Updates

Hope’s response to the Coronavirus

May 28, 2020

Hello! I’m Eve, Media Officer for Hope through the Rank Foundation’s Rank Aspire Program. I’ve watched Covid-19 impact Hope and the whole world and here are my thoughts.

Hope responded instantly to Covid-19. After ten years of running face-to-face services in Herefordshire, the charity saw the restrictions on gatherings that were beginning to be necessary and immediately invited all its young people (who weren’t already accessing it) to join its existing digital service. This service was then adapted to bring in even more opportunities than usual for peer and individual support, run and moderated as always by Hope’s professionals.

Despite Hope not being able to run their usual youth sessions, one-to-ones, trips and activities, the charity has been being really creative, finding new ways to engage their service users, families and the wider community. This has ranged from setting and taking part in challenges on social media to video call group sessions and Youth Management Team meetings.

The social media is something special (if I do say so myself…) – help me out and maybe put a smile on your face too by checking out the Hope Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages?

However, despite the big changes Hope has made, Covid-19 has still hit hard. The pandemic has affected jobs, education and the charity sector across the world. For Hope, it has meant that many key fundraising events have had to be cancelled, causing a serious shortfall in its normal income.

This has been mitigated to an extent by some amazing fundraising efforts that have taken place – some, like the April 2020 2.6 Challenge, have come from national campaigns and others have been organised for Hope solely by individuals – but there is still a really long way to go to fix the impact of the Coronavirus.

If you think you could help Hope recover faster, please consider setting up a fundraiser of your own or simply donating anything you can spare.