About Us

We are a group of local people who have come together to provide mutual aid to support our community through Covid-19. We started two Facebook groups and encouraged volunteers in every street to look after vulnerable people on their street by helping with shopping, prescriptions and isolation. We mapped this across Shoreham, Southwick & Fishersgate so that we could link people in with a neighbour to help.

 

We then provided volunteers to keep the Foodbank operating, and established a further group of volunteers to take referrals and shop for people in need, which means that we have more flexibility & capacity to help people. This is our Community Support.

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Many people in Shoreham, Southwick and Fishersgate were already living on or below the poverty line before the virus hit us. Together we recognise that our community needs a response which will last well beyond the immediate crisis of Covid-19. If people ask us for help we make sure that there are no barriers, no criteria, no hoops to jump through.

 

We provide a person-centred, family-centred and caring service. Our holistic response recognises that people need different types of food support at different times. We wrap around existing services (such as the Foodbanks) to make sure that together we are meeting all food need in our area at a community level, and universally. 

 

Examples of such care can be assistance with shopping, posting mail or simply providing additional support or someone to talk to over the phone.

 

We also have two Facebook pages, which create vital hubs for those wanting to share and access updates relating to local help and support:

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Shoreham Covid-19 Community Support

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Southwick & Fishersgate Covid-19 Community Support

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To date we have around 1,300 community members on Facebook, over 100 Street Level Volunteers, a reliable group of trusted volunteer shoppers & befrienders, and have referred around 50 new Volunteers to the Foodbank.