0-Love Southampton 2022-2023

Love Southampton
Annual Report
2022 - 2023
Through the church, for the city
#Thereishope

Though the church,
for the city
“It has been great to be involved with Love Southampton this year as it has sought
to expand its mission statement and goals to better support and represent the work
of the churches in Southampton. It has clearly made a strong effort to respond to the
challenges that the City faces in real-time, while being sensitive to the wider challenges
that churches face, both internally and externally.
They have worked hard to harness the power of the churches working together to help to solve
community problems within the City. They have gained the trust of wider bodies and organisations
around the City and wider afield.
I am delighted to be supporting Love Southampton and involved in many of its events and projects
and hope and pray that it goes from strength to strength in the future.”
Bishop Debbie Sellin
Bishop of Southampton
#Thereishope
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www.lovesouthampton.org.uk

Contents Page
1. Foreword 4
2. Executive Summary 5
3. Vision and Purpose 8
4. Our work with Christian Churches and Organisations (internally) 10
5. Reintroducing ourselves to wider Faith Communities and the City 13
(Externally)
Story Highlight 1. NHS Cost of Living Conference 15
6. Governance 16
Story Highlight 2. Annual Churches Forum 18
7. Networks 19
Story Highlight 3. Southampton Cost of Living Conference 23
Story Highlight 4. Friendship Festivals 31
8. Faith Covenant 32
Story Highlight 5. Faith Covenant relaunch 35
9. Our Ongoing Wider Work 36
10. Play your Part 38
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1. Foreword
It is my pleasure to present to you Love Southampton’s second annual report. This report
covers 2022 - 2023 and it describes the challenges and achievements during that period as
we implemented our mission of “understanding, recording and promoting the work of the
Southampton churches to the wider world”.
I am delighted to report that Love Southampton has become a voice for the churches in the
city and has developed strong and positive relations with Southampton City Council, the
NHS and other significant local organisations. God has opened doors for us in remarkable
ways and we have taken up opportunities to participate in exciting new projects and
initiatives. The Faith New Deal grant has been a gamechanger and will be explained in this
report.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the churches of Southampton that we
represent for their support, enthusiasm and hard work as we have jointly laboured to meet
a huge variety of complex needs in our city and give hope in very challenging circumstances
“Though the church, for the city”.
Professor Keith Brown
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2. Executive Summary
As the UK emerged from the worst of the
pandemic in early 2022, Love Southampton’s
intense focus on supporting local communities
during lockdown shifted to a resolve to proactively
support the work of the churches in the city.
This year we have focussed on promoting the good work
being done by churches and wider Christian networks in the city.
We reached out to our key supporter churches in the city and talked to
local Christian charities to update our understanding of their community
social action work. We began to map out and record the work that the
churches were doing.
The work of Love Southampton in 2022 was significantly boosted by a grant to City Life
Church from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The grant was
one of 16 in the country under the Faith New Deal programme. The project involved dozens
of organisations. It enabled Love Southampton to add capacity to the community food
projects, lead two Cost of Living summits, commission an independent impact evaluation
and relaunch the Faith Covenant.
We reported on new church projects, such as food banks, and local partnerships with
national charities, such as a CAP debt centre. We felt that it was very important for our
mission to understand what community work Christians were doing in Southampton as this
would then allow us to tell the story of how God was working within our communities on a
wider scale.
We continued to receive requests for support, on average around one per month, which we
would quickly triage and pass onto key partners, as needed. These were often around the
need for food, which was picked up by The Big Difference, but would sometimes be more
complex.
We shared Love Southampton’s work with churches through regular newsletters, display
stands and talks, helping churches to know that we were active and could support and
partner with them. To this end we also spent time redesigning and improving the material
on our website, producing branded materials, and writing monthly newsletters.
Our aim is to be visibly engaged at the heart of coordinated and effective social change in
the city, and for every inhabitant to have a growing understanding of the hope and positive
impact that Christians, the Church, and Jesus can bring.
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• 1.45 million meals were given to the
community in a year
• This would be the equivalent of £5.8
million pounds worth of food
• This equates to 18,720 volunteer hours
through the year (food network)
• Christians Against Poverty (CAP) were
working with 81 households in
Southampton to become debt-free
(Estimates from between February ‘22 - January ‘23).
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Statement by Councillor Satvir Kaur, Leader of
Southampton City Council
“Love Southampton has been a key partner in the
city during the pandemic and in the years before
that as we have looked at different issues like the
levels of rough sleeping and the need for more
foster carers. Having a clearer way to
connect with the churches in Southampton has
been helpful as we’ve looked at complex issues
across the city. Love Southampton has helped
mobilise volunteers rapidly when needed and this
was most evident at the first lockdown in 2020.
As Council Leader, I can count on the support of Love Southampton in working alongside
others on the challenges we face in the city. They are an incredible asset to Southampton
and we feel more confident facing the huge challenges we do, with their ongoing
unwavering commitment to support our local communities, especially those most in need.”
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3. Vision and Purpose
Love Southampton exists to support and represent Christian churches and charitable organisations
working together to support those most in need in the Southampton area:
Through the Church, for the City.
We aim to achieve this as:
• A voice that helps represent the Christian community in Southampton
• A catalyst mobilising people to be involved in loving and serving the city
• A network connecting and empowering people to bring about social transformation
Our aim is for the Christian community in Southampton to be visibly engaged at the heart of
coordinated and effective social change in the city, and for every inhabitant to have a growing
understanding of the hope and positive impact that Christians, the Church, and Jesus can bring.
