our WAMA volunteers become members of the group as soon as they sign up, as this is just a mutual aid group of individuals supporting their neighbours. If you have signed up as a WAMA volunteer, you have automatically become a "member" of WAMA. This doesn't mean any more than having to work within our safeguarding policy and follow our data protection and safe volunteering guidelines. If, at any time, you would like to stop being a member of WAMA and don't want to volunteer anymore, please contact us at wottonareamutualaid@gmail.com SUPPORTING OUR LOCAL BUSINESSES We have offered our WAMA volunteer delivery services to local businesses providing essential goods. We feel these local businesses are offering a valuable service to our town and we would like to support them at this time. This service is vital for those self-isolating, but it also lessens the number of people needing to enter the shops and being out and about. We have asked these businesses to post "delivery" jobs onto our volunteer spreadsheet. They obviously can't guarantee that all deliveries are for isolating people, but we would like to support them in this way at this difficult/busy time. Reminder to share with friends and neighbours: The way to contact Wotton Area Mutual Aid for help is to:
PLEASE REMIND FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS (AND YOURSELF) THAT THESE SERVICES ARE FOR ANYONE IN OUR COMMUNITY WANTING SUPPORT AT THIS TIME |