In Southampton, We Will!
It’s #iwillWeek, so here are some social issues we have uncovered in Southampton. At Southampton Hub, we pledge to use our time and resources to implement new projects in the city and to tackle some of these issues.
On Wednesday 7 November, Southampton Hub hosted a One Community Forum in association with UPP Foundation at the University of Southampton. The UPP Foundation aim to ‘tackle the biggest issues facing the education sector across the UK’. You can find out more about them here. Hub staff and student committee members were joined by existing community partners, University of Southampton staff and charitable organisations from across the city to talk about the big issues facing our community.
On reflection, the event was a successful way to connect with other socially motivated people and organisations, and to think about ways we can collaborate to heighten our impact for the people of the city we care about. Here are some of the things that were important to us:
Mental Health:
On World Mental Health Day our Youth Projects Officer, Sophie Ford, and Empower co-ordinator, Sophie Regelous, delivered workshops to Southampton primary schools as volunteers with Southampton City Council. The participants looked at how physical activity and responding to emotions can positively impact mental health.
In light of this, at the One Community Forum we spoke about the need for mental health support for younger people, particularly in times of transition such as primary to secondary school, or college to university. We spoke about the possibility of offering similar workshops to schools and colleges on transition days with an aim to promote peer support, with the idea that if we can provide young people with the skills to effectively support each other, they will have a sustainable support network.
Loneliness and isolation:
City councils across the country are pushing initiatives that seek to provide older people with company. LinkAges is a national Student Hubs programme that provides organisations, care homes and charities with student volunteers to share stories, eat cake and play games. However, we recognised that loneliness and isolation is a much wider issue, for a variety of reasons:
- It is not age specific
The feeling of being alone can be felt by any person of any age. Whether you have just lost a loved one after 50 years of marriage, or you have moved to a new city for a graduate role, we acknowledge that everyone, everywhere, can feel lonely.
2. You can be in a room full of people and still feel alone
Sometimes, company just doesn’t cut it. We recognise that loneliness isn’t just about being surrounded by people but being stimulated by conversation and activities and unfortunately, many of these things comes at a cost.
3. Opening times and accessibility
Libraries are an extremely beneficial public resource providing conversation and stimulation, but if their opening times are the same as your working hours, how can you access them? Some attendees questioned whether student volunteers could be used to extend opening hours of public services so they are more accessible.
Southampton could be a lot more collaborative:
As we saw in the One Community Forum, there are so many people and organisations that care about social action in the city. Some of us had met for the first time that day, showing that we are not skill-sharing in the way that we could be. All the attendees realised that events like the One Community Forum should be happening regularly so we can find ways to collaborate and discuss current issues in Southampton.
As part of the One Community Forum, we will be writing a consultation form which will be given to all attendees to circulate and be added to this blog once it is finalised. We want consultation from all areas of the community in Southampton about how we can effectively make change in our community. If you would like to discuss this in more detail with Southampton Hub staff, get in touch at hello@southamptonhub.org.
Southampton Hub will be posting about the #iwill campaign in from 12–16 November, and highlighting all the ways we pledge to support #socialaction and #youthsocialaction in our work. See more on the #iwill website.