Our purpose is not to provide services ourselves, but to be a voice, catalyst and network that helps
co-ordinate and mobilise others, and provides a point of reference for the local authority and other
statutory organisations with the network of churches and Christian charities in Southampton.
We want to achieve this purpose through our networks and contacts, record this through our data
gathering and listening, and promote this through our media outputs and events.
We want to help the church bless more people collectively than each church can do individually.
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Figure 1: This illustration breaks down our key work outputs through 2022 and how we view
them in a wider context.
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Our key achievements in 2022
A: An updated and expanded website
4. Our work with Christian
Churches and Organisations
(internally)
Love Southampton primarily exists to support and
champion the work of the churches in
Southampton, however, there are many churches
in Southampton that we were not regularly
connected to at the start of 2022. When we started
to plan our post-Covid response in February 2022
we felt that this was a key issue to address. Our
goal was to engage with more churches to better
understand what they were doing and to offer
support and help through signposting and access
to our media platforms and wider networks.
The website is a real asset for Love Southampton, set up before the pandemic, and then
used regularly during the Covid lockdowns as a hub for community support in the key
networks that Love Southampton worked to champion (food, debt, students,
internationals).
However, as the city emerged from the pandemic in early 2022 we needed to update the
website to help achieve the broader Love Southampton mission in the post-Covid world.
We worked hard over the course of this year to rebrand, and where necessary redesign the
website so that it is fit for purpose for helping us to achieve our mission, and to be useful
and relevant to the churches and Christian communities that we represent. We developed
the website as follows:
• General maintenance: Reviewing content to ensure accuracy, removing
broken links and updating contact details.
• Developing a resource section: Although the website always had a documents
page, it became clear through the year that this needed to evolve into a
broader resources page due to the extra information that we were uploading
through our monthly newsletters, and events that we were working on.
• More church-focused information: We created additional tabs on our website
to help churches to advertise new jobs and volunteer opportunities, to
promote regular and one-off events, and community meet ups.
• Find a Church page: Hoping to make it easier for those wishing to attend a
church to find one, we added a ‘find a church’ page that linked to both
Southampton Christian Network’s ‘Church Directory’ for Southampton, and
the Church of England’s ‘Anglican church directory’
• More ‘news’ articles: We renamed our ‘stories’ tab, a ‘news’ tab, and regular
news articles have been posted (24 as of time of writing) since February 2022.
This also became a good natural output for the Faith New Deal work that we
were involved in over the Autumn and Winter.

B: Social media
We use social media to communicate with our external audiences and also with our church
network.
When Matt took over as project coordinator, he inherited Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and
Instagram platforms for Love Southampton. Over the course of 2022 he focused on
using Facebook and Twitter for daily posts and shares to showcase either the work that
Love Southampton was doing, or wider projects going on within Southampton that the
Christian community were involved with. We have succeeded in growing the number of
followers on Facebook and Twitter.
Our YouTube account was a good platform for sharing videos and keynotes from the
Southampton Cost of Living conference that we organised, as well as other relevant videos,
such as council advice on responding to the cost of living crisis.
C: Our 2020-22 Annual Report
The Annual Report covering the pandemic period (2020-22) was distributed as follows:
• All churches in Southampton
• All the community groups that we work with (e.g. Amber, Basics Bank)
• Southampton SACRE (Standing Advisory Committee for Religious Education)
• Southampton City Council and contacts at the University of Southampton
• Attendees at our Cost of Living conference (story highlight 3) in October ‘22
• Attendees at our Annual Churches Forum in January 2023
• Key regional denominational contacts, such as the Bishop of Southampton, URC
churches, and the Catholic ministry
In addition to the above, we also handed out copies to the Sunday morning and evening
congregations at Above Bar Church and were given time during the service to explain our
work.
We also placed copies in display stands at various churches across the city (see below)
and at the time of writing this, around 1,200 copies of our annual report had been
distributed with remaining copies being distributed over the spring of 2023.
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D: Display stands
We worked hard this year to get our annual reports into the foyer and information points
of 15 churches and the Bishop of Southampton’s office in Winchester, using plastic A5
display stands. Our aim is to raise our profile with the churches, and to direct people to
our website and newsletter.
E: Display table
In addition to our display stands we also created a display table for use at events to
promote Love Southampton and communicate a professional image. This has roller
banners, A5 display stands, an informative pinboard and signage in the Love Southampton
colours of orange and white, plus a QR code to help people access information instantly on
their phone.
Many more people are aware of the work that we are doing and as 2023 progresses we have
a solid network in place to continue to spread news, offers of support, and key
information out to the churches and Christian community groups across
Southampton.
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5. Reintroducing
ourselves to wider Faith
Communities and the City
(Externally)
Love Southampton was keen to recommit to its core values
and mission when we re-emerged from the pandemic in 2022.
This was achieved as follows:
A: Our response to City-wide issues
On Thursday 24th February 2022 the UK woke up to the news that Russia had
invaded Ukraine. Southampton City Council moved quickly to begin to prepare for
their share of the 100,000+ Ukrainian refugees that came to the UK (according to Gov.uk
in July ‘22). The council’s Stronger Communities team used their monthly meetings with
the communities to focus on how the charities, churches, and wider community groups
within Southampton would mobilise to ensure that any families or individuals coming into
the UK from Ukraine were looked after.
It was important that Love Southampton used their unique knowledge of the city’s
churches and organisations to make a meaningful contribution to the overall response to
this crisis, but without setting up additional projects that might confuse the process or
distract from the city level messaging.
In May 2022 we launched a monthly newsletter that went to all of the churches in the city
that we had details for, local Christian charities and community groups and our key
supporters. The first newsletter highlighted all the local services that were either
providing help to Ukrainian refugees arriving in Southampton, such as the CLEAR Project
or Southampton’s Citizens Advice, or that were arranging to send donations out to Ukraine.
