Charities suffering though the pandemic: ‘I fear that we will lose members when things return to normal’

Navan Arch Club

Pre-Covid Navan Arch club was a vibrant social club for adults with intellectual disabilities, however, once Covid hit they were forced to alter their operations according to their secretary Mary Davitt.

“We have over 130 members and 30 volunteers. Before the pandemic, we met in Beaufort College once a week to do activities ranging from sports like basketball, volleyball etc. to arts and crafts and a lot more. But a lot of our members are very vulnerable to Covid, so we had to shut down straight away once it hit.”

Tragically a member of Navan passed away as a result of the virus last April.

“Sadly we lost one of our members, Adrian Bartley, to Covid in the early stages of the pandemic, so we have first-hand experience of just how deadly it can be,” said Mary

The club has embraced technology to keep in touch with members over the last year and although Mary says it’s not as good as meeting in person it has helped them keep in touch with their members.

“We set up a Zoom account which has been a lifesaver. We meet three times a week doing things like choir, cookery, arts and crafts, music and discos and fitness sessions. We set up a buddy system for people who don’t have Zoom where volunteers ring a member once or twice a week to check-in. It’s not as good as a traditional meeting but it’s a lot better than nothing.”

Although she is optimistic that Covid is coming to an end Anne is taking steps to prepare for another prolonged period under strict Covid restrictions.

“We’re hopeful that things will come to an end soon but we’ve just renewed our zoom account for another year. We did meet between lockdowns for a Christmas Carol session but there was only ten of us and we were well spaced out. That was only a once-off and we’ve been depending on online meet-ups ever since.”

While they received a lot of support from around the area, this has all been curtailed by the virus and even though they have no income the club still has expenses.

“The community around Navan were very good to us before Covid. For funding we had bag packing in SuperValu and Dunnes Stores, people organised events such as quiz and social nights etc. But all of them stopped almost overnight last year.

Even though we’re not together we still have expenses. For example, I’m sending out 40 envelopes every two weeks that cost €2 each. It may not sound like a lot but it adds up over time when we’ve no income.”

Mary is also fearful that members will be fearful to return to the Arch Club having been forced to spend so much time away from it.

“I fear that we will lose members when things return to normal because they’ve gotten out of the habit of going to things. Our members had their weekly routine pre-Covid and when it stopped they couldn’t understand why they weren’t going to meet-ups. Now they’re terrified to leave the house.