Makemore time to be kind, urges city report
PEOPLE living and working in Glasgow must make more time to be kind, a report has found.
Three organisations in the city worked in partnership with the Carnegie UK Trust to create the report which explores how to encourage kindness i n order to combat loneliness.
The Glenavon Tenants Association and Tesco Extra, both in Maryhill, and members of the Glasgow Buddist Centre’s U-Lab concluded that we must move away from the idea that providing ‘community’ is someone else’s job. Glenavon Tenants Association explored what could be done to encourage greater participation using outdoor space and found that many people expect community to be provided for them by a group or organisation.
Tesco, in Maryhill, was highlighted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation as being an important community hub with many staff going out their way to help and support individuals.
Members of the Glasgow Buddhist Centre’s U-Lab coaching circle, an open online course, launched the Kinder Scotland challenge which invited people to undertake a suggested act of kindness everyday for 21 days in January this year.
Zoe Ferguson, the report’s author, said: “In general, we tend to perceive greater risk in engaging with people than we did in previous generations.
“People manage that sense of risk by formalising the way they make relationships, like becoming a befriender through a charity, for example, rather than visiting elderly neighbours.
“However, we found that people miss informal relationships and a sense of community. With isolation and loneliness as growing problems in society we believe we need to find ways to overcome the sense of risk in building relationships.
“We need to move away from the idea that providing ‘community’ is someone else’s job. The answer lies in the humanity of individuals.”
As part of the report, individuals, charities, and local businesses are being asked to take action, to create welcoming places as settings for relationships, provide opportunities for people to come together and remove barriers to kindness.