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Ballincollig’s community and voluntary groups are working hard to ensure that young and old and being looked after during COVID-19. Working alongside the Cork City Community Response Forum (CRF), the groups are delivering key services to those who need it most. Some of the recent highlights include:

• Westgate Foundation is providing phone support to over 100 service users and people cocooning/ self-isolating that may not normally avail of its service. It has also expanded its Meals on Wheels service following increased requests for support in Ballincollig and surrounding areas.
• Volunteers from Ballincollig GAA club are managing grocery deliveries– with most deliveries made within 24 hours of request.
• The community Gardaí in Ballincollig are delivering prescriptions for those cocooning and other vulnerable people.
• The Red Cross and Order of Malta area looking after urgent transport needs.
• Newspapers are being distributed to older people.

The Community Response Forum in Ballincollig stepped in when a ‘very capable’ 94 year old cocooner contacted them as she was unable to walk her dog.
Urgent house repair requests to the CRF are being looked after by Age Action’s ‘Care and Repair Service’ or by local responders.
Hundreds of flyers with contact details of local groups, involved in the Community Response Forum, have been distributed so that people are aware of the wide supports available to them.

Cork City Council Community Response Forum Lead, Tony Power said: “Week-in and week-out we witness the incredible work and sheer commitment of the Ballincollig community and voluntary groups – who go to extraordinary lengths to ensure that everyone is being looked after. We are still here to support anyone who needs help, whether this is picking up shopping and medicine or the delivery of library books, please call us on 1800-222-226 or email [email protected]”

Notes:

• The CRF dedicated helpline is available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week at 1800-222-226. Support can also be accessed via [email protected].
• The phone line is just one aspect of the Forum’s work.  Its core aim, as part of the Community Call, is contributing to the community-wide effort to limit the spread of COVID-19 by ensuring a coordinated community response.  The Council’s COVID-19 CRF will work to ensure that local resources – including social care support and social contact – are targeted at the people who need them most.
• Cork City has been broken into 16 local area teams with a Cork City Council community worker and a HSE community worker in each area who will work with local champions – namely the existing voluntary organisations and groups who know their locality and can help us to match need with service delivery.  Each of the 16 local areas also has a link to Community Garda Services.

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