Our primary responsibility is the health and safety of our members and guests, so we intend to adhere to the strictest of WHO advice and the protocols advised by local and international authorities. Due to the latest COVID-19 updates, we have made the decision to postpone our upcoming events, or where possible to change certain events to online webinars. Unfortunately, this means we have had to cancel our Yorkshire Three Peak challenge training walks on the 5th April and 17th May. However, the following events have been changed to webinars and more information can be found on the relevant event listings: New Member Drop In (23rd March) How to Support Yourself (23rd April) How to do a TED talk? In conversation with Vikas Shah (14th May) It is still not known how long this period of uncertainty will last and, for this reason, any events that we organise over the coming months are likely to be in the same format, so they can be accessed online. More information will be released shortly. We’re also hoping to be able to join up with our fellow JCI chambers from across the UK, Scotland and Ireland to run joint events to connect our members during this period of social distancing. We appreciate that the Coronavirus updates, and the uncertainty that surrounds them, will be affecting people in a variety of different ways. We would like to offer as much support as possible. Over the next few weeks and months we will be sharing information and initiatives which we hope you will support and which hopefully will help us all navigate through this unprecedented situation. These will include:

• Sharing articles and ideas to take care of your mental health. Here is a link to an article which includes a quote from Nicky Lidbetter CEO of Anxiety UK.
• Providing tips on staying active and productive whilst working from home.
• Having virtual coffee mornings, which will enable attendees to join in and chat with other members of the Manchester community and allow people to regularly check in with one another.
• Sending “Postcards of Kindness”. This is an initiative which encourages people to send postcards to residents of care homes. Whilst this may seem like a small gesture, sending these can bring a great deal of joy and spark lively conversations among the older people who receive them.
• Other ways you can help your community such as making donations to food banks and supporting local businesses.
• Sharing episodes of our Hustle Hour podcast which includes interviews with Anxiety UK and Invisible (Manchester).

If you have any thoughts or suggestions for other ways we can help, or if you would like more information then please get in touch. We will be updating our social channels and sharing newsletters to keep in touch, and we hope that you will join us online. Take care, Team JCI Manchester