The Polish Club in Southampton organised very quickly to send large amounts of food and
clothing out to Poland, where there was a huge influx of refugees. We used future
newsletters to share requests with churches, such as for rooms, suitcases,
translators and food.
This action helped us to re-establish our relationship with Southampton City Council as
we demonstrated in a very practical way that we could be an effective conduit between the
council and the church network in Southampton. The council found it really helpful to
have a single point of contact with key church leaders across the city so that information
and requests could be cascaded to a large number of organisations in an easy and timely
way.
As the cost of living crisis took hold in late 2022
our newsletters became a source of vital
information for churches, and in turn
Southampton communities. We promoted, and
then reported on the two Cost of Living summits,
we shared Fire Service advice, and we highlighted
the ‘warm spaces’ that many churches and
community groups were setting up. There will be
more on our response to the cost of living crisis
in section 7.I.
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Our response to the Ukraine and Cost of
Living crises has enabled us to establish an
informal process that can be replicated in the
future. It created two clear opportunities for us to
use our networks and links to proactively respond to
two important issues that the city was facing. We
believe that we could take a similar approach to any future
issues that arise and would gladly continue to work with the
council and others to distribute requests and key information
to the church and Christian community within Southampton
when needed.
B: Monthly newsletter
The first issue of our newsletter focused on informing readers how they
might be able to help with the Ukrainian crisis and also introduced the new set
up at Love Southampton post-pandemic.
From June onwards our aim was to share good news stories about what the churches
were doing in Southampton, share information about what we were doing as Love
Southampton, communicate changes to our website, advertise important upcoming
events, and also focus on a specific initiative that was being run by a church or Christian
charity each month. This is a time consuming activity, but the newsletter is a really
important tool in our effort to understand and promote the work of the churches within
Southampton.
We would love the newsletter to be used more by our partner churches and charities, but
some are already using it to advertise jobs and events.
By the end of 2022 our newsletter was being emailed out monthly to around 70 churches in
Southampton, as well as 15-20 key organisations and contacts in the city. In addition to this,
our newsletter is sent to over 300 people who had signed up to receive information via our
‘mailchimp’ account.
C: Participating in wider Faith groups
Continuing with our goal of engaging with Southampton more widely, we joined the
Standing Advisory Committee for Religious Education (SACRE) as a co-opted member.
SACRE arrange several meetings a year to liaise with a variety of faith representatives across
the city on matters of collective worship and religious education, and then feed this into
Southampton City Council and the national arm of SACRE. Love Southampton joined as a
non-voting member and we look forward to learning more about and contributing to the
work that churches and Christian charities are doing in our local schools.
We have also formed closer ties with the Southampton Council of Faiths, for example when
organising our Faith Covenant relaunch event.
We have made strong progress this year in developing relationships and raising our profile
with the wider city community and we want to continue to build on this in the future.
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Story highlight 1: NHS Cost of Living Conference
We were delighted to be invited to deliver a keynote address and have an exhibition table at
the Solent NHS Trust’s Cost of Living summit in October 2022 at Highpoint Venue, Thornhill.
It was a great opportunity for our chair, Professor Keith
Brown, to explain the role and work of Southampton
churches and Christian charities, especially in relation to
addressing cost of living pressures. The audience
consisted of health and social care employers and
partners in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Through the
formal address and informal networking during the
conference we were able to describe the many and
varied contributions made by the Christian community in
the city and signpost the many sources of help and support that are available for staff,
patients and service users as they deal with the economic crisis.
At this summit we were asked by Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority to help them share
best practices and top tips on how to keep homes safe in winter, especially if people try to
keep warm without using central heating. We were delighted to do this in our November
newsletter and also put relevant information on
our website resources page.
Our chair, Professor Keith Brown, said this about
our involvement at the event:
“We are very keen to support and work with health
services as well as the council in the city, and this
event was a really valuable opportunity to share
the work and impact of the churches within
Southampton with NHS colleagues.”
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6. Governance
Love Southampton has an Executive Board made up of leaders from the churches that
provide us with our core funding, and an independent chair, Professor Keith Brown. The
Executive Board oversees two non-executive groups for some wider church and Christian
charities. This allows Love Southampton to set a clear direction to go in, to hold itself to
account for the aims and objectives that it sets itself, and to have the ear of a wide array of
Churches and community groups within the City.
During the year we have brought in new people with additional and complementary skills
to work with Project Coordinator Matt Bunday. Esther Lewis, an experienced freelance
photographer and graphic designer joined the team in August 2022. Esther has greatly
improved the function, navigation and professionalism of the website and also the quality
of the imagery used to promote Love Southampton.
Jean Hirst joined the team in the autumn of 2022 following the completion of his Masters
degree in Management Consultancy and Organisational Change. Jean has conducted a data
collection and impact evaluation exercise funded by the Faith New Deal grant in
association with City Life Church. This was a fixed term project that involved interviewing
a cross section of people associated with Love Southampton and the food-based services
that it provides, and tracking the sources and economics of food to better understand the
quantitative and qualitative impact of Love Southampton’s food ministry.
This report has now been published and it explains the far-reaching impact of Love
Southampton food ministry on communities and individuals throughout the city. The
report also aims to share best practice (and things to avoid) with other communities to
help them launch and improve their own initiatives.
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Figure 2: This illustration shows how we consider the main outputs that we deliver to fit into our 3 core areas of identity.
