UPDATE: COVID-19 Vaccination Support for Harpenden. Call for Local Volunteers

One week on – and we have had the most extraordinary response. Our request for volunteers last week was kindly forwarded on by many, and word has clearly spread across various residents and local community groups. We have even had a few former Harpenden residents offering to come back to the town to help! Over the last seven days we have now received over six hundred (605 to be precise) offers of assistance – and this figure continues to grow daily! 

Please bear with us. Thanks to more than a dozen Call Handlers and other Harpenden Trust volunteers who so kindly came by the Trust offices this last week, we have been very steadily and systematically getting back to people, thanking them for coming forward and asking them how they would like to contribute, and ultimately forming a detailed weekly Volunteer Rota. It is a mammoth exercise … covering four regular time slots each day, Monday through Saturday; comprising roles including outdoor marshalling, patient support and administration support; covering the first full week period with effect from Monday 4 January, in addition to covering some days immediately before and after Christmas. In aggregate the rota comprises 336 timeslots each week (or including the December dates, we are filling some 616 specific timeslots in total through to Saturday 9 January next year!). Each volunteer may then also need appropriate references and/or DBS checks putting in place – another substantial exercise, led by a separate Harpenden Trust team, that is also well under way.   

So many people have been so incredibly generous with their time. 

The rota is already 85% complete, and we have only got back to approximately the first 200 individuals to date who have come forward. We anticipate finalising the rota next week, and then creating a reserve list for those who may be able to step in to the weekly rota in later months, as and when some original volunteers may understandably need to step away. At the same time, we have also been able to collate the names of 73 potential vaccinators and we will be forwarding these details on to those coordinating the national response for vaccinators.  

We are determined ultimately to get back to everyone – either by phone call or email – but the task at hand is huge – so please bear with us if this takes us a little time. We anticipate ultimately calling back maybe the first 250 or so people who have so kindly contacted us, and emailing the remainder. 

Please do forward this update note on to anyone who you may have forwarded my original request to last weekend. It has been an extraordinary experience for those of us in the Harpenden Trust halls this week seeing how our local community has responded in such an overwhelming fashion. There are bound to be teething problems as we get such a substantial operation up and running – so please be kind if we need to recontact anyone or if some aspects take a little time – but we have been able to go back our GP Federation this weekend to confirm that as a community, we are ready to assist them when the local vaccination programme is ready to commence. 

Thank you all …. 

 

Richard Nichols

Chairman, Harpenden Trust

14 December 2020

In Other News

Young Enterprise - National Final

28 June 2025
Some great news from the National Final of the Young Enterprise competition where Food From the Roots, a team from Roundwood school, were competing. This is the first time a team from Harpenden has reached the National finals.
More

Volunteer opportunity - The Compassionate Cafe

28 June 2025
The Compassionate Cafe is a partnership between The Harpenden Trust and Rennie Grove Peace Hospice and runs a biweekly drop-in session at the Well Bean Cafe at 130 Southdown, above the Co-op.  We are looking for another volunteer to join this wonderful team.
More

New Summer 2025 Issue of the Harpenden Trust Newsletter

07 June 2025
We are delighted to attach our new Summer 2025 edition of the Harpenden Trust Newsletter (click on the link at the end of this News notice). The Newsletter highlights many of the Trust’s activities that have taken place during the past few months, and much of our ongoing work in the local community. You can also learn about the values of the Harpenden Trust, which guide our thinking and our actions and define what is important and worthwhile in the…
More

Willow Court Care Home - Fundraiser for the Harpenden Trust

30 May 2025
On Bank Holiday Monday 26th May, Willow Court held a Fundraising Event for the benefit of the Harpenden Trust. It was a great success and included a bouncy castle, tradesman stalls, drinks and hot food, music entertainment and a raffle. The initiative raised £267.50 for the Trust which is very much appreciated and was an excellent reward for all the hard work from the staff at Willow Court that contributed to making the event so memorable.
More