WDP and Hermes deliver essential items to Capital Card users during COVID-19 pandemic

Leading drug and alcohol charity WDP has partnered with Hermes, one of the UK’s largest parcel delivery companies, to provide its most vulnerable Capital Card users access to essential items during the coronavirus pandemic through a home delivery service.

Hermes electric vanUsers of the WDP Capital Card earn points by engaging in drug and alcohol treatment and can then spend their points on positive activities and products in their local community at Spend Partners, such as cinemas, gyms or eateries. However, many Capital Card Spend Partners are closed due to the current lockdown.

This innovative partnership means that service users who are currently unable to leave their place of residence, whether because of self-isolating or mobility issues, can place orders for essential items that they would usually ‘buy’ in their local WDP service’s pop-up shops, such as toiletries and non-perishable items. Hermes will then deliver these orders to the service user’s door within one week, as part of the Capital Card ‘Shop on Wheels’ initiative. While WDP services remain fully operational, social distancing guidelines dictate that the pop-up shops cannot currently open on-site.

Hermes is generously providing delivery options in 11 different WDP service locations across Greater London and Cheshire West and Chester, meaning ten packages per week per location can be delivered to service user homes.

WDP chair Yasmin Batliwala
WDP chair Yasmin Batliwala

Yasmin Batliwala, Chair of WDP, said: ‘We are excited to be partnering with Hermes to support our service users during these difficult times. Our Capital Card team are doing everything they can to find new and innovative ways to support our service users, and this news is yet another example of their hard work and dedication and exemplifies everything that WDP is about. We welcome Hermes into the Spend Partner family and thank them wholeheartedly for enabling us to provide safe and secure access to essential everyday items for our most vulnerable service users without them needing to leave their homes.’

Sasha Law, head of internal comms and engagement at Hermes, said: ‘We’re proud to be able to support the Shop on Wheels initiative, which is a great cause, and we’re pleased to be able to use our network to support some of the most vulnerable in society. Hopefully this support will help make a positive impact and enable WDP to continue their valuable work.’

Read the full article and find out more about the Capital Card on www.wdp.org.uk/news


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We are proud to work in partnership with many of the leading charities and treatment providers in the sector.

This content was created by WDP, and first appeared on www.wdp.org.uk

 

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