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Story highlight 2: Annual
Churches Forum
On 31st January 2023 we convened a Churches Forum
in Central Hall to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the
founding of Love Southampton, to report back to the churches
we represent and to seek their mandate for our future direction.
The event was attended by a wide range of church leaders and
representatives from across the denominational spectrum, together
with representatives from the many charitable organisations that we work
with – around 50 people in total.
It was evident that there was strong support for the values and mission
embodied by Love Southampton. Many helpful suggestions were made about how to
develop the work, for example by organising more forums and events, expanding into
new areas such as supporting lonely older people and those with poor mental health.
There was also a desire to use the Love Southampton communications networks better to
support the community outputs of the churches.
It was agreed that a strong theme underlying everything that Love Southampton does should
be the message of Hope, and that during these worrying times the work of the church
remains more important than ever.
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7. Networks
In the autumn of 2020 Love Southampton set up four networks to focus its resources on
particular needs and groups of people:
I: Food
II: Debt
III: Students
IV: Refugees
(Now morphing more naturally into ‘International Work’)
These networks and the structure that they represent have served us well over the last
year and allowed us to understand and monitor the needs that are prevalent within
Southampton, before responding in a constructive way. What follows is only a brief
glimpse into some of the work done in these areas in the city.
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7.I Food
In 2020 various food providers in Southampton scaled up their capacities quickly and at a
pace to be able to respond to the challenges that were arising during the first lockdown.
Fast forward a year and The Big Difference and Basics Bank are still going strong and
working together more collaboratively. In addition to this, Saint Mary’s Church started a
‘marketplace’, making them a third partner that Love Southampton works with on an
almost daily basis.
Through our work in 2022 it became clear that there was a large and impressive operation
going on within the city with regards to food redistribution which was a lifeline for a very
large number of people.
At the October 2022 Cost of Living summit, we launched a Food Toolkit that gave a
simple guide to opening a marketplace, foodbank, community pantry or fridge. Produced
by Southampton City Mission, it covered all the logistical, volunteer and food safety issues
related to running a community food project.
How do referrals happen?
It is important to note that referrals happen with each of these three models in different
ways. Basics Bank - part of Southampton City Mission who have been active for over 20
years - have traditionally operated on the basis of service users being referred by
professional services. The Big Difference, started during the pandemic by Above Bar
Church, do allow self-referrals, but these are scrutinised at source by their staff to
minimise abuse of the system.
The new Marketplace concept that started to be operated by some churches around the
city within their particular postcode, and that is operated by Saint Mary’s for the SO14
postcode, was an interesting concept that we felt helped to move the narrative of food
redistribution away from simple ‘handouts’, and more into social action that supported
personal empowerment and dignity.
The Marketplace model, which still works closely with Southampton City Mission and
The Big Difference at times, is focused on supporting those within its post code area
through a membership food project, rather than a city-wide referral system. It
provides a variety of affordable, fresh and healthy food in a friendly and
supportive environment.
Members of the project can select a wide range of
different foods in a fair and balanced way. Paying £5, they
choose from 15 items worth of food, including fresh fruit
and vegetables and frozen meat, which usually totals
around £30 in value. Toiletries are often available, and
allergies are catered for.
Saint Mary’s church also seeks to provide support with
members’ pastoral needs within the friendly and
supportive environment that staff and volunteers
have created. They now offer a ‘pay-what-youcan’
toastie cafe at the same time, an exercise
class, training courses, and access to
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signposting through the local GP
practice social prescribers.
Sophie-Rose Fanner from Saint Mary’s Church,
who is the driving force behind the Meeting Place
said:
“We understand that times are very hard for a lot of people
and we feel it is vital to step up our efforts to help those that
we can. The Meeting Place and its growing projects (including The
Marketplace) allows those that need a little bit of extra help with food
to come to us for that provision but also feel part of a community where
they are connected, valued and have input. We
have really interesting conversations with members
and we have seen friendships formed, and all this has
helped to create a feeling of trust and value. We have also
had opportunities to pray for people.”
Responding to increased need
As the cost of living crisis started to bite over the summer
when people’s fears of rising energy costs began to
materialise, these organisations stepped up to provide more
food and essential toiletries to those in need within
Southampton. However, they experienced increasing
pressure on their food supplies as more and more people
asked to access their services.
This increase in demand was monitored by Southampton City Council and Love
Southampton and no sources of food had run out at the time of writing this report
(January 2023), however, all marketplace projects across the city now have waiting lists.
Love Southampton played its part in addressing this concern through regularly promoting
stories that came out in the media about the increase in demand, by publicising requests
for food, money and volunteers via our newsletter, and by including these key food
providers in our events so that they would have the opportunity to network with the wider
city.
Conducting research
Love Southampton was also able to help understand the impact of the cost of living crisis
in the city, through our impact evaluator, Jean Hirst. As part of the Faith Covenant work
and funded by the Faith New Deal grant, Jean undertook an impact evaluation study with a
working title of ‘The Economics of Food’. Further details of this are available in section 8,
and in a separate report written by Jean released in spring 2023.
As part of this wider research, we helped to coordinate the city’s first - to our knowledge -
food aid census that was reported in local print and television media. This census was the
combination of work from all the major food provisioners mentioned above, who worked
with Jean and Paul Woodman to keep track of how the need for food by many in
Southampton had increased during the cost of living crisis. The census ran in early
December 2022 for one week.
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We believe that this research is one of the big
achievements that Love Southampton has made
this year that will have tangible outcomes to
enable us to better serve those going hungry in
Southampton through a joined up and
evidenced-based approach. It will help us to
understand how much food these places are distributing,
where the food is coming from, and whether these sources
are sustainable, as well as how many people are being fed in
Southampton on an average day. Love Southampton can then use
this data as evidence to promote the work of the church networks
within Southampton to the council, and the wider world, all in line
with our mission statement.
