In late January I started as a Volunteer Intern at the Bishop’s Palace; in March, my internship was on hold. When my two young children started learning from home, I quickly realised that it was nigh on impossible to concentrate on anything for longer than twenty minutes before being interrupted by “Mummy!” shouted down a corridor. I suspended my internship as well as several other voluntary activities I had been doing. Instead, I accidentally started a ‘Delicious Dropby’ baking treats for local passersby who had taken to walking past our garden gate on their daily constitutionals; that lasted three months and raised £500 for the Street Community Support Group.
I’m not very good at doing nothing, so I quickly became the volunteer co-ordinator for a big project which was providing weekly food deliveries to Covid-impacted vulnerable families in Street and its surroundings. This lasted until late August and in all we delivered 40620 meals to nearly 200 families. It’s been great to hear from Siobhan about the collaboration between the Palace and the Wells community too and to see the emphasis being placed on welcoming everyone into the Palace site.
The phrase ‘new normal’ has fallen into common usage but I think it is an easy, shorthand way of talking about something which we don’t understand. The glimpses of reality from my corner of Somerset are that my kids have gone back to school and I now have the capacity and time to concentrate on something. I have returned to my volunteering with enthusiasm, keen to pick up where I left off.
Except, we aren’t quite able to do that. Things have changed. I’m not returning to the same scene I left in March. Now, I am even more fully convinced of the amazing power, knowledge, experience and compassion that we have in our local communities and I am committed to trying to put those things to good use. The harshest lockdown may have ended but its short- and long-term legacies – social, economic, educational – will stay with us for the coming months and years. I hope that for the second half of my internship at the Bishop’s Palace I can be part of strengthening and sustaining the community network which flourished during lockdown, and planning how it can be woven into the fabric of our local community to serve and support everyone.
Alison Horgan
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