ANNUAL REPORT 2020-21

A YEAR LIKE NO OTHER

Improving Lives, Promoting Health

Charity Number - 1074508 / Company Limited by Guarantee -

3614799

REPORTING ON A YEAR TRULY LIKE NO OTHER.

I have been writing annual reports for more years than I care to remember but I can honestly say I don’t think I have ever found one as difficult to put together as this one. How do you report on a year where we had to stop (repeatedly) doing most of the things that we normally do and turn everything on its head overnight?

I remember the Thursday before the first lockdown. We were supposed to be having a team away-day but that was cancelled and we just worked together putting in place systems for what was to come. Staff were introduced to this strange beast called “Zoom” and we had to get used to remote team working systems in a matter of an couple of hours—usually organisations spend months training and preparing for this sort of thing.

The following week, the world turned upside down.

So how should we record it?

In the end I have thrown normal report formats in the bin and allowed just a few of the people involved to have their own say about how it was for them. The staff and volunteers speaking in this report are just the tip of the iceberg. If I could have talked to everyone who helped (and I wish I had been able to do so) you would be holding a a multi-volume series of books at this moment. I just hope that those who are included speak for the others as well.

This leads me on to an explanation. We normally list all volunteers in our reports but this year I have decided not to do this simply because there have been so many over the months. Not all registered as volunteers but they stepped forward when we asked them and did a range of amazing tasks to help others in the community. If I tried to list everyone, I would miss people out so I am just taking this opportunity to say a huge thank you to you all. You are truly heroes.

Finally I would like to say thank you to all the staff who worked absolute miracles to get us through—you were

wonderful. The trustees too kept their collective heads when I was tearing up the rule book and gave me their support so thank you to you as well and particularly thanks to the Chair, Les James, who is standing down after many years of service.

Sandra Duncan—CEO

> Chair’s Report

This year I am pleased to be able to present you with a set of

accounts showing a surplus (before depreciation) of £7818.

The difficulties faced during the year have been self-evident,

with the building closed most of the time and staff having to

work from home and all the problems of the pandemic, and

constant pressure from cut-backs. Despite this we have

continued to provide our services to the Community and in

some areas, namely shopping squad, community garden, and

our charity shop, we have seen growth and improvement.

To achieve a surplus at the end of such a year can only have

been the result of hard work and tight control, and on behalf

of the Trustees I would like to thank our C.E.O. and her staff

and volunteers, and congratulate them on their success. For

the future, in this current year changes in our administration

and structure have had to continue, to keep in touch with

the modern world. Tight financial control is still our keynote

as we aim to restore our unrestricted funds to the required

level.

I have decided it's now time for me to resign from my post as

your Chair. It has been an honour and a privilege to have

served, and my sincere thanks are due to Sandra and her staff

and volunteers for the co-operation they have always given

me. During those years we have steered this wonderful

organisation through some very difficult times, and I have

every confidence in the Feelgood’s future in their hands.

> Emergency Services

> Community Garden

Emergency Shops 1,008

Distribution of frozen meals 1,440

Donation of Christmas Dinner hampers/

essential foods

47

Children receiving Christmas toys 80

Befriending telephone calls 2,592

Activity Packs distributed 1,481

Shielding support calls 5,100

Number of volunteers 29

Amount of fruit and veg produced in 2020 1,300 kg

> The Figures

> Breastfeeding Support

> Groups Attendances

Social Media Contacts 1,400

Phone Support 313

Video Support 31

Private Messaging Support 700

Email Support 104

Attendances at programmes to Improve

physical health

423

Attendances at programmes to to promote

mental wellbeing and alleviate loneliness

342

IN MANY WAYS THE PANDEMIC CAUSED OUR

NORMAL ACTIVITIES TO FLIP HEAD OVER

HEELS. OUR SHOPPING SERVICE, WHICH IS

NORMALLY SMALL AND STEADY, WAS PUSHED

TO THE FRONT OVERNIGHT AND BECAME OUR

MOST VITAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE

EMERGENCY. WITHIN HOURS, THE PHONES

STARTED TO RING AND WE KNEW WE WERE

FRONTLINE IN THE BID TO HELP PEOPLE WHO

WERE SHIELDING

> The Staff View

Dawn Brown

Dawn was actually on leave when the lockdown struck, so it wasn’t until she returned to work that she realised that everything had changed.

