14 Aug A life-changing day for Britain, the beginning of a new era for Torbay Communities

March 23^rd, 2020, is etched into our minds as the day the world changed, the day the prime minister ordered us to lock down and stay at home.

It was also the beginning of a new era for Torbay Communities because our team was ready (in as much as anyone could be ready) to do all they could to support communities across the Bay.

We had seen the virus spreading across the world and we had already held meetings about how we could best react to the crisis and two days before the lockdown we launched our response – the Torbay Community Coronavirus Helpline.

Armed only with phones and as much knowledge as could be gleaned from the internet, our staff began taking calls from worried people across the Bay who couldn’t get out to collect their prescriptions or shop for food because of their vulnerabilities.

The requests came thick and fast from people who needed support, information and practical help. With our hastily assembled partners – Age UK Torbay, Brixham Does Care, Citizens Advice Torbay and Healthwatch Torbay we were best placed to meet the unprecedented challenges.

But we could not do it alone, and we assembled an army of volunteers – at one stage, more than 1,700 – to mobilise to help their friends, neighbours, and, in many cases, strangers living in their neighbourhoods.

Torbay Community Development Trust was by then in its sixth year and had already done some great work in the community, and in part, that gave us a great start as the Helpline, its partners and its volunteers went from strength to strength.

From day one of the crisis, we had teams of up to five people staffing the phones from eight in the morning to eight at night responding within just a few hours to sometimes desperate cries for help.

We had tearful exchanges with terrified self-isolators low on medications, out of food and out of money and by mobilising some amazing people, not least our own community builders, we were able to provide the help needed.

Sometimes all that was needed was a virtual shoulder to cry on, the sound of a friendly voice or some straight talking no-nonsense non-medical advice borne out of us all being in it together.

We listened to the worries of families that were separated sometimes by just a few miles and sometimes by oceans, unable to visit their ageing parents, relatives and siblings and not knowing when they would again.

Our advantage over statutory services was our flexibility and ability to meet fresh challenges no matter how complex, and problems did not come any bigger than those that came with COVID.

In addition to shopping and collecting prescriptions, we were able to offer telephone befriending services to people who were unable to get out and were becoming lonely and isolated and as the crisis deepened we were able to provide financial advice for those no longer able to work..

We were also there at the beginning of the Torbay Food Alliance, set up to run and coordinate the foodbanks that were at the time of the lockdowns, not only overwhelmed but desperately short of food.

As we came through the crisis and a series of lockdowns, which despite being only four years ago are difficult to remember in all their horrendous, stress-inducing detail, we moved into the vaccination phase and it was our volunteers that marshalled the huge numbers of people arriving at the Riviera Centre in Torquay and the Rugby Club in Brixham for their injections.

Week by week and month by month, more services and advice portals were added and although set up in response to COVID it was recognised that a comprehensive telephone helpline was something that would be needed going forward.

Now in our tenth year, the Helpline is at the core of much of what we do and it is often the first port of call for vulnerable people who need our help and it deals with a huge, complex range of challenges from people of all ages.

It is a strange fact of life that something as crucial as the Torbay Community Helpline was thrown together in a meeting in the back room of a building in Torquay. Four years on it is a lifeline for so many people and proudly boasts the strapline – one call, that’s all. The number should you need it is 01803 446022.