Celebrating and promoting community spirit is at the heart of the Andover Vision partnership. We are sharing the great work our partners have been doing within the community throughout Covid 19! 👏 #AVconnectedcommunities
Unity
Unity have been doing a great job supporting the community throughout Covid 19. Listen to the video to hear from Terry Bishop, Chief Executive of Unity.
If you need help or support contact the Test Valley Community Helpline ➡️ 0330 400 4116
Dmitrijs Meiksans MYP hosted a 12 hour live stream to raise money for the British Youth Council, Unity Online, Andover Trees United and the Hampshire Youth Parliament with the aim of bringing together young people in their local communities. He raised a fantastic £375!
Hear from Dmitrijs in the video!
Watch the live stream by clicking here: www.tinyurl.com/DMKLive2020
St Mary’s Andover are part of a UK-wide movement called “Love Your Neighbour” which seeks to identify ways we can practically support our communities in this time. Here is some more information on what they have been doing…
Phone Friends Scheme
At the beginning of lockdown, we teamed up with our local NHS and GP surgeries to establish a practical way we could support people with their mental health. From this, the “Phone Friends” scheme was created, which saw NHS patients linked up with members of our community to support them with weekly phone calls. People who received a call might have been living on their own, caring for a loved one, or just needing a friendly chat. At its core, our mission was to ensure that those who needed a connection with the world outside of their home were able to enjoy a conversation and know they were not alone. Our world has very quickly gathered an even deeper understanding into what it means to feel isolated through this experience and we are grateful to have been able to help in this way through the phone calls. For one phone friend, she said the call it was a “conversation she looked forward to every week of lockdown.” The scheme continues even today and we are immensely grateful to these volunteers and look to continue supporting a recovery here in Andover as we move into the future.
Host A Roast
As the summer approached, we were able to match with families in Andover through the help of local schools to gift weekly meals throughout the school holidays. Every Thursday, a team of volunteers pack boxes of groceries, recipe cards and activity sheets which are loaded up into cars and delivered to families across the town. It is our hope that these boxes bring joy, good conversation and delicious food to some wonderful families in our community. We are so grateful to the volunteers that have given their time to prepare, pack, carry, move and deliver these boxes! We look forward to continuing throughout August and to keeping our eyes open for more ways we can love Andover well. We believe the good story is seeing our town and so many other pop-up initiatives banding together to show the best of humanity. We love you Andover!
Four Fun Fridays 2020 celebrating the fun of being outdoors with workshops, art trails and storytelling!
The Four Fun Fridays have been running for 5 years and have brought a free programme of creative fun to Andover throughout August. This years extravaganza may have had to be adapted but we have still been able to run some smaller, safe and socially distanced events, including storytelling and themed workshops!
This Friday collect your art trail flyer from our independent shops in town and take part in the final art trail event. Share your pictures with us #FourFunFridays2020
The Andover Nepalese Community has made an incredible gesture of support for their local NHS frontline staff by raising money for Andover War Memorial Hospital (AMWH).
The group wanted to say thank you to their local NHS heroes, and raised £1,445 through online fundraising.
The community also mobilised a few volunteers to look after elderly and vulnerable people by offering to do their shopping, collecting prescriptions and responding to other requests for support during this difficult period.
Watch the video to find out more about the great work Andover Trees United have been doing over the past couple of months!