“Suddenly there was shopping all over the main hall and food throughout the building,” she recalls. She was also no longer working alone on the shopping service—now there were three staff manning the phones, taking shopping orders and processing deliveries, soon to be joined by a band of volunteers. “The phones just kept ringing and the number of customers went up and up.”

One feature of the lockdowns that has stayed with Dawn is how many people were so lonely. Phone calls to take shopping lists were much longer because for a large number of customers this call and the delivery of shopping was the only contact they had with another human being from one week to the next.

Two people in particular stick in Dawn’s mind. One was a

“Suddenly there was shopping all over the

main hall and food throughout the building.”

lady in Thornton who would stand in her front window waiting for the volunteer to arrive with the shopping. When she spotted the delivery, she would just stand there waving—at last a human being was coming to her door.

Another notable conversation was with a lady who couldn’t wait to tell Dawn that she was now double-jabbed - “I can go outside again!” she declared.

Ann Anirah

Ann had worked for the shopping squad previously so it was obvious that we were going to ask her to move back to the service once the lockdown began.

“When Phil asked me I thought, ‘OK’ but I really hadn’t appreciated what was about to happen,” Ann says. “At first it was just scary—we were unsure about how we were going to source food, whilst the phones just did not stop ringing.” The Shopping Service has for many years relied on supermarket deliveries but these dried up immediately and shelves were empty. The first two or three weeks were dominated by a struggle to find alternative suppliers.

Like Dawn, Ann’s main memory was the loneliness of the people she phoned. “It took a long time to get the shopping lists because people just wanted to talk. Most of them had no or vastly reduced contact with family or friends.” People were lonely before but this just highlighted the problem. Ann thinks that, in the long-term, this heightened awareness of loneliness in society may be a good thing.

> Community Shopping Service

> The Volunteer View

Mark Buxton

Mark Buxton was one of the main volunteers for the shopping service throughout the year. He observes that, “The service was going fine but then the pandemic hit as well as lockdown and instead of delivering to about 20 people our numbers went up to approximately 80!! As I am sure you can imagine, this caused all sort of new challenges.”

Mark recalls that the supermarket started limiting items that could be ordered to 80 per order (not a lot of use for 80 customers) and it was impossible to obtain some items, famously toilet rolls. There were also limitations on storage space within the Feelgood Factory for fresh and frozen foodstuffs.

In addition to this in the early days we lost of lot of volunteers who were shielding because of Covid.

Mark goes on to say, however, that as time went on the situation righted itself. New volunteers came on board including an ex-Liverpool player and a driving instructor and food from other sources started to come in. Funding from the L30’s Million and the Council meant that we were able to provide deliveries free of charge, together with donations from elsewhere co-ordinated by Clare Browne. Good protocols were put in place to protect against Covid

Mark concludes that, “Because the Feelgood Factory had a team of on the whole dedicated staff and an absolutely amazing group of volunteers who stepped up to the challenge, we were able successfully to carry on with the shopping service and provide a much needed service to the local community and beyond.”

“The service was going fine but then the

pandemic hit as well as lockdown and instead

of delivering to about 20 people our

numbers went up to approximately 80!! ”

Triss Ashry

Triss was another stalwart volunteer throughout the year. She recalls that she would get up at 6 a.m. to buy papers and shopping for neighbours in her street. She was often at the Feelgood Factory for 7 a.m. because there were different companies delivering food at different times. “The problem was the food,” she says, “Some shops would turn us away because we were taking too much. I had to fight to see managers to explain the issues. Eventually Heron and Iceland came on board. The manager of Heron, in particular, was brilliant and let us have as much as we needed once he understood the situation.”

Like the others, Triss found that the loneliness faced by the people receiving the service was the most stark issue. Many of them didn’t see anyone from one week to the next except for the person delivering their shopping; they were just staring at four walls all day. “When we delivered the food they just wanted to talk.” Sometimes the chats were at a considerable distance. One lady used to put a table at the bottom of her drive and the shoppers had to put the bags on the table and then she would come down and collect them. There was a lot of fear.

The positive thing though was the teamwork among the volunteers. Everyone worked in bubbles and this prevented infection. It also meant that small teams became close. “We just laughed so much,” Triss remembers. “That was what got us through, the laughter.”

