05 Nov The Festive session can be tough – get in touch if you need support

Christmas is coming up fast, and as you read this, there are just over seven weeks to go!

For most of us, it is a time to look forward to, full of love and joy, but for others, it is a time to dread. A time of loneliness and isolation. Just like every other day of the year.

Our Community Builders are busy across the Bay throughout the year, but they are especially aware as we approach the big day that there are thousands of people in our communities who will need help and support to get through it.

Whilst many of us hunker down to spoil ourselves with family and friends, eating to excess, drinking a bit too much and exchanging gifts and smiles aplenty.

But for others, the Christmas period is a painful reminder of grief, or a mocking reminder of excess when they can barely afford to put food on the table, let alone indulge in buying gifts.

Here at Torbay Communities, we are constantly made aware of the hardship and struggle faced by people of all ages, including whole families in poverty and those who are alone with no families or friends to fall back on.

If you are one of those who do not suffer in silence, help is available, and a great starting point, whether it is about depression caused by loneliness or food parcels, is the Torbay Community Helpline by calling 01803 446022 or using the online form.

Alternatively, now might be a good time to reach out to your local Community Builder, who encourages people of all ages to get involved in their neighbourhood. With extensive local knowledge, your Community Builder can connect you with like-minded people, groups or organisations in your community.

We have seen lives transformed when people of all ages work alongside their Community Builder to bring positive changes to the place where they live. We have seen numerous new friendships and activities emerge in the community, from coffee mornings to social dog walking, IT support groups to crafting workshops, memory cafes to singles nights, and, most importantly, neighbours helping each other out on a day-to-day basis.

Community Building isn’t so much about looking for problems to solve as finding opportunities to develop, not coming up with barriers to be overcome, but ways to move forward. It’s not about ‘directing’ what goes on locally, not imposing from without, but encouraging development from within.

When asked, ‘What do you mean when you talk about “assets”?’ Jim Diers, a leading academic and community development practitioner,  said that “assets” were the usable places and, of course, the people in every community.

Community Builders help people look at what they can offer and at what’s out there in their neighbourhood – like parks and other usable spaces – to discover what communities might benefit from, and to think creatively about how to achieve what’s wanted.

To sum up, Community Building is citizen-led rather than something imposed from above; it’s about people and about relationships between them; it’s not about looking at what’s ‘wrong’ in a community but looking at what’s ‘strong’; its focus is on place, on neighbourhood and location; and finally, while not in any narrow sense political, it’s about social justice – about being human.

Details of our Community Building team can be found here on our website.

There is no judgement. Life can be harsh, and few people choose to be alone over the festive period, and no one wants to see their family suffer as others prosper, but for some, that is how it is. Switch on the heating or put food on the table.

But you can also play your part. Now is as good a time as any to check in on your neighbour; at this time of year, a friendly word can go a long, long way. It might be the only word they hear from anyone all week.

You don’t need anyone’s permission to pop round and see how they are, you don’t need a DBS check, and if you want to share food with them, you don’t need a food hygiene certificate.

Neither will you be regarded as interfering. If they don’t want company and don’t want to chat, they will tell you, but how will you know if you don’t ask in the first place?

A good neighbour is worth their weight in gold, and they help make our communities in the Bay ever stronger and more resilient.  Are you one?