Figure 3: This illustration gives an overview of the various sources of food that are collected by partners from
our food network.
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Story highlight 3: Southampton Cost of Living Conference
As part of the Faith New Deal grant from the Department of Levelling up, Housing, and
Communities, Love Southampton organised the first Cost of Living summit on Friday 14th
October 2022 at Solent University.
The goal of this event was to bring together the public and voluntary sector organisations,
residents, faith groups and advice providers, to better understand the problem and support
people who are most in need.
According to statistics published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local
Government in 2019, over 45% of Southampton’s population lived in neighbourhoods
within the 30% most deprived nationally (around 117,000 people). Around 12% of
Southampton’s population lived in neighbourhoods within the 10% most deprived
nationally; this rises to 18% for the under 18 population, suggesting deprivation
disproportionately impacts young people in the city.
Keynote speakers for the event included Mike Harris (Chief Executive of Southampton City
Council), Cllr. Satvir Kaur (Leader of Southampton City Council), Dr. Dianna Smith (joint
author of ‘Food Deserts and Food Insecurity in the UK’), Dr. Tom Richardson (Clinical
Psychologist), and we also heard from the main food-bank providers in the city (Dr.Sanjay
Mall, Duncan House, and Sophie-Rose Fanner).
Councillor Satvir Kaur, Leader of Southampton City Council, said: “There are more and more
people across Southampton, of all ages, backgrounds, in work and not, all struggling during
the current cost of living crisis. Whether it’s trying to pay the rent, put food on the table, heat
your home or put fuel in your car, individuals and families are feeling the squeeze with some
wages not even covering the basics.”
The event was attended by over 150 elected councillors, council officers, local charities,
church leaders, and community activists and was considered a very strong success with
various positive press articles published after the event.
The morning was made up of various keynote speeches and panels, and after lunch
the attendees broke out into plenary sessions, guided by professional facilitators,
where discussions focused on the key elements of the crisis (e.g. debt and food
access).
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The outcomes from the event included raising awareness among all attendees about the
problem, but also the sharing of tools and best practice to deal with it. The event helped to
establish networks and improved connections between the key influencers in this area so
that future responses to food provision requirements could be achieved more easily. As part
of the event Basics Bank put together a Food Aid Toolkit document which was promoted to
all at the event. This was designed to support any groups or organisations wishing to set up
their own community larder or pantry to support their own workplace employees or
communities with access to food.
Other outcomes from the event included improved links between Southampton City
Council and the Love Southampton team, who had a meeting in early 2023 to strengthen
relationships and discuss further support for each other.
There was an online follow-up event to this in January where a check-in was offered to
anyone from the original conference above to discuss any progress or new issues that had
been raised. Chaired by Paul Woodman, and with keynotes from Dr. Debbie Chase
(Director of Public Health, Southampton City Council), Cllr. Kaur (Leader of SCC), and Mike
Harris (Chief Executive of SCC). Updates were given from our main food partners (Duncan
House, Sanjay Mall, and Sophie-Rose Fanner) on the work that they had been doing over
the winter. They used this to highlight the work of the food census in December in which 22
organisations had reported that over 17,000 meals had been handed out by food banks and
pantries in a single week.
In summary, the Cost of Living summit in October was a notable and powerful example of the
power of networking and living proof that what can be achieved collectively by organisations
can often be greater than their contributions individually. We have yet to see, or probably
realise, the extent of the benefits that the event has generated for the City of Southampton,
but clear tangible outcomes are becoming apparent and networks have been strengthened
with a number of smaller projects being incubated.
Most importantly though, the attendees at the event agreed wholeheartedly and
unanimously that one of the best things that could come from the conference was for the
delegates - who came from across Southampton - to reiterate the importance of the
message of ‘Hope’, a clear sign to some of us that God was involved in the event.
Despite this being a core tenet of Love
Southampton, this heart-warming
message to come from this conference was
not planned and emerged organically from
keynote speeches and discussions.
However, the Love Southampton team were
hugely uplifted by it and again found
further evidence that we were along the
right path with our direction in 2022.
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7.II Debt
The Debt Network
Julia Maddock stepped down as the chair of the debt
committee in October with our thanks. The debt group
continued to meet quarterly. They discussed the impact of
debt on mental health and Dr. Thomas Richardson, Associate
Professor of Clinical Psychology & CBT at the School of
Psychology, University of Southampton presented his reaserch on
this topic.
The wider debt agencies also continued to work closely together to share
information and resources - Citizens Advice Southampton, City Council,
CAP, No Limits, and Frontline Debt Advice - with input from outside experts.
No significant issues or disruptions to this network were reported, although it
became clear that the cost of living crisis added extra pressure.
CAP Services
Through the appointment of Catherine Gleeson in January 2023, the Central CAP Debt
centre at Above Bar Church has reopened. The centre is currently appealing for volunteers
to befriend clients. It was reported by CAP that between February 2022 and January 2023
they helped 2,500 people to become debt free every year (nationally), and at the time of
writing this were working with 81 households in Southampton. In addition, families are also
being supported through CAP’s money budgeting course and job club.
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7.III Students
The various student ministries continued in Southampton throughout 2022 and appeared to
flourish being back in person. A few highlights from this are:
• Highfield Church’s ‘Living Room’; a meal for students taking place every
Sunday during term-time.