> Community Shopping Service

ONCE THE SHOPPING SERVICE WAS RESOLVED

IT QUICKLY BECAME APPARENT THAT THERE

WERE OTHER ISSUES WITHIN THE COMMUNITY

THAT REQUIRED OUR INTERVENTION. EVEN

WHEN OUR DOORS WERE CLOSED BECAUSE OF

GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION, THE BUILDING

WAS STILL A HIVE OF ACTIVITY.

> The Staff View

Clare Browne

Clare started out helping with the rapidly expanding shopping service but it quite quickly became apparent that other needs were developing. To begin with there was a need for volunteers to pick up prescriptions and walk dogs for those who were shielding. The LFC Foundation really stepped up to help out with this. As the weeks went by, however, families began to struggle as incomes for working families became more precarious particularly as a result of self isolation. One family’s breadwinner was a taxi driver; whenever one of his children had to isolate so did he and he lost income. Other families lost jobs overnight and struggled to cope whilst waiting for benefits. Food poverty raised its ugly head with the choice for some families being between buying food or paying the bills. For these families the need was for donations of food and other goods but we had no financial resources for this.

So Clare contacted local companies and asked for food stuffs that could be distributed to those in need. Warburtons responded by donating 100 loaves a week. We shared these with the L30 Centre and Netherton Park Community Centre and thus made sure that there was a good coverage for Netherton.

“The public were amazing. I would go on

Social Media and do a ‘shout out’ for help

and I always received it.”

> Community Support

The staff of the LFC Foundation also wanted to help and so they donated between 100 and 120 frozen meals each week.

Clare comments, “The public were amazing. I would go on Social Media and do a ‘shout out’ for help and I always received it.” Companies such as the Spar, Iceland, Tescos, Asda and Morrisons all helped, as did community groups throughout Sefton.

When we opened up again in July, Clare started to work with local schools to support families in need weekly with food parcels.

It wasn’t just essential food. Four families found they couldn’t afford birthday cakes for their children so Clare teamed up with Donate-A-Cake in Liverpool to help out. One little girl whose parents had both lost their jobs received a Unicorn cake to mark her fifth birthday.

In December Clare worked with Cash-for-Kids and Asda to ensure that children could have presents and families could celebrate the festive season.

We distributed 35 pre-cooked Christmas dinners and gave out vouchers so that people could buy food.

Since Christmas Clare has been working on a recipe card programme with Malcolm Bannon to provide boxes with ingredients plus a recipe to ensure that families have healthy meals.

THE FEELGOOD FACTORY HAS BEEN ACTIVELY

FIGHTING AGAINST LONELINESS FOR MANY

YEARS SO WE THOUGHT WE WERE WELL

PREPARED TO COPE WITH THE TSUNAMI OF

SUFFERING CAUSED BY THE ISOLATION OF

LOCKDOWN BUT WE SOON REALISED THIS WAS

LIKE NOTHING WE HAD DEALT WITH BEFORE.

> The Staff View

Sandra Duncan

As our normal programmes closed down, we, like many other organisations up and down the land, began to move to remote provision. We had a problem that was not often recognized in the mainstream media nationally, in that well over 70% of those we were supporting were not online and many did not even have smart phones. As a result we were not able just to move provision onto Zoom.

We were, therefore, left with “old-school” resources—the telephone and the postal service.

During the first two weeks all existing clients were allocated a telephone befriender who rang them at least once a week. Several members of staff helped out with this but I would like to pay particular tribute to my two most faithful volunteers, Howard Parker and Kathryn Sullivan, who were there from day one, never refused a new client and handled some very complicated situations with tremendous care and professionalism.

Telephone befriending is a skill in itself and can be tricky at the best of times and this was not the best of times. In the early days people were very frightened but fairly quickly this was replaced by a whole raft of issues

“Some people started reliving past

experiences, grievances and

bereavements.”

> Combatting Isolation

including depression. Some people started reliving past experiences, grievances and bereavements.

I was also concerned that people should keep thinking and be as engaged with interests as possible, so I started up activity packs. Every week of the lockdowns (March to July 2020 and then again from January 2021) interest packs were sent out to those who wanted them, by email if possible but mainly through the post. Initially these were local history and creative writing to be joined by fortnightly puzzle packs in late April 2020. I also wrote weekly newsletters containing puzzles that went out to all shopping customers.

