Helping to bring the community together
22 Jun 2020
"Now is the time for the community to come together to help those in need," says Rohul Miah, Resident Engagement and Partnerships Officer
Recently, we were approached by some community groups who wanted to do something to help the vulnerable on the Isle of Dogs and surrounding areas in light of the coronavirus outbreak. They had this great idea to provide food packs and hot food to the elderly and homebound people in the neighbourhood.
We sat down with the groups to see how we could make it happen, expand it so we could reach as many people as possible and to co-ordinate our resources in the best way. We also looked and how we would fund such a project. Both One Housing and the Canary Wharf Group put funding in place to deliver the project.
It’s been amazing to see something like this in action and around 200 food packs and 400 hot meals were served to vulnerable residents by 31 volunteers during the launch of the project. We hope to do more. This has been a real team effort and I want to thank everyone whose been involved so far.
Common good
We were delighted to see so many groups come together to deliver something for the common good. The collective is made up of the Island Network - an umbrella organisation for Isle of Dogs BME community groups - in partnership with Docklands Football Club, Island BWO, One Third Soup Kitchen, Al Aqsa Mosque, St Johns Tenants and Residents Association, Virginia Community Group, Markham Heights Tenants and Residents Association, Millwall CA, Westferry CO and the Hedgecock Community Centre foodbank in Barking.
But this, we hope, is just the beginning as we have plans to approach schools and offer the service to pupils who are attending classes and the staff who are supporting them.
This however is just one of the ways that One Housing is supporting many of our residents on the Island. We work closely with tenant residents’ associations, other groups and partner organisations to come together to support the local community.
Events and grants
We also provide expertise and funding for community projects, initiate and promote community projects and activities such as information events, open days and fun events and also award grants for positive projects that address a need in the Isle of Dogs community.
In these unprecedented times, we must all work together, to support those who are vulnerable or are self-isolating and help them with the things they cannot or aren’t able to do. Now more than ever is the time for us all to come together. It’s great to work at an organisation like One Housing that is stepping up and playing its part to help all our residents and customers across London and the South East.