The Commission during lockdown

Like many other third sector organisations, COVID-19 challenged how we worked, but also allowed us to support #GuernseyTogether to help the community keep healthy during lockdown. Although we delayed some projects, we adapted services and created new initiatives to address the demands the community faced and build on the positives that emerged. Some of the projects identified new areas for us to work in and forged new partnerships. 

Here is a brief round up:

• We’ve supplemented nearly 1000 Guernsey Welfare Service Food Bank parcels with fresh vegetables and fruit since April and we’re looking to extend our support.
• We launched the I Can Eat a Rainbow campaign, using the power of the rainbow symbol to encourage children to eat a variety of vegetables and fruit.
• We created two new webpages full of resources to help families and those in self-isolation Be Active at Home and Eat Well at Home. Website hits showed that these were really popular. 
• The community really embraced getting out and active and sent us a huge range of their own examples which we turned into a short film.
• We also launched the #GetOutThere campaign to inspire people to keep active after lockdown.
• We created Stand Up for our Health: a resource to help people working from home to break up their sitting time.
• We published several news articles and blogs, on our website and in the Press signposting people to local support for drug and alcohol use, domestic violence, and mental health, along with ideas on ways to keep alcohol intake under control, eat well and keep active during lockdown.
• We temporarily seconded a member of staff full time into the Public Health Contact Tracing team. Thank you Lucy for your critical support for such an important job!
• We provided content and guidance to Public Health and the States of Guernsey on health and well-being which was used online and distributed by post to all households.
• Our Dietitian and Specialist Nurse continued to run the adult weight management clinics via phone and adapted the child and family weight management service.
• We advocated for pop-up infrastructure changes to help make walking and cycling safer and easier for the return to school and worked with the States and with schools.

As a team, we have been honoured to play our part in #GuernseyTogether and look forwards to continuing our work creating and advocating for environments which make it possible and easy to live healthily as part of our new normal.