A HELPING HAND, A LISTENING EAR, A PLACE TO BELONG.

 WAG didn’t start as an organisation, it started as a simple idea to help, and a community that came  together when it mattered most. 

WAG actually started by accident.

My son Nat, who has autism and ADHD, had been following the news about COVID-19 long before it reached the UK. He kept warning me that it would come here, and eventually I realised he was right. I couldn’t find any local information about what was happening in Warminster, so I said to him, “If you find out what’s going on, I’ll start a Facebook group and share it so people know what’s happening.”

I was shielding at the time, so it seemed a good way to stay occupied and do something useful.

Once I set the group up, people started joining quickly. After a few conversations, I began to realise that there were lots of people shielding with no one to help them. Who was going to get their shopping or prescriptions?

So I put a post on the page asking if anyone could help.

From there it just exploded. Within a week, over 500 people had joined, all wanting to help their neighbours.

At first we focused on shopping and prescriptions, but it soon became clear that many people were lonely and isolated. That’s when I started thinking about befriending calls. While I looked into how to set that up properly, we began wellbeing calls instead. Every few weeks, volunteers would ring the people we’d already helped, just to check in and see how they were doing.

It might sound small, but it meant the world. Many hadn’t seen relatives for weeks, and those calls reminded them that someone cared.

Later, once we’d looked into safeguarding and how to keep both volunteers and clients safe, we launched our telephone befriending service properly. Everything grew naturally from there, one act of kindness at a time.

At the height of the pandemic, we were taking close to 100 calls a day from people needing help, advice or support. Families from all over the country were contacting us, asking if we could check in on their elderly relatives living in Warminster.

We ended up with around 150 volunteers going out each day to help, collecting shopping and prescriptions, topping up gas and electricity cards, walking dogs for people with mobility issues, even tending graves for families who couldn’t get out. One time we put up a shed for someone, and other volunteers helped tidy gardens that had become overgrown.

We also ran a little community plant stall that became really popular. People would bring down spare plants, seeds and seedlings to share, and others would take something home to grow with their children. It was such a lovely way to bring a bit of joy at a time when everything felt uncertain.

As lockdown eased, it became clear that the loneliness and anxiety people were feeling weren’t going to disappear overnight. Many had lost loved ones, and others were nervous about going back out into the world.

That’s when the idea of creating a community space began, somewhere calm and welcoming where people could come for a cuppa, a chat and a bit of company. A neutral space that felt safe.

And that’s really how the rest of WAG grew: by listening to what people needed, learning as we went, and trying to make sure no one in our community was left feeling alone.

When I look back at how far WAG has come, I still can’t quite believe it. We’re five years old this year, and I honestly have no idea how we got here, but our values have never changed.

We’ve got the most amazing volunteers, and every single one of them just wants to help. They all care, they really do. Every one of them wants to make life a little better for someone else.

There are no hidden agendas, no egos, no expectations, just people doing good things for the right reasons.

WAG has become something really important in people’s lives, and I’m so proud of that.

– Annie Davis, Founder and Chair of Warminster Action Group