In just five days, nearly 500 people have answered the call and stepped forward to help Ealing Together, prompting a big ‘thank you’.

Ealing Together is a collaboration between local community groups, charities, mutual aid groups, Ealing Council, businesses and local networks of family and friends that want to help with the COVID19 response.

Last week, a new Ealing Together website launched. It gives isolated and vulnerable people a trusted and structured way to ask for help during the COVID-19 emergency. It also asked for local people to volunteer to help with the emergency response.

Ealing Together has now temporarily paused its volunteer recruitment while the team matches the offers it has received so far with the volunteer roles that need to be filled.

We are overwhelmed with the community response

Peter Mason, cabinet lead for Ealing Together, said: “We are overwhelmed with the community response to our appeal for help. Thank you. The strength of people coming together during a period of crisis is deeply inspiring. 

“We are quickly working our way through the offers we have received and hope to be in contact over the next week.

“This is a fast-moving and dynamic situation and as the COVID-19 situation develops, we expect to ask for your help again. I know that people will step up if they can.

“There are lots of ways that local people can help at this time. The most important is to stay at home as much as you can. We can all help to slow the spread and flatten the curve by following the government’s guidelines on social distancing.

“You can also help by looking out for the hashtag #EalingTogether and sharing our messages. There is a lot of misinformation out there, and it helps everyone if people are getting their news from trusted sources.”

Vulnerable people who need support can either go to ealingtogether.org or call 020 8825 7170 – you can call between 9am-5pm Monday-Friday or 10am-4pm Saturday and Sunday.