Celebrating 100 days of Oxford Together

Sara Fernandez, Oxford Hub CEO

At Oxford Hub we believe that building relationships between local people creates a stronger community for everyone. Local support networks can have an incredibly positive impact in many areas that help people thrive, including health, wellbeing, education and job prospects. It shouldn’t take a pandemic for local strangers to come together and help each other!

Relationships are largely unappreciated and unrecognised as a positive force for addressing inequality. This is what has been driving our work at Oxford Hub for the past 12 years: bringing people and organisations together for a better Oxford, building connections amongst people who wouldn’t otherwise have met. As the pandemic started, we knew that a community response would be essential to overcome the challenges of Covid-19. We launched Oxford Together on the 12th of March, and reoriented the existing Oxford Hub infrastructure towards four different volunteering areas, delivered in partnership with a range of local groups: food distribution, social phone calls, prescription deliveries, and practical support. Everyone participating in Oxford Together — myself included! — are meeting new people and making new friends of different ages, backgrounds and walks of life, building support networks that will last a lifetime.

“Local support networks can have an incredibly positive impact in many areas that help people thrive, including health, wellbeing, education and job prospects”

I’d love to take this opportunity to say a colossal thank you to all of the fantastic volunteers who have been involved in making Oxford Together possible. Our volunteers are providing support to thousands of people across Oxford, with so many people going out of their way to be there for their neighbours. We’ve had a phenomenal 5500+ local people sign up to help out, and we’ve been blown away by the enthusiasm and energy of everyone across the City.

Several people who have received support through Oxford Together have then gone on to volunteer and help others, and lots of our volunteers have told us they’re planning to meet up in person with the people they’re supporting once it’s safe to do so. With 1850+ phone calls made by Phone Link volunteers, 1000+ Practical Support volunteers matched with local people, and 1600+ weekly food parcels delivered to people in need in Oxford City, Oxford Together volunteers are building a new social fabric that can support the community during lockdown, and beyond.

To the local residents performing music for their streets, the neighbours doing the weekly shop for their older friends, the teenagers helping with dog walking, and the people hosting seedling swaps to keep one another’s gardens alive: thank you for reaching out and connecting with one another during this testing time. It’s amazing to hear stories like these coming from our volunteers and the people we’re supporting. We are committed to maintaining this remarkable community spirit, and are learning about how to do this through a storytelling project in partnership with Arts at The Old Fire Station. We cannot wait to share this with everyone in the City.

“At Oxford Hub we believe that building relationships between local people creates a stronger community for everyone…It shouldn’t take a pandemic for local strangers to come together and help each other!”

Relationships are largely unappreciated and unrecognised as a positive force for addressing inequality.

Although we are working to support people in need, the people who are receiving support aren’t the only people benefitting from being a part of Oxford Together! 91% of our volunteers say that taking part in Oxford Together has a positive impact on their lives, and they’re benefitting from the social and active aspects of volunteering just as much as those they are supporting. Whether you’re running errands, cycling prescriptions or phoning from home, thank you for getting involved.

I’d like to take this moment to remind readers that these wonderful moments of connection shouldn’t be left behind once we all rush to the pub with our friends again. There will still be isolated older people, single parents, and local people facing difficult circumstances in Oxford who need our support. The transition back to normal life will be much harder for some than others — and those people will still need our help just as much, if not more, than before.

We are building relationships that we hope will long outlast Covid-19, and create stronger communities for the future. Sign up to get involved with Oxford Hub, and help us build a better Oxford.

Find out more about what we do, and sign up to be a part of Oxford Hub, over on our website: www.oxfordhub.org.