SEVERAL community groups are coordinating support for vulnerable people in Penarth and the surrounding areas during the Covid-19 epidemic.

One such group, Helping Hands Penarth, gained 1,000 followers on Facebook in the first three days of operation.

The group was established to bring together volunteers who will buy supplies and provide support for elderly and vulnerable people in the coming weeks and months.

“I was taken aback by the amount of support and offers of help,” said Kathryn Easthope, who organized the group.

“It would be nice to keep this community spirit going- so if we call it ‘Helping Hands’, then it can be used for anything.”

Penarth Town Council printed 10,000 leaflets for the group, which were then stored at Rowley’s Jewellers on Glebe Street.

Kathryn and her husband, Anthony, have been directing operations from the backroom of the jewellers, which they referred to as the ‘war room’.

It was here where local volunteers met earlier this week to collect and distribute the leaflets, which were counted into batches of 50 and posted through people’s doors with the volunteer’s contact details.

Each volunteer is responsible for a street or area in Penarth.

Volunteers who are in self-isolation themselves have offered to provide emotional support by calling others for a chat.

Another group which follows a similar model is the Llandough Covid-19 Mutual Aid Group, which takes its name from a national movement of local support networks.

The group’s organiser, Jo Byworth Morgan, has lived in the area with her husband and two children for seven years. She said the local community would become a ‘crucial support system’ as the epidemic sweeps through the country and vulnerable people are forced to self-isolate.

“I spent a pretty uncomfortable 24 hours wondering whether to try to organise something myself, or even how to do it, and then I came across the Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK movement, and I realised that if I could then I should,” said Jo.

She said the group aims to cover every home in Llandough by deploying volunteers to each street, close, and block of flats.

To request assistance or offer support, contact: LlandoughMutualAid@gmail.com.

Both groups can be contacted on their Facebook page.