LISNASKEA’S Carrosyl Community Association have been going above and beyond to support residents both young and old during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking to the Herald, youth support worker Jackie Mullan said, “At the start of lockdown we had applied for grants to do something for
our isolated and vulnerable residents and had to wait to hear if we were successful or not, so in the meantime I felt as a community group
we needed to reach out and let residents know of support available locally and within their own community.
“My thoughts were, ‘what’s the first thing we all do at a time of crisis? Put the kettle on!!’ So I did up a pack with some local contact numbers and some positivi-TEA in the form of some loose tea and treats just to let them know we are here if they needed us and these were distributed to every home by our volunteers.”
Speaking on what actions were taken by the group to support younger members who are at a loss during this crisis, Jackie explained; “For
the primary age kids who attended clubs I did an Easter craft pack, hung it on the fence at the community centre for them to take away and
do at home.
“I felt they may be missing out on getting to youth clubs and our annual events that normally take place. It’s easy to forget that our young people can suffer from mental health problems too. “To keep the momentum going to reach out to all our residents we decided to run a sunflower competition to create some community spirit. We provided every house with some sunflower seeds hopefully giving them something to focus on over the next few months as we remain in these uncertain times.
“I felt that I needed to do something for the teenagers and keeping on the theme of positive mental health that we had been focusing on
before lockdown I did them all a self -care package. The idea was to get them all thinking about the importance of looking after themselves
and their mental health during these challenging times.” Jackie continued, “We are delighted now we have got funding from the Martin Lewis fund which will enable us to provide small food package. “We will continue to explore ways of engaging with the community safely until things slowly start to return to normal. A special thanks to all our reliable volunteers as we could not continue this work without them.”
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