"Thank you so much for my shopping. I don't know if you realise how much we appreciate you doing this for us. This is the first day this week that I haven't cried. Everything was spot on and really happy with the price. Stay safe x "

"We barely had enough to scrape together for a birthday cake for my 4 year old. The meals that you offer us truly help plus give me a break from cooking and always having to feed my lot... And trust me they always need feeding."

Dear Nottingham.

It has come to my attention that as a charity we are appalling at updating people about the work we do. I appreciate some of you know who Disability Support are and the work we do.

Disability Support is the sole tenant at Old Basford Community Centre which has been a fantastic home for eight members of staff and until March, forty volunteers. Pre Covid-19 we had an amazing track record of working with and supporting local communities as well as working with other organisations and community groups.

On Thursday 19th March Disability Support issued an urgent appeal to recruit volunteers to support local communities with the issues they would face during a pandemic lockdown.

By 4.30pm on Friday we had recruited 23 new people and had re-written our business model to become a Covid support hub. Friday also saw the first people using the shopping support service and some of the stories they told us were heart-breaking. We knew things would get worst from here but we were ready.

Over the weekend we continued to appeal for volunteers. Those with a recent enhanced DBS certificates were fast tracked into service, whilst others were processed for an enhanced check, despite the cost to the charity. All volunteers were issued with an ID badge, safety guidelines, a volunteer agreement (dos and donts) gloves, masks and hand sanitiser.

The following week we continued to prepare to support the most vulnerable in our communities. We made preparations to make our services available on a virtual platform and liaised with the DWP and Tribunal Service to keep up to date with their changes so we could continue to support clients. My community team have been amazing throughout but during the first few weeks it was a difficult time. They kept going, calmly and steadily and met each request with the same enthusiasm as the last.

On Monday the 23rd Of March we officially closed our services to the public at 9:00 PM that night. The following day our phone line was transferred to the office mobile and all calls were fielded by a member of staff who then shared the tasks among the community team and volunteers. By the end of that week we had officially been running COVID-19 support services for the last 14 days and were proud to be leading the way in Community Support.

From Tuesday 24th of March onwards we have received referrals from NDO's, Social Prescribers, NCC staff, Link Workers, Macmillan, Blind Action, NCVS, Veterans Support Services, Chemists, Housing Associations, Support Workers, Local People, NHS Teams, Age Uk and more.

We are still running our Welfare Rights Services via phone, email and video chat. This includes attending tribunals This is very difficult to do but my staff have risen to the challenge. One of whom has a broken hip and another lost her mum shortly after lockdown started.

All of our social groups are now run via Zoom. We have volunteer befrienders to call people every week who are struggling with lockdown and or isolation. Some were already known to us, others have been self-referring or we have been sent contact details of people in need by professionals. We also a volunteer who is a professional listener who can support with more in depth or complex issues.

We know that age, disability and caring responsibilities can create barriers to accessing a healthy diet. We also know that a lot of people had reduced care support and in some cases, no carers at all.

With this in mind we are delivering two meals on a Saturday, in reusable, microwave safe containers. We arent talking a gourmet menu but it is nutritious and tasty.

Over the last few days we have risk assessed re-opening our gardening service. This information will be made public soon but it will be very scaled down compared to what we used to offer.

We are looking at how we can see clients face to face again but Im sure you can imagine, the cost of screens and only one large room to easily physically distance, will cause a few barriers for us.

Our social groups and support will continue on a virtual platform until at least December, if not longer.

I trust you will be as impressed with Disability Supports staff and volunteers, as I am.

I would be grateful if you would stay in touch with us and follow our work and more importantly support us to continue helping your family, neighbours, residents, citizens, clients or constituents.

"Original Statement"

Nearly four weeks ago the CEO of Disability Support said, we need to recruit a huge team of volunteers to help people with getting food, their prescriptions and surviving isolation.

So we did and thank goodness we were so fast. Calls for help started flooding in on the 24th March. Disability Support are super proud to be ahead of the curve for Nottingham City's citizens needing support.

We are hearing how people are struggling, frightened for their loved ones because they can't get to them, struggling with mental health, or just overwhelmed with everything. We are helping ANYONE who needs it and will continue to do so until this is over.

We are also running a "vVrtual Cuppa" session every Monday at 11am and 3pm to relieve stress.