Enter the Temple Street Methodist Church and Community Centre in Stoke-On-Trent on a Thursday morning and you’ll encounter a sea of people spanning all ages, from all parts of the world, now living together in Stoke-on-Trent. Each week the centre provides space for around a hundred people to come and receive clothes, food, hot drinks and - significantly - company.
This community has been facing the pressure of Conservative-implemented austerity cuts, de-industrialisation and a cost of living crisis, much like many other areas of the country. Food banks have been springing up to help those in need, but as well as the essential access to food, clothing and warm shelter, there has been an ever growing awareness of the impact of loneliness in hard hit communities like this.
This gathering together is a positive opposition to the way that many of these people usually spend their time, which is all too often isolated and alone. John Mellor (not his real name) found solace in the community that these gatherings offer.
He told The Stoke-on-Trent Lead: “After my wife died 18 months ago, it was hard to leave the house. My hearing isn’t great so it’s difficult for me to hear people in noisy public places.
“I got scared of going out but I was also feeling really alone. Finally I started coming here after some pushing from my family and it’s really changed things for me. I have something to look forward to every week because now I have people to talk to again.”
Glenn Parkes, who first set up the food bank at the Temple Street Community Centre ten years ago, has witnessed the growing impact of loneliness on Stokies. For the past four years, Glenn has been running a Chatty Cafe Scheme to tackle this problem. The Chatty Cafe Scheme is the UK’s leading non-profit tackling loneliness, taking place in community spaces across the country to encourage those feeling isolated to talk to others.
He told The Stoke-on-Trent Lead: “We’ve noticed in the community that people are reluctant to come out the house. We get such a diverse range of people in here. It can be older folks, young parents - mums and dads.
“We’ve noticed recently there’s a higher proportion of people coming in from different countries. Sometimes they’re desperately alone, they’re in a strange country, a strange city, they probably don’t know anyone... Loneliness is something we need to address.”
Loneliness, an ever-looming spectre in our collective consciousness, has until recently been a largely private issue. However, with loneliness being significantly influenced by unemployment, alongside the impact of COVID lockdowns and the widely recognised trend of growing individualisation under neoliberal capitalism, what might have seemed like a deeply personal problem a few years ago, is now recognised as being undeniably political.