Please feel free to share any of this updated information with your local meeting, especially with members and attenders who have no (or limited) internet access.
Birmingham Voluntary Service Council have produced a helpful guide to the ways you can access support during the Covid-19 crisis.
Below are some of the key places where people can get practical support during this difficult time (please let us know of others, especially for the parts of our Area Meeting outside Birmingham):
- Request support for a vulnerable person via the gov.uk website
- Request for support with food via The Active Wellbeing Society
- Directory of organisations offering support in greater Birmingham from Route 2 Wellbeing
- Directory of local businesses offering free home delivery.
- Information on employment rights and sick pay from ACAS
- Benefits advice from Turn 2 Us
- QPSW ‘Hope Grants’ for members and attenders who are unemployed or unable to make a living wage.
- Birmingham mutual support Facebook group
- Guidance for Quaker Meetings from Friends House.
Up to date government information is at: gov.uk/coronavirus
For medical information visit the NHS website: 111.nhs.uk/covid-19
An update has been circulated by Birmingham Council of Faiths, endorsing statements by national and local faith leaders, and collating useful information on how faith groups can respond to the COVID-19 situation.
“We encourage all people of faith to follow the recommendations of their leaders in acting for the greater good of humanity. We welcome the opportunities which the current crisis offers to find new ways to be communities of faith.
We advocate collaborative action wherever possible; a determination to serve the whole community rather than focusing only on our own particular part of the community.
Above all, we call on all people, during these difficult times, to live as people of hope; that the threat we all face can be overcome, and that we will emerge stronger, more resilient and wiser from the experience.”
Birmingham Faith Leaders Group