Blog in pink circle

Bright lights in a dark world

19 March 2020 · Categories: Opinions and responses

I’m one of those people with ‘underlying health conditions’ and writing this from my isolation room (aka our back bedroom) at the beginning of Day 4. I know I’m only just ahead of the curve and that many more people will be forced to completely self-isolate – and find ways to stay positive when their patterns of life are completely disrupted and they can’t physically be with …well anyone…….

These 3 days (only 89 – or possibly 537 – to go) have really brought home how important we all are to each other – and how all my joys lie with being with other people. Thank goodness for the telephone and internet because they do allow us to come together if only virtually. And thank goodness for the generosity and creativity of people trying to find ways to connect with and help people who are isolated – and in the process help themselves.

I chaired a webinar for NHSE yesterday which brought together people from the National Academy for Social Prescribing and from the voluntary and community sector to begin to explore ways in which both can work together to help people ‘live the best life they can’. We started by sharing examples of communities coming together to support each other in this very dark time and had a flood of examples from the practical neighbourhood telephone trees to the joyful virtual yoga groups and tea parties.

Communities everywhere are coming together to help each other in the face of this unprecedented global crisis. We don’t know what the future will hold but we do know that our resilience and strength lie in people supporting people.

CommCats’ people are supporting each other by sharing the many heart-warming stories of people helping people in the areas where they work. Each one lights a candle in the dark and we thought one thing we can do at this difficult time is share some of those stories. We are going to do that under the hashtag #brightlightsinadarkworld. Please join us with your own stories of communities coming together. Let’s light some candles together!

Sian Lockwood
Chief Executive

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