• Highfield Church also started ‘Open House’, opening up the church building
at various times during the week to provide warmth, hot drinks and food and
opportunities for prayer and reflection with their Open House Chaplain. You
can read more about the initiative here: www.highfield.church/openhouse
• Above Bar Church organised food from The Big Difference for about 30
students and young adults in the church community. They provided food for
student group meals, monthly meetings, and a Christmas celebration. They
also maintained a supply of food to meet emergency requests. Their mission
is to bless, reach, and disciple students particularly in the city centre where
the church is located.
• Above Bar Church also supported students through weekly meals with Bible
study, one-to-one mentoring, monthly hospitality with church families,
pastoral care, and in practical ways such as food, study spaces, budgeting
advice, good life habits, etc.
It is heartening also to see our student communities across the city playing an active role in
their local communities to help those in need. Whether it be through supporting
other students and their own congregation, or by engaging with the wider community
within their local area, our students are clearly a blessing to the city and are groups that we
hope to continue to engage more deeply with in 2023.
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7.IV Refugees
Part 1 - Response to international conflicts and issues
A: Ukrainian conflict
As the Ukrainian crisis unfolded in February 2022, Love Southampton was invited to attend
bi-monthly online meetings organised by Southampton City Council’s Stronger
Communities team which was directing the local community’s response.
As outlined in section 5a, we took the decision not to set up our own initiatives to help
Ukrainians, but rather to facilitate effective communication between the Council and the
organisations we represented and partnered with who were responding to the needs of the
thousands of people displaced by the conflict.
Southampton City Council opened a Welcome Hub in the city centre in April 2022 to
signpost support for refugees arriving in the city and we promoted this through our
networks and on social media. By the time it was closed in the autumn, the hub had been
visited over 530 times by Ukrainians, 131 times by
their hosts and 46 times by professionals
(Southampton City Council data).
Our response to this crisis, following on so soon
from our response to the pandemic, helped us to
clarify our direction and role and it also
strengthened our relationship and reputation
with Southampton City Council which is a
significant and positive outcome.
B: Afghanistan
CLEAR played a key role in welcoming refugees from Afghanistan in August 2021 and
supporting new arrivals who had been placed in hotels. Having fled the battles in
Afghanistan, some were injured and some pregnant women went into labour
following the flight to the UK. Children were quickly allocated school places and
support was put in place to help the children feel welcome.
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C: Hong Kong
City Life Church, with other Welcome
Churches, led a series of ‘friendship festivals’
to welcome Hong Kongers who had arrived in
Southampton under the new scheme set up by the
government for British Nationals (Overseas). Hundreds
of Hong Kongers came to these events and have settled in or
around Southampton. The fourth ‘story highlight’ below covers
the friendship festivals in detail.
A new dual-language
website was set up
www.HKWelcome.org
to welcome people from Hong Kong
and in August, Elaine Lo was employed as
an outreach worker by City Life Church to
support Hong Kongers.
At Christmas, Winchester Cathedral
welcomed 100 Hong Kongers to a carol
service and provided a tour of the cathedral
as a special cultural experience for them.
D: Iranians
With civil unrest and political upheaval emerging in Iran in the autumn of 2021, refugees
escaping the country started to arrive in Southampton. City churches, CLEAR, and other
international facilitators stepped in to help in similar ways to the Afghani refugees.
Part 2 - Work of CLEAR
The work of CLEAR during 2021 - 22 should be commended in the highest possible terms.
The refugees coming to the UK from Afghanistan in the summer of 2022 when the United
States and its allies left the country was a clear example of this. CLEAR upscaled their
efforts quickly and efficiently to establish community support. The Home Office made
funding available to local authorities on a ‘per head’ basis to help look after incoming
refugees. This allowed councils to make sure that they were housed and had the
essentials, but there was an obvious gap for churches and organisations, such as CLEAR, to
step into that helped these new arrivals to develop communities. CLEAR got to work
advising on visa applications, helping refugees to get settled, and signposting them to wider
services and churches.
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Part 3 - Work of wider local
international projects
(Friends International, etc).
Above Bar Church’s English Language Café and
classes have been led by John Ayrton after Alison
Risbridger stepped down in mid-2022. The café and classes,
staffed by qualified TEFL teachers, helped to provide a sense of
belonging and a community as well as practical language
support, to those coming to the city from overseas. The
Southampton branch of Friends International, led by Nigel Paterson
from Kings Community Church, continued to provide a valuable service
to many international students that were starting to come to
Southampton again for the first time post-covid.
These and many other examples in this report illustrate the importance of
community to the people served by the churches and Christian charities in
Southampton, and this is something that as Christians we are well placed to provide.
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Story highlight 4: Friendship Festivals
Although Love Southampton were not directly involved in processing the influx of Hong Kong
refugees (or ‘Hong Kongers’ as they prefer to be known) coming into the city over the last few
years, we felt it was important to help them build community in the city by introducing them
to churches, organisations and groups.
To achieve this, we organised two ‘friendship festivals’ to
provide a welcoming environment for Hong Kongers to
make new friends and to introduce them to Christian
support groups, such as ‘Welcome Churches’ and local
services, such as Citizens Advice.
The first friendship festival took place on Monday 2nd May
2022 at Oasis Academy, Mayfield where an estimated 280
Hong Kongers of all ages attended over the course of an
afternoon. A large ‘bring and share’ buffet was organised. Paul Woodman put on a magic
show, indoor and outdoor games were provided, and people were on hand to talk to about
local services and support.
The second friendship festival took place on Sunday 23rd July 2022 at Portswood Church
and was attended by about 90 people. The Love Southampton team organised a barbeque,
children’s games (e.g. Jenga), sports (e.g. table tennis), a magic show, and a short welcome
talk from our Chair, Professor Keith Brown who had lived in Hong Kong as a child.
