YOUR LOCAL NEWSLETTER | 23 April 2020 Council marks St George's Day - celebrating our very own heroes  The St George’s flag is being flown high outside Barking Town Hall today (Thursday 23 April), to mark St George’s Day. Due to the coronavirus lockdown, the usual festivities had to be cancelled but residents are being encouraged to mark the day from home. Show your support for the NHS, key workers and frontline staff  Don't forget to make some noise tonight at 8pm and clap for NHS, key workers and frontline staff who are working incredibly hard to keep us safe. Stand at your door or open a window and show your support! 👏👏👏 Enforcement officers and local businesses working together During this tough time it’s important that we all work together and that’s exactly what a large number of our local businesses have been doing with council enforcement officers. Together, they’ve been ensuring that the government’s social distancing rules are being enforced. Over the last couple of weeks, enforcement officers have been out and about giving social distancing advice and have so far worked with 130 local shops. However, since the lockdown started, enforcement officers have had to close 28 local shops, and issue 24 prohibition notices, to businesses that haven’t been playing by the rules – either by staying open, when they should have been closed, or by hiking up the prices of products. If you know of any shops doing this, please report them here. Young Mayor to raise money for domestic violence charity  The recently elected Young Mayor of Barking and Dagenham, Jessica Soares Paim, has decided to support and raise money for domestic violence charity Refuge during her term representing the young people of Barking and Dagenham. The members of the Youth Forum voted unanimously on who they would support and raise money for throughout the year, with several options available. The Young Mayor and her sub-group thought it right to support Refuge due to concerns that cases of domestic abuse could be on the rise because of the current lockdown situation. Jessica has already held a virtual call with a representative from Refuge to discuss creative ideas to raise money and how she can support them throughout her term as Young Mayor. The Young Mayor and the sub-group will aim to start raising money during the lockdown. Keep a lookout for their fundraising activities and how you can get involved. Using PPE? Dispose of it properly!  Residents are being urged to act responsibly and save lives by disposing of used face masks and gloves in a responsible manner. The appeal follows feedback from residents and street cleaners who are having to deal with discarded face masks and gloves that have been left on local streets and in parks. Not only does this pose a public health risk by leaving the items for someone else to clear up, it also litters our streets that we are all working hard to keep clean.   Supporting local businesses If you own a business in the borough, we know this will be a worrying time for you financially. We’re doing all we can to support local businesses to ensure they come out the other side of this pandemic strong and ready for business. From Business Rates Relief and grants of up to £25,000, hundreds of businesses across the borough have benefited and if you’re a local business owner, you could too. Find out what support you’re eligible for and get in touch with our team today. www.lbbd.gov.uk/coronavirus-support-for-businesses Help your local businesses by buying in advance   We all want to make sure that our local, small businesses stay afloat during and after the coronavirus crisis and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has launched a new crowdfunding campaign ‘Pay it Forward', encouraging us all to buy goods and services in advance from small businesses. The new initiative will sit on Crowdfunder.com and is aimed at supporting businesses which are currently struggling in industries including hospitality, retail and leisure. The scheme allows you to pay for products or services which will be delivered once businesses return to normal. For more information, head here. Get help and support with your finances  We know that because of the coronavirus outbreak, some residents may be finding it difficult to make ends meet. This can be really stressful to deal with alone, so our friendly team at the Homes and Money Hub are on hand to offer financial support and advice to help you get back on track. So far, since the beginning of March, we’ve supported 360 residents including help with Council Tax and rent arrears. We’ve also helped families with over 170 food bank vouchers. This week we’ve also launched our Hardship Fund to help eligible residents with emergency living expenses including food, fuel (gas and electric for residents who pay via a key meter), travel expenses, and more. If you’re worried about your finances, get in touch with our team at homesandmoneyhub@lbbd.gov.uk or call 020 8724 2115 / 020 8227 2927, Monday – Friday, between 9am – 4pm. For more information, visit www.lbbd.gov.uk/coronavirus BD CAN - Helping our community Since we launched BD CAN (Barking and Dagenham Citizens Alliance Network) a month ago, we have seen so much great work going on, to help those in our community who need it most. It has been such a difficult time for everyone, but for some of our more vulnerable residents, this is when they need that extra help more than ever. Our response was to create BD CAN - a support network working with local voluntary and faith organisations to help those who may be self-isolating and need food or medicine, or just simply someone to talk to. BD CAN has helped with more than 1,100 requests for support so far and delivered almost 1,000 food parcels to local people. We’ve also reached out to nearly 9,000 of our most vulnerable residents and spoken to nearly 3,000 of our more vulnerable council tenants to make sure they’re OK. And so far, 361 people have stepped forward to volunteer to help. We would like to say a huge thank you to all of the organisations and volunteers that have helped us to support the most vulnerable in our community. You can still get in touch if you, or someone you know, might need this kind of support over the coming weeks. Email bdcan@lbbd.gov.uk or call 020 8215 3000 (Monday - Friday, 8am - 6pm) Remember, we can all do our bit by keeping calm, supporting each other and shopping responsibly so that there’s enough for everyone. Social distancing is working, but we must continue We’re in our fifth week of lockdown now and while social distancing seems to be helping reduce the spread of coronavirus, it’s something we all need to continue doing for the foreseeable future, if we want to get back to our normal lives. If we stop now, we risk increasing the spread of the virus. To ensure this doesn’t happen, the government has advised that social distancing rules will continue until they are satisfied that the five conditions below have been met:   Evidence that the NHS can cope across the UK A sustained fall in daily death rates Evidence that the rate of infection is decreasing Confidence that supplies of testing and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) are able to meet demand No risk of a second peak Together we will get through this as long as we follow the rules. Keeping our bin crews safe  Our bin crews are working really hard to keep the borough clean and safe during the coronavirus pandemic. For everyone’s safety, we’ve put up new signs on our refuse trucks asking people to keep two metres away from them at all times and not to approach the vehicles. The signs also remind residents of the need to show our staff the respect they deserve. While the majority of residents have been very grateful of the hard work our bin crews are doing, we’re aware of a handful of incidents where residents have been abusive. We take all of these incidents seriously and are reporting them to the police, to make sure our staff can work safely. Every Mind Matters We all have times where life gets on top of us, and now, more than ever, it’s important to look after our mind and body. During the lockdown you might feel frustrated and anxious, and be missing friends and family. To help us with our mental health the NHS have a great resource called Every Mind Matters, with lots of tips and advice. You can also create your own personalised Mind Plan at: www.everymindmatters.co.uk  Let's get moving  Getting active is the best way to keep our mind and body in check during the lockdown. When you exercise, your body releases chemicals called endorphins which trigger a positive feeling in the body. There are loads of online workouts available, and sessions for all ages and abilities! Check out Everyone Active’s online sessions on their Facebook page facebook.com/everyoneactive/. They have workouts for the whole family, so there’s no excuse not to get your sweat on. The NHS also have daily live interactive online exercise sessions for all ages and abilities. Find out more here.   Unleash your creativity in the Valence House poetry competition Calling all budding poets... Pen a poem for your chance to feature in a special museum display and win £20 of Amazon vouchers.  Valence House Museum is inviting poets of all ages to lay down some words about life in lockdown. They want to celebrate our community, friends and family with some poetry positivity. To enter simply email your poem to: valencehousemusuem@lbbd.gov.uk Don’t forget to include your age – there will be a winner selected from both the adult and child (under 16) entries. Entries close at 10pm on Friday 24 April and the winners will be announced on the Valence House website and social media channels on Monday 27 April. Winners will also receive an email to confirm they have won.   Coronavirus daily updates Every day we post videos about different aspects of coronavirus on our social media channels. For the latest information please follow us on Facebook and Twitter.