It became obvious as the first lockdown progressed that we needed a way of providing some training for new telephone befrienders so our first online volunteer training programme was launched—complete with certificate.

We reopened most of the social isolation and interest groups in July 2020 (Good Afternoon Social, Feelgood Learning and Creative Writing). It was an increasing struggle to manage them because of restricted numbers and various rules but we felt it was important that people could meet with others again. Many of them had spent four months alone in their houses and even if their groups could not yet be the same as they were before, at least they were seeing friends again.

> The Staff View

Hayley Beer

Hayley is our Business Manager but, as is normal in the Feelgood Factory, she does a lot more than just mind the spreadsheets. In addition to ensuring that emergency funds coming into the Feelgood Factory were being handled properly, she quickly realized that there were a lot of crafters locked in their homes who needed to be kept busy.

The call to action came fairly early on when one of our shopping customers explained that she had run out of wool which she used to knit items for Alder Hey Hospital.

As we had wool in the craft cupboard, Hayley sorted this out and it was dispatched to the customer with her shopping. That led to a development of crafting packs to be added to the interest packs already going out.

Hayley was a bit self-effacing about what she did during the pandemic, so the following was written by Helen Martin to fill in the gaps.

“I also know she [Hayley] will not have itemised all she did during lockdown. Without her constant support, I doubt I would have come through it as well as I did.

She was leading the craft group at the start of lockdown and immediately set up a WhatsApp Chat Group so that we could all keep in touch and share our experiences as well as photos of what we were making. I made a crochet rainbow (called a Rainbow of Hope by the pattern originator) and shared it on this group. Hayley asked me to make one for her, which I did, and she promptly posted it to her contacts and the orders flowed in.

“The call to action came fairly early on when

one of our shopping customers explained

that she had run out of wool which she used

to knit items for Alder Hey Hospital.”

> Combatting Isolation

I was isolated at home due to my health issues but that did not deter Hayley. She visited early mornings before 8am on her way to work and collected finished items, while bringing supplies of wool etc. We talked through my living room window until she went off and organised posting/delivering the finished goods. This continued while I made crocheted rainbow teddies, face coverings, cards to be given to people accessing the shopping service, cards for sale to general public as card shops were not open, and cards to be given to key workers. We also made curtains and cushions for a new quiet room.

Crafting apart, she did whatever was necessary to keep the building afloat during lockdown. She sorted failed boilers, cleaned areas, arranged a Saturday painting party so that public ground floor areas would be presentable when people could once again access the building. She even arranged bacon butties for us all.

Designing and painting the Wall of Achievement was one of her greatest triumphs. I am so proud to have been included on it. As volunteers, we expect to work in the background but it is really good to know that someone appreciates what you do.”

Wall of Achievement

> The Volunteer View

Helen Martin

Helen, although she had to shield during the first lockdown carried on crafting and making things for the Feelgood Factory and the community.

“March 2020 took us all by surprise. Global pandemic, national lockdown, no hugs! The world turned on its head. Living alone was a given but not being able to go out (or stay in) and socialise, that was a whole other ball game. Shopping and medicines delivered, a short walk around the block and the car had to stay close to home.

Crafting had always been my go-to when things got tough or life needed calming down and it once again became my therapy. I made a crocheted rainbow to go in my front window to cheer up passers-by; then I made one for a friend; then I made and sold more than 60 to help keep crafting alive at the Feelgood once we were “let out” again. Word got around and soon I was making 204 cards to send out with shopping orders and to key workers to let them know we were still there for them, even during lockdown.

Then Thursday clapping ceased and rainbows were not required as much but, being a retired NHS worker, I decided to start making face coverings and I have sold more than 70 of these, some through a local factory, and they are still on sale in the Old Curiosity Shop at Feelgood Factory. I also spent a lovely afternoon preparing knitting/crochet packs and craft packs for distribution to many of our service users who could not access materials while shops were closed. My hands and mind were occupied and my thoughts were with those less fortunate rather than worrying about what was happening in my

“My hands and mind were occupied and my

thoughts were with those less fortunate rather

personal one-woman ‘bubble’.”

