How W12 charity The Upper Room is adapting to the coronavirus challenge

The Wendell Park charity has moved from feeding the masses to supporting its clients over the phone. Chief Executive Nicky Flynn explains how their world has changed since the outbreak 

Horton and Garton has always championed the valuable charitable work that The Upper Room in Wendell Park, Shepherds Bush, delivers to those in most need locally. Our support has ranged from helping with fundraising, sponsorships, promotions or even just donations, because we believe their work is an essential part of looking after our community. 

The outbreak of coronavirus has required Nicky Flynn, Chief Executive of the The Upper Room (pictured), to adjust to new challenges and change the way the charity can support local people through periods of homelessness, hunger, unemployment and financial distress.

“We were serving food to many of our rough sleepers and homeless clients until the impact of the coronavirus outbreak became fully evident,” Nicky says. “We realised quickly that we wouldn’t be able to continue providing any services that brought 60 to 80 people together in our headquarters at St Saviour’s Church. It was an incredibly disappointing for us, but we knew it was the right thing to do.”

Instead, The Upper Room scrambled to work with Hammersmith & Fulham Council to arrange for vulnerable people to get rooms in London hotels, encouraging them to stay off the streets and into isolation to help limit the spread of the virus.

Crisis

With their clients looked after, The Upper Room began focusing their efforts on services that help people get through this difficult period. “We’re trying to be as flexible as possible, and be there for people even though we are working remotely.”

With their food service now paused, and the space at the Wendell Park church now no longer able to serve as their base, the team is now providing support from afar. “Our team speak six different languages so we’re helping over the phone,” she said.

Another new challenge has been providing mobile phones and SIM cards. It’s hard to imagine anyone navigating a time of self isolation without access to the internet or phone, so providing people with a means of communication is crucial to help people feel connected and access digital support.

Recovery

Nicky anticipates that demand for The Upper Room’s services will only rise as lockdown is eased and the economic pressures increase. “We need to think about what services people are going to need. We are going to need to look at how we can increase our counselling service, because I think there will be a lot of people traumatised by the effects of losing friends or family members, or from the financial issues resulting from the outbreak.”

Working with other agencies to help people get out of any debt they’ve entered during these months, as well as multilingual employment support, will also be important.

“An awful lot of people have lost their jobs,” Nicky asked. “How can we support people to get back into work?”

Currently, The Upper Room is helping people with online Universal Credit applications and they also have the UR4Jobs project to help people seek employment.

If you’d like to learn more about The Upper Room or can volunteer or make a donation to help, please visit: www.theupperroom.org.uk