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Spirit of Manchester Story Week 2020 - Mobilising Covid-19 Correspondents

The Fed is the leading social care charity for the Greater Manchester Jewish Community and also operates Heathlands Village – a care home for older people.

The Village prides itself on its open and community feel, with a cafe and other spaces open to communal groups and organisations. Pre-Covid-19, it would welcome a significant footfall from visitors and other partners from the local community, but under the restrictions of a national lockdown, this was impacted significantly.

“We’re an extension of the community rather than just a care home. In August 2019 we logged over 4,200 visitors to the Village. Fast forward to the same time in 2020; we welcomed just 121 and this was mostly made up of health care workers visiting. The difference is massive, and the impact of this is stark for residents, staff and everybody involved in Heathlands Village.” Robert Marks, The Fed

Effectively grinding to a halt from ‘business as usual’, and faced with the separation of residents from their family and loved ones, The Fed set out to find a way to respond to this. The resulting ‘Pencils & Crayons Project’ was born as a way of reaching out to the local community through social media, the internet and word of mouth, with an ask to write cards and messages to residents at Heathlands Village. What started as a hope for some responses quickly became inundation as children, families and local people answered the call in huge numbers.

Messages of support, best wishes and positivity took the form of handwritten notes, letters and cards. There was a dedicated display board but this soon became nowhere near big enough to accommodate the bags and bags of correspondence that were being received when being locked down hit hardest.

Shoshi Black, of The Fed’s Activity Team, said: “This wonderful project allowed us to remain connected to the outside world when our regular contact was disrupted. It showed our residents that they were not alone – that so many people cared about them – and it enabled us to face the challenge together.”

Some 300+ pieces of correspondence later, the project still continues to receive support and recognition, and The Fed anticipates further involvement in the weeks and months ahead from schools and local people going into winter and the New Year.



   


You can find The Fed on their website www.thefed.org.uk or on:

Facebook @THEFEDManchester
Twitter @FED_Manchester
Instagram @the_fed