Durham charity helps those ‘terrified to go out’

Durham charity helps those ‘terrified to go out.’

A Durham charity has launched a help service for people affected by Coronavirus. 

CitySafe Durham usually provides first aid and medical support to people enjoying the city’s nightlife. But now the team are helping local people through lockdown.

Durham charity helps

Volunteers are meeting urgent need in the community – using a £2,298 grant from County Durham Community Foundation. 

Founder Keiren Stephenson said: “Our usual activities can’t happen right now and we have people and resources so why not help?

“It took a week to get everything in place and the funding helped marvellously.”

Rise in volunteers

The funding helped the charity to add more teams to their rota, all of whom can be contacted by radio.

The charity is offering a telephone befriending service, thanks to a rise in volunteers. It is also helping people with shopping delivery, prescriptions, posting mail and errands.

Keiren added: “The demand has been huge.

“We have 90 jobs on the list this week in different areas which we’re busy coordinating. 

“We’re helping older people, or people who are self-isolating because of health reasons. 

“Some of the people we are supporting have cancer and are just terrified to go out.” 

So far, the team expect to work with thousands of people over the coming months.

County Durham Community Foundation

The foundation has distributed 219 awards worth £1,110,764 in 14 weeks of Covid-19 grant making. The smallest grant was £100 and the largest £30,000. These funds are supporting 196,000 people across County Durham, Darlington and Tees Valley.

The Foundation is supporting local groups at the heart of helping using funds from the National Emergencies Trust appeal.