Tell me about your community

[AlexaShutUp]

I've travelled a lot and lived abroad, and I guess I've always had a strong sense of being part of a wider global community, but as I get older, I'm increasingly aware of the importance of our local communities and the part that strong, connected communities have to play in promoting our wellbeing and good mental health. Increasingly, I'm interested in doing more to develop and support the community in which I live, and I'd like to hear about what others do and what they think makes the biggest difference.

I already volunteer locally, and I am making an effort to talk more to our neighbours/help out when I can. I also try to support local businesses, but I'd like to know what other people think about community. Is it important to you? What is it that helps to promote strong and thriving local communities? And what do you do personally to contribute to this?

Nobody?

My road has a WhatsApp group and neighbours take turns to invite people around. I think it also helps to have local events. In my area, there is the annual Artists’ Open Houses as well as tons of different fairs. I think the borough is now trialling a Street Play scheme for children to hang out together.

We have

Independent Shop Day - discounts & offers on one day a week
Artisan market once a month
Scarecrow festival
Spooky Walk for Halloween
Lots of children trick or treat and people decorate their houses
Firework displays
Christmas window displays (each house decorates a window with a Christmas theme)
Library events
Quarterly food market

I'm physically disabled and am mostly homebound so don't join in community things. However, I belong to a thing called 'Nextdoor.co.uk' which covers my area and people advertise items for free or sale or advertise their skills or you can ask for recommendations for tradesmen and I've found it far better to find a person this way to do a job in my home rather than stick a metaphorical pin in Yellow Pages.

The local council also gives advance notice of various events and we sometimes have a good moan about them wasting their money eg getting a new logo when the roads and pavements are in a terrible state.

Interesting JoJo - how did that all get started? Sounds like a really nice community feel.

Iklboo, I have come to love Halloween in recent years precisely because of that community feel.

Thanks Silvery, that sounds like a good website.

If you don't mind me asking, is there more that your local community could do to help you as a person with a physical disability, and if so, what would that be? Do you get lonely if you're mostly homebound?

We’ve got the nextdoor.co.uk thing too but it’s full of people trying to sell junk and moaning about parking.
Not much of a community here if I’m honest, but I don’t mind that so much as we are rarely at home anyway with work / busy weekends.

We have a great community where I live (a large village). We have a community library which does baby groups, adult education, a youth club, employment support etc. A community centre run by the parish council which does classes, lunch clubs, toddler coffee morning and different drops ins. It feels very close knit and the village FB page is active with support for others (as well as the usual parking woes and lost dogs).

At the last local election all the Tory councillors were voted out of the parish and borough seats because the council had decided to sell off some green space to raise money to extend the community centre with no consultation. They've now scrapped those plans.

What community? People here have extended families and childhood friends thry've known 30 years. Therefore they don't really have a need for 'community' in the wider sense. Unlike the rest of us.

We now have a Facebook group which is very active.

But I’m not really a community person. I like my privacy and my car!

Having community events (summer fair, Christmas carol singing etc) really helps.

An email list / local Facebook group helps too - we have the former and although there is a certain amount of moaning on it there are also nice things (like people giving stuff away) and possibly even moaning about roadworks draws people together.

Recently someone started a monthly meet up and chat in the local pub for people to get to know each other (and used the email list to publicise it).

It's also really good if you have a physical meeting space like a community centre, though I realis there isn't much you can do if you haven't.

Good luck - communities are important!

AlexaShutUp I'm fiercely independent, very happy living on my own and never feel lonely. I would honestly not be keen on being someone's 'good deed' project and I'm pretty sure people's lives are too busy anyway. I go shopping with a friend on my mobility scooter once a week and I chat to other friends on the phone.

I'm on the computer for a good part of the day - play a couple of MMORPG games and chat on them and on and off through the day on Skype with a friend in Australia.

Mumsnet also keeps me amused of course