> Combatting Isolation

personal one-woman “bubble”.

Sanity prevails, crafting is back at the Feelgood (albeit with smaller class sizes) and I am facing the future double-jabbed with open arms…..but cautiously and two metres apart (with just the odd hug from a trusted friend).”

> The Customer View

Pauline Hampson

Pauline has attended Feelgood Learning for several years. When the lockdown started she says that it felt, “Quite isolating, really. It didn’t help my mental health at all.” She received phone calls from the Feelgood Factory.

Pauline’s husband worked throughout the pandemic and so she was on her own all day. She found that she got to the point where she herself didn’t want to ring anyone because she had become insular. She found that increasingly she didn’t have anything to talk about. Each day was similar to the one that went before.

Pauline received the local history activity pack and says that she found that this gave her something about which she could talk. Her husband read them too and it gave them a topic of conversation when he came home.

IN RESPONSE TO THE LOCKDOWN OUR LIVING

WELL SEFTON (LWS) MENTORS WERE MOVED

TO PROVIDNG SUPPORT FOR THOSE

SHIELDING. THEIR MANAGER, PHILOMENA

ZILINSKI, HAS RECENTLY LEFT THE FEELGOOD

FACTORY, BUT SHE WROTE HER MEMORIES OF

THE YEAR’S EVENTS BEFORE GOING.

> The Staff View

Philomena Zilinski

When the first national ‘lockdown’ arrived in March 2020, for us it was never an option to stand our teams and services down: we kept our organisation focused on its mission and committed to finding new ways of remaining available and responsive to those that need us.

For us that meant rapidly changing our entire delivery models away from venue-based delivery to outreach door step visits, zoom meetings and many, many telephone calls.

For all of us it meant getting used to working digitally using new technology which was completely alien to many. Some staff had to work from home for the whole or for part of the week and this was a big change for all who had been used to the familiarity of the office environment and the instant support from colleagues surrounding you.

This method of working was hugely challenging and exhausting. Managing the extreme uncertainty caused by the pandemic and the anxiety and distress among our staff, volunteers and service users has been extremely

“Managing the extreme uncertainty caused by

the pandemic and the anxiety and distress

among our staff, volunteers and service users

has been extremely difficult.”

> Supporting the Shielding

difficult.

At the beginning of the national lockdown we were unable to offer any face-to-face appointments with clients. So we began to deliver our support by weekly telephone calls. Within the first few weeks we were making over 100 calls each week. Many of our clients were suffering from anxiety because of the pandemic, others were just very isolated as they were unable to see family or friends. The calls were often very difficult as some clients’ mental wellbeing really suffered as a result of lockdown and they needed a lot of support and reassurance. Thankfully we had the support of many lovely volunteers who were able to help with the telephone calls as our LWS mentors were getting more and more referrals.

As the lockdown progressed we found the needs of our community changed. Many people were facing unemployment, redundancy or reduced income due to furlough. So there was a greater need for people to claim food bank vouchers and for us to deliver food bank goods to the clients who were unable to collect the food themselves. We were able to do some door-step chats to provide a friendly chat to people who felt trapped within their own houses. We also helped with collecting prescriptions and getting electric top-up cards, helping with collecting food boxes, moving furniture for people who were ill and getting post and stamps from the post office.

> The Staff View

Lynn Anderton

Lynn is an LWS mentor who took on the task of phoning those who were shielding and also providing guidance and support for volunteers undertaking this work. “It was hard at times, they were very lonely,” she reflects, thinking about the people she was phoning. “They were all clinically vulnerable and some of them had no family at all. They were scared and sad and would talk about anything and everything because they had you on the phone.” At the very beginning of the pandemic a lot of their support services stopped contacting them, although these later resumed.

Lynn says that the volunteers took a lot on emotionally but she kept in touch with them to offer support and took over if calls became difficult. Lynn’s experience in volunteer management obviously helped out because she has retained one of her volunteers.

Contact with some of the clients is still ongoing because they are struggling. One lady she phones will not go to the doctor or for hospital appointment because she is scared.

Lynn observes, however, that for some of these people nothing has actually changed. They were housebound and lonely before the pandemic anyway, so this is their way of life.

