The pandemic has led to a huge increase in demands for services such as food banks and mental health support. The after-effects of lockdown led to huge challenges in our communities, at ASVO we continue to monitor and adjust our services to our users/ member organization needs. We will continue to provide essential frontline services that are deemed crucial in the Somali community even as the lockdown comes to an end. As the BAME community was proportionally affected by Covid-19, the after-effects of this pandemic are still being felt across the community and so ASVO we will continue to provide the key assistance required. ASVO alongside the London Community Response Fund, Power to Change, Community Fund, and London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham was able to make a real difference in providing key support to vulnerable communities lacking in the borough. ASVO was able to provide deliveries of essential products local families needed, including drop-ins, we also provided phone services for the community to call us on the support they required, including just having someone to engage with over the phone. Our advice line phone services saw a huge demand in community leads, many suffering from various social, economic, health matters and needed support, we were able to signpost them to the relevant departments that could be able to assist them. Working very closely with our local NHS providing a link from language barriers to our local authority in assisting the council on what social mechanism our local community can benefit from.

ASVO young team including sessional workers and volunteers worked on collecting data on Covid-19’s impact on the community and how ASVO and member organizations supported them during the pandemic. The collected information will help us to improve services and put more resources on areas of priority. The report also looked at each organization’s service provision, resources and identified capacity building needed, develop a COVID-19 Database which will be used to track the impact of COVID-19 support that member organizations have delivered in the community. In addition, this database highlighted where there are COVID-19 support requirements that could be used to illustrate the needs of the community. The project also included implementing a simple phase 1 social media strategy utilizing the following platforms: Twitter and Instagram, delivering ASVO community-wide blog style newsletter using Microsoft PowerPoint/ Google Docs solution, with content and input from the member organizations, community members, and other partners.