Orchards: the lockdown diaries
Lockdown has turned things upside for all of us. As we begin to resurface a little and are able to move towards face to face work again (bathed in alcohol gel!) we have been reflecting on the last 6 months for the team.
March – when the news of lockdown became clear, like everyone around the country, we had a frenzy of meetings to decide how we would carry on working, how we would continue supporting women in the middle of the pandemic, with our team working from home. We moved case work and counselling meetings to Zoom and pastoral support via the phone, linked with the Salvation Army on food deliveries and sent care packages.
April – a few weeks into lockdown, we heard we were at the point of completion on our second property, much sooner than we had anticipated. With stringent social distancing measures in place around the country, an immediate move just wasn’t possible and we wouldn’t have been able to provide the level of care we would have wanted to someone moving into safe accommodation for the first time. We postponed completion for a couple of months, while we worked from home to get everything in place ready to open doors.
May – Zoom counselling and support work was working well and we were really thankful to be able to continue support despite lockdown. There were challenges for the team in adjusting to life in the new normal, whether that was creating counselling spaces in homes suitable for Zoom sessions, or juggling family. We spent time thinking of creative ways to support our resident despite her being isolated and without her normal routine and face to face engagement with us, her friends and employment training.
June –After much prayer and paperwork, we got the keys to the second flat!
July – The team was really busy kitting out the flat and managing referrals ready to open doors. The set-up process was pretty straightforward although it did involve more deep cleaning than first time round and volunteers coming at different times – we missed a bit of the feeling of team we had with flat 1. We had to adjust to a new way of pursuing referrals without meeting the potential women in person, which would normally be really important to us as a way of beginning to build relationship. We also had a few unexpected challenges along the way which included temporary relocation for one resident, but thankfully all worked out OK in the end!
August – With 2 safe properties in place, we are now looking forward to being able to meet as a team and support women face to face again (with hand sanitiser in tow!) and as much as it is possible to plan, we hope to return to the office together in September.
