Weston Town Council has been working closely with various community groups to provide support during the coronavirus lockdown.
The town council is looking for volunteers for ‘Weston Helping People’.
Volunteers are assigned errands for service users in need. Forms can be found online by clicking here.
A number of council-run services are providing entertainment and services to households during the lockdown.
The Blakehay Theatre
The Blakehay has been turned into a virtual theatre, bringing entertainment and supporting the efforts of local artists in the Weston area and beyond, both on its website and through its Facebook page. Learn about backstage theatre in a video series, with a glimpse into the life and proceedings of backstage. Each video in the series will focus on a different aspect and role found as part of a backstage team. Learn what they do, how they work, what responsibilities they hold and most importantly how that contributes ultimately to what you see on the stage. Videos are released every Saturday at 5pm until May 2.
Weston Museum
The Museum is working on curating its very own digital museum. The new online efforts continue to focus on promoting access to heritage for the community of Weston as well as engaging with the people through education and entertainment.
An online activity pack called Know Your Place has been created in partnership with North Somerset Council. Aimed at key stages two, three and four, the learning pack is designed to support local history, heritage and cross-curricular learning in schools, community groups and other educational facilities using Know Your Place digital mapping tool.
People can use the pack to discover their local history, get involved with their community and start conversations about heritage. Be inspired to upload your own content onto Know Your Place, and help us grow this rich local heritage community resource for everyone. To get involved, log on to www.westonmuseum.org/know-your-place.
A reminiscence activity pack has been inspired by the museum’s work with active living groups and residential homes. A trained team of volunteers would travel to one these groups with a specially picked handling box brimming with nostalgic items. To adapt to the chaging times, the museum has created this resource pack to help inspire living history conversations over the telephone, online or even a letter. It can be found online at www.westonmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Rem-PDF.pdf
Clara’s onine cooking show, designed to inspire the community to get creative in the kitchen, will be live in the coming weeks. It will begin to incorporate historic recipes for people to try at home.
Milton Road Cemetery
The town council has given consideration as to funeral services at this time. Its grounds team continue to maintain the Milton Road Cemetery.
Its spokesman said: “We are mindful that anybody needing our services during this time will be deeply distressed that family and friends will not be able to celebrate the life of their loved ones.
“We are therefore making sure that every family knows when restrictions are lifted we will provide our Chapel in Milton Road Cemetery for a remembrance service should they wish to.
“The grounds team continue with their conservation work and we will be sharing this with you all through social media and our website.”
YMCA
The YMCA Weston youth and community team has taken to providing their sessions online over the past few weeks and are now using Facebook, Instagram and Zoom to continue supporting young people and families in the area. The team has also been working in collaboration with local organisations to deliver meals to families and staff are looking at other ways in which they can offer support to the community and those most vulnerable at this time.
To keep in touch with the team, follow them on Instagram: @YMCAWeston-super-Mare and on Facebook: YMCA Weston-super-Mare Youth Clubs.
Weston Youth Council
Members of Weston Youth Council are keeping in touch with each other and are planning to have a Zoom meeting next week to continue working on their projects and talk about how they can support the community. The youth council are on Instagram too: @WestonYouthCouncil.
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