COVID-19 Response

WE at St Stephen’s Neighbourhood Centre throughout the pandemic followed government guidelines, offering as many of our usual activities as possible. We still supported our community with food parcels and were a phone call away in the day Monday to Friday. (Even on the weekends!) We are still here now, and pleased to be up and running again, resuming with our sessions…and then some. As ever, we understand the impact that covid has had on people which cannot be taken back, even if we bought a DeLorean. For context, that’s a car from Back to the Future. It’s a time-machine, and we all wish we had one of those at times. Especially when it comes to covid.

Now we’re running full steam ahead again, we can help in a bigger way: sharing your concerns, provide a safe space to come to, and breathing room for all ages in the varied sessions and activities we have on offer. (Most of which are partly or fully funded.)

We did our best during covid, and we always wish that we could do more than what we have done. It’s what makes our funders and supporters so integral to the running of our community projects. They made it possible for us to have our own version of what the government facilitated back in August 2020. If you remember it at all, it was the Eat Out To Help Out support system, the one in place for all. It was obviously about encouraging people to go back out having been cooped up, isolating from a disease that nobody knew anything about. In truth, we don’t know that much about it, either. You can only go with what you’ve got sometimes, and that’s what we did. Thanks to our funders and supporters, and the ever effervescent team of youth-workers and volunteers, we got through August 2020 together learning new skills. As you can see below, our young-people learned how to breathe new life into faded clothing making tie-dye tops, and they also made pizza from scratch – the dough and the toppings…with some exquisite results. Of course, this was all socially-distanced, and we followed the guidelines, having antibacterial gel available, and carefully explaining the rules again to anyone who had pre-booked these covid-safety-regulated sessions.

We had fun learning as well, and shared some laughs. In the first week, August 2020, we facilitated a take on ‘Play your cards right’ and made it into an alternative bingo-style game. Again, socially-distanced, sitting comfortably on crash-mats in our large hall space.