Our special thanks go to John and Mary Ayrton who coordinate the international support
work that Above Bar Church does, for their hard work preparing the food for the second
friendship festival at Portswood Church. The event was paid
for through a donation from Southampton Vineyard Church,
which we are also very grateful for.
Although these events were probably quite small-scale when
compared to some of the larger projects that Love
Southampton has engaged with through the year, they were
a good, perhaps Godly, reminder to us that size is not
always important. The energy at these events was
obvious, with new friendships being formed and
community clearly being built. The tangible effect of the
event is hard to measure, but God clearly provided the
resources, the venue, and the volunteers. It was a simple
way that Love Southampton could demonstrate our mission
of working with churches to bless those within the city,
demonstrating that there is hope!
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8a. Faith Covenant (Project Overview)
Across the UK the Covid pandemic saw many local authorities either start or build upon
the existing partnerships with faith-based groups, recognising the value that they bring to
their communities. Since then, the government has launched the Faith New Deal Fund, a
pilot with the goal of boosting some of the innovative projects that help tackle some of the
issues facing the most vulnerable. Love Southampton was one of 16 winners, with the 5th
biggest allocation of funding, continuing the incredible work in addressing food poverty.
As part of the funding allocation an Impact Evaluation was commissioned to look at the
example of collaboration in Southampton and demonstrate the benefit and importance of
these partnerships, as well as some of the lessons learnt along the way.
The evaluation presents, examines and discusses findings in the following areas:
• The outputs achieved by Love Southampton and its partners in the area of
providing food support
• The processes, conditions and relationships that have led to these outputs
being delivered
• The impact in the lives of service users who have received food aid
• The contributing factors to effective cross sector relationships
Throughout October 2022 to January 2023 data was collected from a range of sources. Fifty
two interviews were conducted with different partner organisations, local government
service leads, service users and members. Information from Southampton’s first Food Aid
Census was used alongside additional data regarding food distribution from The Big
Difference and Southampton City Mission.
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8b. Faith Covenant (A
snapshot of some of the
impacts)
There are a variety of different types of food aid
projects across Southampton, each of which is important
in meeting a specific type of need. For some who were in a
crisis moment, receiving a prepared meal was the first meal that
had been received in days. For others, accessing a food parcel or a
Marketplace meant that they were able to feed their household for a
few days.
The interviews with local schools revealed how more and more families are
struggling amidst the cost of living crisis to provide for their families. With food having
a noticeable effect on behaviour and attention in school, the food support received from
The Big Difference continues to have a positive impact in the development of these
children.
Another key theme from the interviews was the benefit that receiving food aid had upon
individuals’ mental health and wellbeing. By coming and interacting with volunteers and
others experiencing similar challenges at the projects, many people described how
feelings of loneliness, isolation, judgement and shame had decreased and that instead they
felt cared for and more hopeful.
Additionally, in projects like Southampton City Mission’s Marketplaces, members explained
how paying a membership fee and being able to choose their own items of food
contributed positively to their mental health and wellbeing through increased feelings of
control and ownership over their lives.
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8c. Faith Covenant (What
next?)
This impact evaluation shares and demonstrates what
can be achieved through the church and effective
partnerships with the community. It is both a celebration of
the practical love shown to the community and an
encouragement to individuals, organisations, local and national
government to continue working and collaborating together. With
an ongoing cost of living crisis, the demand for additional support
and help continues to increase and have a wide effect in people’s lives.
Therefore cross-sector partnerships should be even more intentional in
the way they help their communities address these challenges.
The time and care invested by volunteers continues to make a big difference,
without which many of the projects would cease to run. Whether it be collecting
and redistributing food, preparing parcels and meals, helping with administrative
tasks or serving beverages and chatting with members, each person contributes to
provide the help and support that families and individuals need.
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Story highlight 5: Faith Covenant relaunch
On Wednesday 30th November 2022 at the prestigious Lord Mayor’s Parlour at
Southampton City Council’s main offices, Love Southampton staged another momentous
event. At this event, over 50 community leaders, church ministers, councillors and council
officers joined Bishop Debbie Sellin, and members from the Southampton Council of Faiths
to relaunch the Faith Covenant. The original signing of the covenant took place on the 2nd
July 2017 when all parties present signed the All Party Parliamentary Group on Faith and
Society ‘Faith Covenant’.
The Bishop of Southampton, Debbie Sellin spoke at the
relaunch event and praised those signing the covenant,
saying,
“There has been genuine partnership at the heart of the
work in Southampton, particularly during the pandemic,
when people in Southampton from across different
backgrounds have worked incredibly well together to bring
hope to others and work for the common good of the city.”
The event was part of a grant programme, Faith New Deal, funded
by the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities.
Speaking at the event, Daniel Singleton, National Executive Director
from Faith Action, commented, “The coming decade will see the
country facing new social needs and tough new challenges. There will
be fresh demands on public health, social care, education,
employment support and community inclusion. These challenges will
require the identification of a new set of resources. We will need to
unlock the potential of every part of our society to contribute towards
solutions. We believe that one important resource can be realised by
supporting faith-based organisations to work with local authorities
constructively and effectively, as part of civil society.”
Although a completely different type of event for Love Southampton to organise in
terms of size and sensitivity, it felt very significant and we were greatly encouraged
by the number who attended.
It helped to reinforce the sheer power and determination of the churches
and wider faith groups within the city to make a difference within our
communities. It should also not be forgotten that this
event was multi-faith and that the inclusion of
representatives from the Southampton Council of
Faiths was significant. The event attracted media
interest and generally had a good feel to it
throughout.
