Voluntary Action Camden Christmas 2020 Update to Members and Subscribers

Christmas 2020 Update to Members and Subscribers

23rd December 2020

Unlikely Year Caps an Unlikely Decade

This unlikely decade has been capped by the strangest year of all.  After a decade of austerity and quantitative easing the chancellor’s magic money tree found a new role paying for millions of workers to stay at home, whilst millions of others had to depend on volunteers. Businesses were automatically sent money by the state while those responding to the crisis found it hard to access funds.
The vaccine hopefully spells the beginning of the end and life will begin to return to normal.  But it will be up to us to define what that new normal is.  If we don’t want to return to the old normal we must come together in 2021 and be prepared to fight for a better future.

Christmas Opening Times

Full details of Camden council services opening times over the Christmas holidays can be found here.
Opening hours for pharmacies over the Christmas holidays are here.
The Camden Covid-19 Helpline 020 7974 4444 (option 9) will be open from 8 am to 6 pm on working days and operating an out of hours service on bank holidays and weekends.
VAC will be closed from 25th December to 1st January 2021 (inclusive) and the e-bulletin will return on Friday 8th January 2020.

Christmas Lists

We’d like to share our Christmas wishes, New Year’s resolutions and suggestions to read/watch/listen/play or do.  It turns out that we nearly all had the same Christmas wish – that we could get back to normal and visit and hug our friends and loved ones  – and then go on a holiday! (Though someone opted for fancy cheese…)
New Year’s resolutions were more varied  – ranging from catching up on reading to maybe getting a tattoo.
But we have plenty of suggestions to read/watch/listen/play or do
Mandira suggests watching : Money Heist; Patal Lok (Hindi); The Kingdom (Korean) and Zodiac (all Netflix)
Manuella suggests a good game of monopoly with your household (sanitize the dice and make sure you’re the banker!)
Hasel suggests making bread and butter pudding using Mary Berry’s recipe.
Dianne suggests watching Ratched Season 1 on Netflix –psychological thriller with great costumes and leading lady drama; based on Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Zubair suggests watching Challenger: The Final Flight and Dear White People (Both on Netflix)
Ricky suggests playing Among Us – Free Mobile Game  – Murder Mystery for up to 10  players.  And some ping pong!
Alex suggests Watching Vikings and Black Sails  (Amazon Prime)
Donna suggests reading Wilding by Isabella Tree for the future of farms. Or the Lillith books by Octavia E Butler for a sci fi rollercoaster ride through themes of humanity, race, culture, gender, slavery.
Nasrin suggest watching Agatha Christies ‘Crooked House’- (Netflix) and reading Howard’s End
Kevin suggests watching Knock Down the House (Netflix), or reading the biography of VAC’s founder (and the whole CVS movement) – Thomas Hancock Nunn : The life and work of a social reformer.
Lucky dip read, listen, watch and another read.

One More Thing

As is traditional, there is a major public sector consultation taking place over the holidays.  Despite the pandemic, health and care are undergoing the largest reorganisation in living memory.  Health, social care and voluntary and community organisations are being aligned into a new community health system, to be called an Integrated Care System.   These are due to start on 1st April 2021 (just 3 months away!). The consultation, from NHS England, asks for views by 8th January.  Even if you don’t respond, it’s worth reading to get a sense of the massive changes that are coming.  We have a specially marked up version of the document to help you find the relevant bits fast – yellow for areas of particular interest and blue for mentions of the VCS.

VAC News

We have plans for an exciting year of events, a new office, new programmes and more.  Whether it’s on a screen or face-to-face we look forward to seeing you all in 2021.

Finally, thank you for everything you’ve done this year.  You may not get a medal, but you will have some incredible stories to tell.  We wish you all a peaceful break and a well earned rest.

Kevin & the VAC team: Alex, Dianne, Donna, Hasel, Mandira, Manuella, Nasrin, Ricky and Zubair and all the Trustees and Volunteers.

Our mailing address is:
Charlie Ratchford Centre, Belmont Street, London, NW1 8HF

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.