Ticks and Crosses posters catch the volunteers’ eyes in the Uists

The group’s volunteers have been delivering Ticks and Crosses posters to every house in the Lochboisdale, Iochdar, Bornish and Eriskay Community Council areas.

And this combined with an information booklet drop organised by the Uist Council of Voluntary Organisations (UCVO) means that more than 900 households in the region are being supported.

Some organisations have been wary of leaflet drops due to the risk of passing on the virus, but to ensure that this risk was minimised volunteers were required to wear gloves and sanitise their hands before and after each leaflet drop to homes.

Included on the posters is relevant information and contact details, and the advice is for people to put them up in prominent locations, so that volunteers carrying out daily checks, can see if there is anyone in need of support.

Talking about the system, Paul Steele of Resilient Uist said: “Our group initially had a number of aims and objectives and one of them was to ensure any support we offered could be accessed by as many people as possible.

“We were aware that not everyone is on Facebook or listening to the Gaelic radio, so we felt some form of local information sharing would work best.

“We’d heard about the great work that was done in Ballachulish where they set up the Ticks and Crosses system and they offered some templates on their website - by using their idea as a starting point - we were able to share our information, as well as set up a community monitoring scheme at a very local level too.”

Paul continued: “It’s been very well received, there are Green Tick posters up in most homes and so far no Red Cross posters, although we have had a few calls from people who weren’t aware of the support we offered prior to delivering the posters.

“Although we have assigned volunteers to monitor different areas specifically, people throughout the community are keeping an eye out on their neighbours and friends and the posters give that extra reassurance.”

“We work closely with all the other support groups in Uist, the local GP practices and we’re also a point of contact for the Comhairle Helpdesk team,” Paul explained, adding: “Although we listed the different forms of assistance on offer we do a lot more for people who need help, from delivering foodbank parcels to changing the batteries on people’s watches, we try to help out in any way we can, and if we can’t do it ourselves we’ll try to find someone who will.”

To find out more about the support on offer contact the Resilient Uist team via:

Paul - 07976 416 811

Kevin -07527 253 323

Darren - 07717 687 032

Or email: [email protected]