{"id":2029,"date":"2016-01-14T15:01:54","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T15:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joind.co.uk\/?p=2029"},"modified":"2017-02-12T22:06:01","modified_gmt":"2017-02-12T22:06:01","slug":"loneliness-new-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joind.co.uk\/loneliness-new-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Loneliness and new communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

When post offices in rural communities were shut down[1]<\/a>, it was not just the inconvenience that residents complained about.\u00a0 People who lived in the affected villages regularly reported that the \u201cheart had been ripped out of their community.\u201d[2]<\/a> <\/p>\n

The housing estates being built in the Diocese of Oxford have never had post offices.\u00a0 Known as new communities (euphemistically perhaps), they don\u2019t even have post boxes at first.\u00a0 Most don\u2019t have pubs, shops, community centres, doctors\u2019 surgeries or schools either.<\/p>\n

Research has shown that when people have spaces in which to meet, friendships and social networks are sustained. People living in Manhattan, New York, for example, experience it as an urban village even though half of them live in lone households. This is because there are caf\u00e9s and alternative places to hang out.[3]<\/a> When people have nowhere to go, they experience a void rather than a heart. There\u2019s a sense of isolation that generates a particular kind of feeling alone.<\/p>\n

And these places in which people are vulnerable to loneliness, are being built right across the wider Thames Valley. In the Oxford Diocese, there are 38 new communities being created in ten Oxford deaneries affecting 48 parishes. Bicester will double in size, so will Aylesbury. Milton Keynes will get considerably larger.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

The role of the church\u00a0combating\u00a0loneliness in new\u00a0communities<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Within these estates, the church has a significant role to play. \u201cDevelopers build houses, but churches seek to engage communities,\u201d says Peter Morgan, New Communities Development Officer, Diocese of Oxford. By moving in, baking cakes as welcome gifts, writing newsletters, holding street parties and setting up mother and toddler groups, the church can help create places where people can flourish.<\/p>\n

It can also act as a bridge between the developers and those who live on the estate. Developers have to provide schools and community centres but not before people have moved in and not necessarily in the way they need. There is a role for the church in forming relationships with planners and builders to help ensure the appropriate community facilities are written into plans and delivered on time. \u201cThere is no other resource on the estate,\u201d said Captain John Bentley, New Community Minister, Kingsmere, Bicester. \u201cWe have created a means by which people can find out what\u2019s happening, where to go and be a community.\u201d<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> The Network Change Programme was announced by the UK Government in May 2007 in response to declining use of post offices which was leading to unplanned closure of branches.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Post Office Closures: Impact of the Network Change Programme, Consumer Focus Wales (2010)<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Weiss,\u00a0 R. Loneliness: The Experience of Emotional and Social Isolation Cambridge. MA: The MIT Press (1975)<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> New Communities Group, Summary of Large-Scale Housing Development, Diocese of Oxford (2015)<\/p>\n

The role of Facebook in developing new communities<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Pros<\/strong><\/p>\n