Bay Harbour: September 23, 2020

PAGE 14 Wednesday September 23 2020
BAY HARBOUR
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
News
Reconnect
in style
with
neighbours
• By Bea Gooding
WE MAY soon be reconnecting
with our neighbours in style.
Summer with your Neighbours
is due to start next
month.
A strong focus this year was
for neighbours to re-establish
connections with each other
following the Covid-19 lockdown.
People were able to apply for
funding from the city council,
to organise events such as street
parties, neighbourhood cleanups,
fundraisers or sports days.
Council head of community
support, governance and
partnerships, John Filsell,
said getting to know
your neighbours creates a
greater sense of community
connectedness and safety.
Following the 2010 and 2011
earthquakes, he said there was
a huge swell of community
connections with neighbours
developing strong relationships
and supporting each other.
The same could be said for
the current pandemic.
“Due to the Covid-19
lockdown, people were out
in their neighbourhoods
again and connecting from
a distance; checking on
vulnerable people and making
sure they had access to food,”
said Filsell.
Summer with your Neighbours
starts October 23 and
will run until March.
Group tackling social isolation
THE COVID-19 pandemic,
social dislocation and even
geography conspire to further
isolate already vulnerable
seniors from their communities,
a community development
advocate says.
Social isolation is an emerging
issue brought to the fore by the
response to Covid-19, Sumner
Bays Union Trust community
development team leader Eddie
Hayes said.
The lockdown and the subsequent
movement through the
alert levels has exacerbated anxiety,
reduced the push to go out,
and has affected many socialising
options, he said.
Social distancing rules meant
groups had to downscale or even
temporarily stop the regular
events that provided interaction
and companionship, he said.
“The lockdown highlighted
many of the issues already
experienced by some of the most
vulnerable in our community,
and they are issues that persist
even out of lockdown.
“Older and vulnerable people
were encouraged to get others
to get their groceries, but there
were isolated people who simply
did not have someone else to get
their groceries.
“People were encouraged to
use the internet for their shopping,
but there were people who
were isolated and just not loaded
into the internet.
“This was a situation that was
accentuated where vulnerable
people were not involved in
activities, not part of groups, and
did not have the connections to
get support.”
However, plenty of that potentially
life-affirming need was met
SUPPORT: Social worker Maree McGovern and community
development team leader Eddie Hayes.
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN
The Bay Area Seniors
Project Group is:
• Sumner Bays Union Trust
• Sumner Community Residents’
Association
• Redcliffs Residents’ Association
Mt Pleasant Community Centre and
Residents’ Association
• Heathcote Valley community Association
• Lyttelton Community House Trust
Woolston Development Project
Beating isolation
• Join Christchurch Gets
Ready christchurch.getsready.net
• Join a club, go to church
• Offer to walk of feed a neighbour’s
pet
• Grow vege plants and offer them to
neighbours
• Swap details with a neighbour, just
as the community rallied to keep
an eye out for and help those
who needed it, Hayes said.
in case of emergency
• Look for other ‘alone’ people and
invite one over
• Become a cafe regular, look for
other people on their own to smile at
• Make scones and take them to a
neighbour
Helping out
• Get to know your neighbours and
take an interest in them.
• Be prepared to assist elderly neighbours
in an emergency
• A personal invitation to an event or
activity and offer to take them can
be enough to break the ice
Remember: it can be hard to ask
for help. Offer your support to
others.
Source: The Bay Area Seniors Project
Group
Community and school
groups, neighbourhood associations
and neighbours, and social
services all pitched in, just as
they did in the wake of the Canterbury
earthquakes.
“Our community is used to
responding. We have a wonderfully
supportive community. The
problems arise when we go back
to how things were before.”
There remained many potential
obstacles for improving
social connections and beating
social isolation in the bay area,
Hayes explained.
The popular retirement base
had an ageing population – the
resident population over the age
of 65 is between 15 per cent and
20 per cent – and its hills and
steep streets limit mobility.
Many older people cannot rely
upon the immediate support of
family members, who may be
elsewhere in the city or out of
town entirely.
Neighbours often kept an eye
out for each other, but the pressures
of modern life – multi-job
families, long working hours
and frequent household moves –
made things difficult.
It was in this context that
identifying people who needed
help, and providing ways to
connect people with each other
and the wider community, was
important, Hayes said.
The Sumner Bays Union Trust
is part of the Bay Area Seniors
Project Group which is tackling
social isolation in the Sumner,
Mt Pleasant, Heathcote Valley,
Lyttelton and Woolston area.
The group is sharing information
about social isolation and
the need for connections, and
is actively linking seniors with
groups, services and activities in
its communities.