High Life Highland extends range of online services and classes during Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic; Gym classes, archive centre insight and Book Bug thrown into mix
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High Life Highland says it wants to provide extra support for people living across the region during the coronavirus lockdown.
Over the past month High Life Highland's teams have put together a range of online content to support the health and wellbeing of people living in the Highlands.
This includes online classes and a range of free newspapers, books and interactive archive sessions.
More than 26,000 engagements with its social media pages have been recorded in the last week alone.
For details of activities, with links to the resources click
All archive centres, libraries, leisure centres, museums and swimming pools across the Highlands have been closed in line with government advice to minimise social contact.
New services include:
- Online fitness classes from some of High Life Highland’s own instructors, prepared using available equipment and often from the instructor’s home environment.
- ‘workoutathome’, a way to build your own fitness routine available at: https://www.highlifehighland.com/workoutathome/
- Learn with Lorna, a series of sessions where people can find out more about the work of the Highland Archive Centre. To date, there have been over 10,700 views of the series.
- Live Bookbug sessions for young people created through High Life Highland’s Library service, enjoying over 9400 views so far.
In addition all library book loans have been automatically extended and overdue charges have been removed from March 1 onwards.
High Life Highland staff in Adult and Youth Services are also ensuring they keep in touch with vulnerable adults and young people on a regular basis, often daily.
Participants of Cardiac Rehab, Parkinson’s Exercise, Falls Prevention and Move More activities are receiving a personal contact by phone or email from HLH instructors, and supported to continue with their physical activities in a safe and sustainable way.
High Life Highland teams have also been supporting communities through guides on how to use online communication tools such as Skype, Zoom and others and sharing activities for young people through Facebook and other social media, such as ‘live’ bedtime stories and an online Lego club.
Steve Walsh, chief executive of High Life Highland, said: "Our staff have looked at where we can continue to provide services to people living in the Highlands during these unprecedented times.
"By using online channels, we’ve been able to get a number of services up and running fairly quickly; many others are in development and will be available soon for Highland communities.
"Our teams have used technology and innovation to fit within government working from home and social distancing guidelines to offer services online.
"We are indebted to our supporters, especially those that have helped to cover the charity’s ongoing overheads by making donations or continuing to pay subscriptions during this period.
"We are also making applications to other funding available to support organisations such as ours during this period.
"Our services play a major part in individuals and family social lives throughout Highland communities and we've already had some great feedback from people using the resources.
"I hope that these interim measures will help everyone during this time when it is vital that we work together to maintain our health and wellbeing.
"To keep up to date with what is available in your area, please check our website and social media channels. Thank you to everyone in the Highlands for your patience and understanding at this difficult time for us all."
Related: HHL closes venues due to cornonavirus
