Volunteer Week 2020

This week is Volunteer Week 2020, and I wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of the volunteers in the Borough. This year my thank you is even bigger than normal, with so many people volunteering during the Coronavirus pandemic to help others.

We have had around 1,000 people and a number of groups volunteer for the Council's Community Hub and even more volunteering through local Kindness Groups and locally with friends, neighbours, religious groups and our uniformed organisations, both across our towns and many villages.

As part of Volunteer Week, four voluntary organisations in Bedfordshire, including two in Bedford Borough have been awarded the prestigious Queen's Award for Voluntary Service. The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service recognises outstanding work by volunteer groups to benefit their local communities and this year has been awarded to Autism Bedfordshire, Sharnbrook Amateur Theatre Trust, Volunteers of Keech Hospice Care and Luton Irish Forum.

Yesterday, two Borough Council volunteers received the Silver Owl Award from SHARE Museums East: celebrating 25 years of volunteering. Congratulations to Cathy Moorhouse and Marian Harrington who both started volunteering as part of The Higgins Learning Team, delivering and developing sessions for schools back in 1995.

An extra big thank you to everyone who has volunteered - you really have made the difference to so many people's lives. You can see a video message I recorded here.

I have been humbled by how many people have volunteered to help at this time - for a period of time the Community Hub had more volunteers than requests for help from vulnerable people! All of the time and effort that our amazing volunteers give really are key in making Bedford Borough what it is.

The Community Hub has delivered over 3,000 food parcels and over 400 hygiene packs to vulnerable residents, undertaken over 1,000 shopping trips and collected almost 1,000 prescriptions.

Outside of the Coronavirus pandemic, volunteering is very important. It has been estimated by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations that volunteering saves charities across the UK more than £20million a year.

The Council also benefits from volunteering, with residents undertaking litter-picks and keeping our parks and local communities clean. Many local residents volunteer at The Higgins and our local libraries, allowing us to provide a greater level of service than we could otherwise..

You may have also seen we are currently asking local residents to assist with watering our young trees near their homes during this hot weather to help them survive to maturity.

All councils are facing additional pressures going forward, partly due to Coronavirus and there is inevitably less money to provide services. As a result volunteering will become even more important across the whole country.

If you would like more information on volunteering please visit https://www.cvsbeds.org.uk/volunteering/.

If you would like to volunteer at a cultural venue, please email Gemma at gemma.hutton@bedford.gov.uk. If you would be interested in volunteering in local parks and open spaces, contact volunteering@bedford.gov.uk or to volunteer at Bedfordshire Archives and Records Services email archive@bedford.gov.uk.

Remember, if you are in need of support, please contact the Community Hub at www.bedford.gov.uk/covid19 or call us on 01234 718101.