Malcolm Bannon

Malcolm is an LWS mentor who also undertook shielding support. He reflects that by and large people just needed support and that the Covid checks they undertook

“It was hard at times. They were very lonely,

They were all clinically vulnerable and some of

them had no family at all.”

> Supporting the Shielding

ensured that people were getting the help they needed. On a couple of occasions he had to refer on to more specialist services because of the problems that were presenting.

Malcolm’s experience in catering (he used to manage the Feelgood Factory’s café) really came into play when the shopping service initially hit problems with food supplies. He stepped in to arrange alternative suppliers using his old contacts and to help with the development of safe storage for food that was bought in bulk.

Malcolm also supports the Feelgood Factory’s men’s activities, including Walking Football, Man Cave and Men on Track. At the beginning of the crisis he set up Whats App groups for the members so that they could keep in touch. Some of the men used this as a way of supporting one another through problems, It also meant that, by keeping in constant contact with the members, the groups were ready to start up again as soon as this was possible—Walking Football was first into action after both major lockdowns.

The Men’s Groups have retained What’s App as a permanent means of communication because it is a lot more convenient than phone calls in most cases.

THE PRESSURE ON THE MENTAL WELLBEING

OF EVERYONE DURING THE YEAR HAS BEEN

WELL DOCUMENTED. THE FEELGOOD FACTORY

WAS ACTIVE THROUGHOUT HELPING PEOPLE

DEVELOP COPING STRATEGIES.

> The Staff View

David Martin-Corkill

As with other LWS staff, David started working during the lockdown by providing telephone support which was eventually supplemented by one-to-one Zoom meetings. Zoom groups were difficult, David says, so the support was normally individual covering anxiety and bereavement, although Zoom Think Differently, Cope Differently programmes were held.

David believes that the extra time for reflection was a mixed blessing. For some it increased anxiety but others used it profitably as a chance for reflection leading to resilience building. Some clients began investing time in new activities paving the way for forward planning.

One of the issues faced was the pressures on families. So much time spent together led to stresses and the need for conflict resolution through communication.

People did not always need just telephone support but practical help as well. David recalls one family who were self-isolating on account of their children. Their young daughter’s physical health required immunity suppressing medication and their son was autistic and required ongoing support. The family was struggling to get shopping and prescriptions and the anxiety was causing conflict. In this case they were referred to other services,

“The extra time for reflection was a mixed

blessing. For some it increased anxiety but

others used it profitably as a chance for

reflection leading to resilience building.”

> Enhancing Mental Wellbeing

including the Feelgood Factory’s shopping service, for practical support.

This type of “joined-up” working became common and included the referral of telephone support clients to counsellors associated with the Feelgood Factory such as the Mental Health Drop-In.

> The Staff View

Philomena Zilinski

Think Well Thursday is a mindfulness course aimed at people who have anxiety or who have mild depression or sadness. The pilot course was delivered in late 2019 to test out the materials and resources. Feedback from the participants was really good so the final course was ready to be launched in March 2020. Due to the pandemic the first time we were able to run the course was 15th October and after delivering three Thursdays we had to cancel due to lockdown. However we were able to deliver a lot of exercises by emailing or posting to the participants then telephoning them to see how they got on.

LIFE MAY HAVE SLOWED DOWN FOR MANY

DURING THE LOCKDOWN BUT NOBODY

INFORMED THE BABIES AND THEY CARRIED ON

BEING BORN. THIS MEANT THAT

BREASTFEEDING SUPPORT SEFTON, DEPRIVED

OF ITS GROUPS AND, FOR A WHILE, OF IT FACE-

TO-FACE MEETINGS, HAD TO EXTEND ITS

OTHER MEANS OF HELPING BREASTFEEDING

MUMS.

> The Staff View

Carol Miles

Breastfeeding Support Sefton relies on volunteers to do a lot of the support work and most of those volunteers are the mothers of young children. Carol comments, “The year saw many challenges due to the lock-down restrictions but the dedication of our volunteers was commendable. They all continued to give support despite most of them home schooling, working from home, four who had recently given birth and three who worked during the pandemic for the NHS .

