UP CLOSE WITH: Ham and Petersham SOS

By The Editor 12th Sep 2020

Richmond charities have been relied upon more than ever amid the coronavirus pandemic, and one group that has been busy is Ham and Petersham SOS.

The neighbourhood care charity's organiser Karen King spoke with Richmond Council for a video feature about its work.

Watch the two-minute clip above or read all about their great work below.

Ham and Petersham SOS is a community-led, voluntary organisation that provides vital services to older and disabled people within Ham and Petersham.

We have a wide team of volunteer drivers who will do a door-to-door pick up and take you to a medical appointment or a social appointment.

We enable particularly the older people in our community to not become socially isolated but also to maintain their independence.

One of the big draws for our members is the monthly outings. We run a monthly outing to a variety of locations."

How the pandemic has changed the charity

Covid-19 saw us change all of our services - we were no longer able to provide face-to-face services and had to make sure that our volunteers were happy to provide services over the telephone.

I'd like to say a big thank you to all of those existing volunteers who've helped us to continue to provide vital services throughout the last six months.

And a big thank you to all of those new volunteers who have been furloughed or donated time and are juggling working from home or homeschooling children.

We are very, very, very grateful. We wouldn't have been able to support our client group without your help.

60% of our volunteer team found themselves having to self-isolate, so the new volunteers we've had during the last six months have been vitally important to help boost numbers.

But also 80% of our client group also found themselves either sheidling or self-isolating.

The last six months have been hugely important for us to maintain communication via the phone, through newsletters and a variety of other [channels].