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9. Our Ongoing Wider Work
A: The death of Queen Elizabeth:
Following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II on 8th September 2022 we decided that our role
would be to promote key church voices, such as the Church of England and the Bishop of
Southampton (Debbie Sellin) so that those following our social media feeds knew how they
could pay their respects. We also wanted to record what local churches in Southampton
were doing to mark the occasion.
A number of churches appeared to move very quickly to set up spaces of reflection across
the City, with spaces opening at Highfield Church, Saint Mary’s Church, North Stoneham
and Bassett venues, and St Denys’ church.
Reverend Sera Rumble opened St Denys Church and said:
‘We wanted to create a space for anyone and everyone because there’s that point where I
think social media can be a place to respond but it can still be quite isolating; We thought
that we can create a space respectful of lots of different people’s feelings, opinions, but
also a space where we can press pause.”
Love Southampton also used its online presence and network of churches to promote:
• A citywide remembrance service at Saint Mary’s Church on Sunday 18th
September at 3pm
• A citywide bell ringing event at noon on the 9th September
• Various prayer and thoughtful points from the Church of England’s social
media platforms
B: Warm Spaces
With winter fast approaching, talk about the best way to respond to the growing problems
that many people were having with heating their homes due to rising fuel bills became
more obvious. Around September, Sophie-Rose Fanner from Saint Mary’s Church
started to push the conversation forward about this in an effort to understand
whether churches around Southampton were able and willing to open ‘warm
spaces’. Love Southampton were very willing to proactively support this.
We surveyed our citywide church network to find out which warm spaces
were already up and running or planned, and what resources churches
might need to help them do this. We also encouraged churches to
sign up to the local and national ‘warm spaces’ websites so that this
community support could be mapped.
The full extent of this initiative is not yet known and whilst
it seems that many churches have opened up new warm
spaces, others have expanded existing clubs and groups
with longer hours and additional volunteers to help
people through this challenging winter.
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C: Church community output
mapping
As Love Southampton began to look to the
future post-Covid in the spring of 2022, Matt made
a conscious effort to talk to key figures from within
Southampton’s church community that were active in
their local communities, often running community projects
such as debt support, foodbanks, and coffee mornings to address
social isolation. From these conversations it became clear that
positive and life-changing work was being done in Southampton, but not
all organisations and church-based initiatives were aware of each other, and
some work to raise awareness would be beneficial.
A project to collect information about the community work undertaken by churches
is underway. As churches complete our survey and more data is collected, a strong
picture of community support is emerging in the form of food banks, support for refugees,
services for the elderly and students, and debt centres all across the city.
We continue to encourage churches to complete the survey in order to gain the fullest
possible understanding of all the community work that is being undertaken. We want to
use this information to share with our network and with those in need. We want to make
the information accessible to those who are seeking help so that people can identify
relevant services that are in their neighbourhood. It would be great if churches were able
to update their information with ease. We also want to promote the variety and breadth of
work of the churches in Southampton to the wider world.
D: Chaplain network
In our efforts to be actively involved in the everyday work of many people within
Southampton, demonstrating that we can work ‘Through the church, for the City’, we put
effort into supporting the Southampton ‘Chaplain network’. Set up before the pandemic,
the network continues to thrive today and, was a signifivant source of support to people
during the lockdowns. Guided by Nicky Porter from the leadership at City Life Church, the
network attempts to put work-based chaplains into any key business or place of
employment across Southampton. Chaplains are already in place at local universities, the
hospital, and other local businesses and key civic centre buildings. The network meets
several times a year to receive support, prayer, and feedback.
Anyone wishing to find out about more is encouraged to email; nicky@citylife.org.uk
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10. Play Your Part
In closing
We hope that you have enjoyed reading about the work
we have been doing in the past year. We feel that it has
been a successful year, both in terms of the aims and
objectives that we set ourselves when we started up again in
February 2022, but also because of how we have responded to
the opportunities and challenges that have arisen. We are very
encouraged by the good relationships we have established with key
stakeholders in the city, especially Southampton City Council.
Moving forward
We would love you to consider becoming more involved in our work:
• Is your church aware of our work? Would they consider putting a display
stand in their building?
• Would you consider inviting us to speak to your congregation on a Sunday or
another church meeting about the work of the wider churches within the city?
• Would you consider making a financial contribution to our ongoing work?
• Would you complete our community questionnaire to tell us what activities
your church is doing?
• Are you signed up to get our monthly newsletters?
• Do you have any regular events or meetings (e.g. coffee mornings or Dad’s
events) that you want us to promote on our website?
You can get in touch to discuss any of this by emailing info@lovesouthampton.org.uk
Any ideas?
Finally, if you have any ideas for other projects that Love Southampton could partner with
you to explore, then please do get in touch. Our annual goals since 2020 have been
established through discussion with churches, and through prayerful consideration.
During the pandemic it was clear where our focus should be, but God is leading us into
new and different areas and we are always open to new
initiatives that share the Gospel’s message of Hope,
whilst also fulfilling our key tenets of understanding,
recording, and promoting the work of the church in
Southampton to the wider world.
Through the church, for the City.
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Contact details:
www.lovesouthampton.org.uk
info@lovesouthampton.org.uk
@lovesoton
@lovesoton
lovesouthampton6719
Sign up to receive our monthly E-newsletters
Professor Keith Brown - Independent Chair
Paul Woodman - Charity Representative
The Love Southampton Board members are:
Billy Kennedy (Chair)
Fr Vincent Harvey (Mgr)
Paul Woodman
Prof. Keith Brown
Bishop Debbie Sellin
Pastor John-Paul Oddoye
Rev. Sarah Hall
Jon Finch
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