Combatting neighbourhood loneliness during coronavirus — 4 things you can do
It’s been a tough week. With daily life grinding to a halt and the future uncertain, it’s been uplifting to see so many wonderful acts of neighbourliness and humanity emerge. These initiatives are helping unite us and combat Covid-19 in the best way possible: with kindness.
Keen to do our bit, we’re sharing what the Loneliness Lab community has been up to — easy things that everyone can do, if, like us, you’re moved to offer help to your neighbours.
Of course we don’t have all the answers. So in true Loneliness Lab fashion we’ll be running a series of “virtual sprints” in the next few weeks, to explore how to support each other and tackle loneliness on our doorsteps over the next few months. If you’d like to join the sprint register here.
In the meantime, here are some ideas to get you started.
1. Find out what’s already happening in your neighbourhood, before starting something new
Our Community Manager, Sophie, explains what she’s done: “Feeling motivated to do my bit in my local street, my first thought was to download the brilliant #viralkindness tool. Ready to print it off and hit the street, I double-checked Facebook and saw there was a neighbour already mobilising to make things happen on my street. By finding this out, I was able to avoid doubling up efforts and instead rallied with my neighbour to work better together.”
Where to look for existing activities:
- Covid-19 mutual aid, where over 900 groups are organising themselves. They have range of resources and guides including this leaflet template.
- NHS — ‘Your NHS Needs You’. The nation are looking for volunteer responders to support people with underlying health conditions.
- Nextdoor is the social network for neighbours, now used as much for neighbourhood support as plumber recommendations.
- Facebook — there are a plethora of local groups on here, with many of the COVID-19 care specific groups are on the Covid-19 mutual aid site, as above.
- Friends of the Earth have action groups all across the UK helping neighbours during the coronavirus crisis.
- To go further than your street, investigate if your city or town needs volunteers. Bristol Council have put out a call for volunteers to be mobilised across the city. You can register as an individual, with your business, or community group. Check your local city too!
- Reach out to local charities, e.g. homeless shelters, or youth organisations.
Once you’ve done your research, decide the best fit for your personal capacity and energy. It’s important to manage your own needs, too — if your street has 100 houses, it might be overwhelming to coordinate a WhatsApp group for everyone! It’s totally okay to just leave a note with 2–3 neighbours either side of you with your mobile number, or check in on someone you know is particularly vulnerable. Every little helps.
2. Keep your message positive!
Many people will be feeling quite anxious right now. So if you do start putting notes through your neighbours’ doors, try to lead your messages with a positive hello, rather than reminding people there’s a crisis and fuelling the fear.
We love this Bristol example by Heather in our team — with her housemate, Pete — who reached out to their street with some colourful postcards and an invitation to join a WhatsApp group. Instead of leading with the coronavirus, they focused on tool swapping and a future summer get-together, with a virus reference as a P.S. As well as being positive and practical, this approach also offers hope and something to look forward to when the pandemic is over.
At the Loneliness Lab we have created our own version of the postcard for anyone to use, print off, or copy the text. You can download it here.
Remember: If dropping anything off at a neighbour’s house, do wash your hands — and the item — in advance. Follow advice from the #ViralKindness flyer: “Coronavirus is contagious. Please take every precaution to ensure you are spreading only kindness. Avoid physical contact (2m distance). Wash your hands regularly. Items should be left on your doorstep.”
3. Focus on building community for the long term
As a team we’ve been talking a lot about how we’re going to be living in the next few months. Whilst it’s pretty hard to imagine life in isolation, this is also a chance to think more deeply about building lasting community. A community that will last beyond the next few weeks and grow into the future.
Bethan, the Lab lead, has written a blog about adapting to virtual working, but every aspect of daily life will be different, whether it’s educating children, doing exercise or getting basic supplies.
There are so many fantastic examples of people responding to the crisis in positive ways. Italians who have been living in isolation have been singing with neighbours and running apartment block exercise classes. We loved this thread on Twitter sharing ideas for virtual birthday parties. The good news movement on Instagram is one of our favourites, with posts from heartwarming to hilarious — highly recommended.
Why not organise a movie night, book club, or craft circle to connect with your neighbours or friends when self-isolating? There are virtual choirs, concerts and theatre to watch.
There’s even a Netflix plug-in where you can watch the same episode in sync!
And for any millennials and generation Z that may be feeling overwhelmed, anxious or lonely, our friend Katie is hosting a daily virtual guided meditation.
4. Support local shops and businesses
Through the Loneliness Lab, we’ve learned that one of the most important aspects of tackling loneliness is good community infrastructure - places and spaces where people can go to connect with other people and feel they belong. Local shops, exercise studios and community spaces are really important. With the country practicing social distancing, small businesses and community spaces are under huge financial pressure.
So let’s work hard to keep our community spaces going! If you can, support local independent shops and community providers over the next few months. Food businesses are allowed to stay open and rules have been relaxed so they can become takeaways. Local greengrocers can often deliver, and we love this example of MoveGB who are supporting their exercise providers to run virtual classes and have launched a support fund for them. As a team, we’re looking forward to taking a collective yoga class ‘live & online’ via zoom.
Find out via local Facebook or Next Door groups which local shops and food outlets are offering to do takeaway and deliveries. #ISUPPORTBIRMINGHAM is a great example of how people in the city are sharing information about local traders staying open.
If you’re a food outlet or shop, consider offering to pack up groceries for people in isolation for their neighbours or friends to collect. Taking payments over the phone from the person in isolation can help minimise the spread of disease and remove any worries neighbours may have about being responsible for each other’s cash.
Other examples of shopping locally online:
- Farmdrop (London)
- Good Sixty (Bristol and Bath)
- Where to buy local in Bristol — a spreadsheet set up by Steph Wetherell
- Deliveroo — still operating with no-contact deliveries, and a fund to support their workers
- Help your hood — a new platform for businesses to register gift card information, so you can search and buy vouchers for your favourites and help their cash flow at this difficult time.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be running a virtual sprint to see how we can support local high streets and community spaces. Sign up to get involved.
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Thanks for being amazing. The very best of humanity is on show right now and we are loving it.
We’ll leave you with this heartwarming video of health workers in Spain thanking residents for clapping them every night as they go home from work.
With kindness,
The Loneliness Lab team and friends
@bethanjharris @SPeters100 @heatherknight08, @NaomiGrace_L @esstee
