Eight members of St. Frideswide’s Church hosted eight visitors from five Citizens:mk member institutions in the first ever online Weaving Trust event, using Zoom as a platform. This is the first of a series of events organised by Citizens:mk in a new strategic partnership with MK Community Foundation to support its Vital Signs research.
Weaving Trust is a carousel of short one-to-one conversations between people who wouldn’t otherwise meet. The focus question for this event was: “Where do we see strength in our community and how can it be used to support mental health and wellbeing?”
Following the conversations, participants shared various reactions and suggestions (below).
Rev Catherine Butt, Vicar of St. Frideswide’s Church, said: “It went to prove that listening and learning can happen virtually in this way, despite the obvious compromises. At St Frideswide’s we are looking forward to working with our partner institutions as we emerge from these strange days, with hope for a fairer and more just society.”
Comments from participants at the end of the session were as follows:
- What has struck me is that mental health issues can affect anyone at anytime to varying degrees – no one is immune
- A minor stress for one person is unbearable for another
- My own context would be very stressful for many people, whereas it’s not for me
- We need to be aware of/sensitive to the mental stress of children
- Community can be about social support too, for example, spot those who are lonely and bring them in. How we do that in lockdown may be more of a challenge for communities.
- Community can help by making people feel as if they belong. People can feel very lonely and isolated in a whole slew of different contexts, but they have to feel they matter to someone, and feel valued, otherwise as humans we feel cut off even if we are in a crowd.
- Aspects that came up in some of my chats: the benefit of green spaces and nature, the sharing of cross generational experience for the support of young and old; smaller communities with hubs at the centre for meeting and activities.
- This session has been great and I think communities need to be very aware of children and young people and their mental health going forward
- Acknowledging we cannot make it right but are there in support of others, we all have skills and experience and can use these to encourage and share in getting alongside others
- It’s been great to talk to five different people coming at the topic from such different perspectives. Strengths in our community/ies that came up in our chats included green spaces in Mk, such as canals, lakes, parks; churches and faith groups a resource for community groups offering somewhere to meet, and volunteers to help community groups to build relationships, and talking to one another. During lockdown, MH is being talked about more because of the detrimental effect staying indoors not seeing loved ones, and the worry about work, money, ill health, etc. But it is good it is being talked about because we need to bring it out in the open, and break stigma. People are reaching out to one another during lockdown at a new level, which is building relationships and this is good for our wellbeing, and so is having a bit more time for quality times with family, parents and children, spouses, etc, and to do less and be more.
- Stability is important in uncertain times – how do we provide/help that when projects/funding comes and goes?
- It would be good if the new found community spirit could be continued past the lockdown phase. Checking in with a neighbour or group Whatsapps for example.
- I wish we could come with other terms, something that carries less of the stigma and less of the medical baggage…wellbeing is a good start.
- I was thinking about how we connect to the people who have any degree of mental health but are either coping or not coping behind closed doors. We don’t know about them and they may no know that there are agencies to help them or feel unable to ask for help. The only way seems to be building relationships within small communities.
- We need to understand that whilst people’s physical needs can be met, anxiety and mental wellbeing is as important and being able to signpost people to help as well as talking is important. There are a number of different community initiatives that can help. Arts organisations, MIND, amongst others are all still working.
- One key phrase that stood out was mutual aid.
- How can community support those who are in acute need? There is plenty of advice coming out from agencies and local services e.g. Arthur Ellis on MKFM on Sunday.
- It’s a concern that people living with MH issues that belong to groups are not able to attend during lockdown.
- There has certainly been a shift in the community around me towards talking when there is an opportunity – we can encourage this by responding even just by smiling/body language.
In post-session evaluation, participants scored the event 8 out of 10.