Due to Covid 19 restrictions, the support groups had to stop from 17th March 2020. Carol continues, “We continued one-to-one support by personal Facebook message, phone, email and we noticed a considerable increase in the number of contacts made though these channels. As it is extremely difficult to assess correct position and attachment using these methods, we also introduced the use of online video calls so that we could maintain direct individual contact with mothers accessing our service. “

“Phone calls were being made that were not

really about breastfeeding. It seemed that

mothers were feeling isolated and worried

about a range of issues .”

Breastfeeding Support

From January 2021, following another lockdown, the service started a weekly Zoom Coffee Morning for mothers.

Breastfeeding Support Sefton noticed a large increase for contacts made throughout this time, which Carol feels is a reflection of the reduced number of home visits made during this period by other health care professionals.

As time went on, Carol also found that phone calls were being made that were not really about breastfeeding. It seemed that mothers were feeling isolated and worried about a range of issues alone with the children. As a result, the service trialled a “Buddy” system to enable volunteers (not necessarily trained in breastfeeding) to support mums who just needed a friendly voice (and, eventually, face). This project proved successful and has been awarded some funding from the Improving Maternal Mental Health Fund to develop it further.

> The Customer View

The Facebook group is really useful to communicate with other mums when you need an answer at silly o’ clock, or you can't talk on the phone because your baby is asleep or being held whilst feeding and the noise would disturb them. It was a godsend to me, my baby was 5 months old when lockdown started and I was completely cut off from other mums face-to-face.

Always there whenever you need support Both Gill and Carol gave me lots of confidence

BABIES CARRY ON BEING BORN AND GROWING

THINGS CONTINUE TO GROW, SO THE

COMMUNITY GARDEN STAYED OPEN TO ALLOW

VOLUNTEERS TO UNDERTAKE SOCIALLY-

DISTANCED TASKS TO KEEP IT ALL GOING.

> The Staff View

Pauline Gillett

Regular sessions have been consistent this year. Mondays and Thursdays between 10 and 4pm and from April to August, Saturdays 10-1pm, have attracted 29 regular, one-off, drop in and occasional, shorter-term volunteers,

The garden marked Christmas by collecting natural Christmas decorations for sale, purchasing mini conifers, packaging sunflower seeds and decorating wreaths. Wholesale real Christmas trees were sale and collect. Pauline says, “We totalled our harvest during 2020 as an awe-inspiring 1300kg of fruit and vegetables produced in the Garden.

“December and January in the garden are our planning months, and volunteers still attended regularly. A seed stocktake took place, along with ordering for the year ahead. We built a ‘coffee shed’ from a broken donated shed, gave it a flagged base and an extended roof. It was used as a base for selling hot drinks and cakes during our summer Saturday sales sessions. This was complimented by holding volunteer kitchen sessions making cakes, scones and biscuits.”

The garden invested in buying seasonal plants locally, potting them on and making up pots and hanging baskets.

Pauline continues, “Mondays attract our ‘hardy’ gardeners. We share skills, pruning, harvesting, planting, s

“We totalled our harvest during 2020 as an awe-

inspiring 1300kg of fruit and vegetables produced

in the Garden..”

> Community Garden

sowing seeds, plant care, mowing and woodwork amongst other things. Our Thursdays have continued to be a volunteer-led session, mainly female volunteers completing tasks and socialising, developing independence, confidence and using their own initiative. This summer it’s been great having the Ladies Friendship Group use the garden as a setting. Many people have attended the garden for activities, having a look around and buying or tasting the fresh produce that we’ve grown.

> The Volunteer View

Mark Buxton

When the lockdown happened a decision was made that we would keep the community garden open if at all possible, as on the whole we were working outside.

This we were able to do and it definitely helped with some of the volunteers’ mental health. We obviously followed

the guidelines regarding social distancing.

Collectively we also made the decision to diversify into the selling of plants, as well as completing the coffee shed and baking cakes to sell

The garden has been helped immensely by donations of plants (Frank one of the volunteers donated loads of plants which he had been growing for us) we also had donations from other people as well

In June, and July and August the garden was taking approximately £70-£100 per week from the sales of produce plants and cakes, tea and coffee. so it proved to be very worthwhile undertaking. So to sum up the community garden is a true asset to the Netherton area.

Netherton Feelgood Factory

Glover’s Lane

Netherton

Merseyside

L30 5QW

Tel: 0151 291 8010

Email: Info@feelgoodfactory.org.uk

www.feelgoodfactory.org.uk