Fishbourne Volunteer Squad completes 100th job!

The Fishbourne Volunteer Squad, set up when the lockdown came into force to help vulnerable residents of the village, has this week completed a hundred jobs. Anyone in the village who’s isolating at home can call a dedicated number to ask for help, with each job being taken by one of more than seventy volunteers.
The Chair of the FVS, Julie Barwell, said: “The success of the scheme shows what a great community spirit there is in Fishbourne. The volunteer support has been amazing; we have a dedicated crew manning the phone and jobs are typically allocated to a volunteer within minutes. Users are advised who will be completing their request and when to expect them to arrive. To have completed a hundred jobs in just a few weeks is a significant achievement”.
The Chief Organiser for FVS, Jak Dyer said: “Most of the jobs we’ve completed have been shopping for people who can’t leave their homes, and collecting prescriptions. But we also provide someone to chat to if people are feeling lonely, and we’ve even reunited a lost elderly cat with its owner”.
The Fishbourne Volunteer Squad is supported by the Parish Council, the Church, Fishbourne CE Primary School, the Friends of the school, and the Fishbourne Companions who are all represented on the organising committee. It has been awarded a grant from the Sussex Charities Foundation. Anyone in Fishbourne wanting help can phone 07377 231074 any time between 8am and 8pm, 7 days a week. All volunteers practise social distancing at all times.