Six months ago, on 17/03/20, The Dusty Forge transformed overnight from a busy community centre to an eerily quiet hub for vitally important crisis response work. ACE rapidly adapted work and refocused resources to support the emerging needs of our community. While our doors remained shut to the public for months to come, our services continued digitally, over the phone and by home delivery.
Our staff and volunteers stepped up to the challenge and what we have achieved together is truly remarkable.
During the Covid crisis and lock down (in the last 6 months) ACE staff and volunteers have:
– Provided 1083 food parcels to families through our Pantry collections and delivery service
– Provided phone based support to 440 people struggling with a range of challenges related to the crisis
– Provided Mental Health support to 196 people
– Supplied 6 cooking packs each to 50 young people, totalling 300 family meals
– Provided 27 people with weekly ‘Phone Friend’ calls
– Provided 109 people with prescription deliveries
– Supplied 45 people with Back Home Boxes after a hospital stay
– Worked with partners Grow Cardiff to get people in Ely and Caerau growing fruit and veg in their back gardens
– Engaged 30 pupils from Cardiff West Community High School in CAER Heritage Project activities
– Supported around 100 people to dig more than 35 back garden archaeological test pits exploring our local history through CAER’s Big Dig
Many of these activities and services will continue as we open up the Dusty Forge again to meet safely face-to-face and welcome back community groups. Life might be returning to some kind of normality, but the challenges brought by the pandemic will be affecting people in our community for months and years to come. And we will be right here, evolving and adapting as needs develop and continuing to support our local community. To find out more about our essential work in these challenging times, please check out the rest of this impact report.
ACE’s Youth Offer.
‘My new lease on life’. Julie Chancellor – ACE volunteer for Your Local Pantry.
Food parcels and phone calls.
A new look Dusty!
New songs for a strange land verse 2 – reflecting on ACE’s work during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fundraising update: We Did It!
