Issue - meetings

Joan Best, Crossroads North Argyll

The Chair advised that she was also the Chair of the Crossroads North Argyll Group.

Joan advised that many of the Crossroads staff had been working from home throughout the crisis, providing telephone support to unpaid carers which had then moved on to providing doorstep support to check how unpaid carers were coping. Joan noted that assistance had also been provided by the Group in delivering shopping and prescriptions where required.

Joan advised that the Group had restarted face-to-face support in August when they were able to and were now also able to provide respite.  Joan noted that a grant had been received to provide free respite and travel for unpaid carers until the end of January 2021, advising that the Group would analyse what funding remained at this time. 

Brian Smith, Community Learning Team Leader

Brian Smith provided details of the way in which the community learning service had adapted to the requirement to move learning online during the pandemic and noted that a number of platforms had been used to provide support to those who needed it. Brian advised that the team had also been involved in the Caring for People effort by assisting with phone lines; delivering food parcels and prescriptions; and producing scrubs and face masks. Brian noted that the team had also assisted with school hubs for the children of essential workers to allow them to work during the lockdown period.

Brian provided details of different projects around digital support, including the Digital Connections project which had seen 400 devices provided to the community to assist them in staying digitally connected.  Brian noted that the Connecting Scotland project had also seen over 1000 devices being delivered to schools to assist with online learning. Brian outlined work which had been carried out by the team with young people, including work to re-engage pupils who had struggled throughout lockdown;  work with youth forums; work around increased youth participation; work around health and wellbeing following concerns raised in the Lockdown Lowdown consultation; work with Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYPs) in look at a recovery plan; work around new United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) legislation being incorporated into Scots Law in 2021; and a successful bid to the Scottish Government’s Youth Work Education Recovery Fund which would allow the team to work with partners to create a project which could be offered to young people and would incorporate outdoor learning and an SQA award.

Brian gave details of how the team were involved in the No One Left Behind initiative, assisting both young people and adults to identify and overcome challenges and barriers which they may be facing. Brian advised that since August the team have been able to begin some face-to-face support again although the majority remained online.

The Chair thanked Brian for this update, applauding the team for their partnership working and it was agreed that Brian and a number of youth representatives would be invited to attend a future meeting of the Group to provide an update on the work which was being carried out. Councillor Devon agreed to contact Brian regarding future engagement with the Corporate Parenting Board.  

Laura MacDonald, Community Development Officer

Laura MacDonald advised that Community Engagement Training which had originally been scheduled for March had now been rescheduled to take place virtually in late November and information would be sent out to community groups and Community Councils around this.