0300 111 2122 Calon [email protected] www.grwpcynefin.org @grwpcynefin Here for you Spring 2020 @Grwp_Cynefin Welcome to a special edition of Calon, ‘Here for You’, which focuses on how we’re trying to support you during the Coronavirus Pandemic. This edition is packed with practical hints and tips on how to keep safe and busy during this dicult time. Thank you NHS and Key workers We are aware that many of you have been busy creating rainbow pictures and displaying them in your windows to spread the cheerfulness and show your appreciation to our wonderful NHS staff and key workers. Thank you to everyone who sent us pictures of their windows, they look fantastic and we’re sure they put a smile on many faces! Repairs Finances Please continue to report any repairs We realise that your income may be that are required to your property. impacted at the moment. Please call We're only able to carry out emergency us if you have any concerns and we repairs at the moment. Any repairs can offer you tailored support which are not emergency will be to help you with your rent and recorded and scheduled at a later other essential payments. date. Contact us Wellbeing 0300 111 2122 Our staff are here to help you during this worrying [email protected] time. We can set up regular www.grwpcynefin.org phone calls to check you're ok, or put you in touch with @grwpcynefin other agencies. Just give us a call. @Grwp_Cynefin [email protected] Coronavirus STAY AT HOME Thank you NHS and Key workers SAVE LIVES Anyone can spread Coronavirus. The only reasons to leave home are: To shop for basic necessities or pick up medicine To travel to work when you absolutely cannot work from home To exercise once a day, alone or with members of your household Do not meet others, even friends or family. Published 24.03.20 Word of Welcome Shan Lloyd Williams, Chief Executive We hope you and your family are safe and healthy. In this special issue of Calon, I would like to emphasise that we are here for you during these dicult times. Our team is working hard to support you, and more details on the type of help are available in this newsletter. Please contact us if you feel you need any further assistance. I want to thank you all for adapting and supporting the new way of working that we have to follow at the moment. I know we are not able to oer the same maintenance service or usual face-to-face support, but this is only temporary, and we are very keen to be operating as normal as soon as it is it is safe for us to do so. I would also like to thank you for following Government guidelines by staying home and saving lives. Remember to keep an eye on our website and our facebook and twitter pages for the latest news and advice. Take care Shan How can we support you? We will keep you safe and secure in your home No one will be evicted from a Grŵp Cynefin home as a result of financial hardship caused by COVID 19. We will help you get the financial support you need Our Welfare Team are here to help you access welfare schemes to alleviate financial hardship. We are here to support you and find solutions if you have difficulty paying your rent We will work with you to understand how we can best help you manage your tenancy. We will do everything we can to support your wellbeing Please contact us if you require any additional support and we will do our very best to assist you either ourselves or through a network of partner agencies. Free check-in-and-chat telephone service for the over 70s in Wales who live alone. Anyone over 70years old in Wales can register with Age Cymru, free of charge, to receive a regular telephone call from the charity in either Welsh or English. All you have to do is get in touch with them on the contact details below. Telephone Number: 08000 223 444 Email: [email protected] Here for you Darren Thomas, Welfare Team Hi I’m Darren and I am the Team Leader for Gr�p Cynefin’s Welfare Team. The Welfare Team is here to help and support our tenants with accessing the help they need during times of hardship and crisis. This could be help with benefits claims, accessing services such as tenancy support, or help with everyday costs such as free school meals, emergency grants and help with energy costs. The Coronavirus has had a massive impact on all our lives, with lots of us unable to go to our place of work, and sadly losing jobs because of the new rules brought in to stop the spread of the virus. Loosing your job overnight can leave you with a daunting list of tasks to do, such as: • Claiming Universal Credit for the first time or changing the details of your UC claim • Prioritising bills such as paying your rent • Negotiating with creditors, such as mobile phone, Sky TV etc. • Prioritising essential expenditure, what we need as opposed to what we like or want The Welfare Team get lots of calls from tenants who are worried about paying bills such as rent, food and utilities when they don’t have any money coming into the household. We know that lots of people are finding it difficult to access benefits such as Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and Universal Credit. Our Welfare Team are here to help, even if it’s just a reassuring chat that you are doing the right thing! Please give us a call or message Gr�p Cynefin’s Facebook page, and one of the team will get back to you. As part of our efforts to stop the spread of Coronavirus, our Welfare Officers are working from home, but we still have access to all of our systems, and offer a telephone and e-mail advice service, we are also able to offer advice sessions over Whats App video calling. Please, if you need help during this tough time, get in touch on any of the contact details on the front cover. Darren. Cemlyn Richards, Information Systems My name is Cemlyn, and I work for the Information Systems Team. We have been very busy over the last two weeks helping many staff to work from home. Although our offices are now closed, we can still support you at the other end of the phone. As a team, we have also been busy trying to help the wider community. We had stock of old ipads in the office, which we have managed to get back in working order, and taken to a local hospital, so that the patients there can keep in touch with their loved ones at home during these difficult times. Using "video call" technology is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends, far and wide, and it's very easy to use. Remember to stay safe while staying home, and help support our health service and key workers. Cemlyn. Ann Vaughan, Cyswllt Cynefin Hi, I’m Ann Vaughan, and I’m the Customer Services Manager at Grŵp Cynefin. I manage the Cyswllt Cynefin Team. We’re your first point of contact, and although we’re all now working from home, we’re still here to take your calls, emails and messages. It has been an extremely busy couple of weeks, and you may find it takes a little longer for us to answer your calls, but please bear with us! Remember that you can also contact us by email at [email protected] or you can send us a direct message via our Facebook page. The coronavirus situation is changing all the time, but we’re here to take your call, and try and help you in any way we can. You can also contact us about repairs that are needed at the property, but please remember that we’re only able to carry out emergency repairs at the moment. Ann. Lowri Evans, Community Officer Hi I'm Lowri, Community Officer at the Denbigh Office. I'm usually out and about setting up projects and activities in the community, as well as encouraging tenants to participate in our work. Over the past few weeks my role has changed significantly. I'm temporarily relocated at Llys Awelon, our extra care housing scheme in Ruthin, to assist staff and provide extra support for our tenants during this difficult period, whether that be dealing with their concerns, chat from a distance or even repair their TV! To help tenants stay safe and follow the rules of social distancing, everyone has lunch in their flats rather than in the restaurant. The team have provided trolleys so that we can deliver the food safely to each flat, it seems to be working well. We have also been working hard to ensure that everyone in our extra care housing can receive their food shop- ping safely. There is now a system in place where they can order food and other essentials from a local shop, which we deliver to everyone's flats. We were very lucky to receive a donation from Tesco supermarket Ruthin this week with a trolley of essentials - thank you very much, everyone was very appreciative. I am proud to be part of the dedicated team that provides the service to keep our tenants safe including care and kitchen staff.