Army of volunteers will support Peterborough’s coronavirus recovery

The city council’s Cabinet heard at its meeting that here has been a magnificent response to the call for volunteers by Peterborough City Council during the coronavirus emergency.
Now plans are being looked at how to utilise the response of volunteers at the Peterborough Hub for the post-recovery process.
Addressing members of the Cabinet at their first online meeting (Monday, May 11) Cllr Irene Walsh said: “We’ve had an absolute army of volunteers coming forward to help the work of the Peterborough Hub.
“Do we have any plans in place to harness this community capacity in the longer term and how does that link with our ‘Think Communities’ approach?”
Wendi Ogle-Welbourn, Executive Director for People and Communities, replied: “As leader of the Peterborough Hub I’m delighted with the number of volunteers we’ve had come forward throughout this crisis and offer very neighbourly support as well as civic support.
“What we’ve done is to ensure that these volunteers are linked in with existing agencies and organisations to ensure that they get the support and training that they have needed throughout this emergency.
“Examples might be the volunteers who are working in our food bank – they’ve taken over from council staff who have had to self-isolate because they have underlying health conditions and are at particular risk to getting coronavirus.
“Those volunteers have enabled our vital food bank to continue working every day at full capacity which is magnificent.
“We’ve also got volunteers who are working with children with disabilities at Little Miracles, and also with our Parent Carer Forum.
“Our volunteers are also linked to our wide range of voluntary care organisations,, about 90 in number, and community groups who are working with us to support the needs of people at this time.
“Looking forward, by linking them in with all these other organisations and supporting them now, they will want to work with us in our post-coronavirus recovery plan which we are creating right now.
“Also, we’re working very closely with all of our parish and town councils, because they have been instrumental in galvanising volunteer support as well.”
Leader of the Council, Cllr John Holdich asked: “I know that we haven’t been able to use everybody who has volunteered yet, but are we communicating with them?”
Wendi Ogle-Welbourn said: “We communicate with them on a very regular basis each week keeping them informed of what is going on.
“As we’ve indicated this health work is going to go on for quite a long time to come and we’re going to continue to need volunteer support – so we’re looking at as many options as we possibly can to use them during the recovery and post-recovery process.”
Cllr Irene Walsh added: “This is all very good news indeed and you are to be congratulated on the work that you and the volunteers are doing.
“It is obvious that this is an on-going story so that even though there may be easements on the way we do still that buffer of volunteer support, now and well into the future.”