Fife stores offer virtual kindess to vulnerable during lockdown
A project to bring together local groups and volunteers across Scotland is helping people in Fife struggling during the coronavirus outbreak.
Viral Kindness Scotland has been contacted more than 5000 times since the start of the crisis, with more than 750 local businesses and organisations in Scotland registered to be part of the community-led project.
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Hide AdThe initiative has partnered with convenience stores in Fife to ensure there is food available for the vulnerable.
Viral Kindness Scotland is building an army of volunteers to deliver vital goods or provide a friendly voice to talk to, as well as identifying vulnerable people who need help, and making vital connections with local volunteers, businesses and charities.
The service is designed to complement the Scottish Government’s national volunteering campaign, focusing on being a community-led hub to build connections.
The project includes over 500 convenience stores across Scotland from the Day-Today and USave chains which are securing essential goods for those in need and connecting people locally.
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Hide AdNational contact centre Go-Centric has set up a 24-hour freephone helpline, website and digital channels, to provide its own call-handlers for the project.
There are 250,000 Viral Kindness Scotland postcards which have been distributed to stores by the Sarwar Foundation for consumers and shopkeepers to identify vulnerable people in their local communities, which can be returned to the charity by freepost.
And there has been a plea for an army of volunteers to deliver shopping packages to vulnerable residents
The stores in Fife taking part are:
Day-Today, 1 Person Place, Leven
Elite, Laburnum Road, Methil
Day-Today-Elite, Wellesley Road, Methil
30 High Street, Cowdenbeath,
Day-Today Express, Foulford Road, Cowdenbeath
Day-Today, Main Street, Kelty
Usave, Rossland Place, Kinghorn
Day-Today Elite, Wilson Avenue, Kirkcaldy
Day-Today Express, Blairhall Post Office, Dunfermline
Day-Today Elite, Main Street, Townhill
Day-Today, Park Road, Rosyth
Day-Today, Main Street, Thornton
David Harper, chairman of contact centre Go-Centric, which is administering the project for free, said: “My team have fielded thousands of contacts, and the number keeps on increasing every day. There are people who need help, people who want to help, and businesses which want to help, and we’re acting as a central point to co-ordinate this and bring individuals and organisations together at this time of crisis.
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Hide Ad“I am proud of the work my team are doing morning day and night and they are getting a lot of satisfaction from helping.”
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