Displaying items by tag: Community

Nearly one in five private renting parents are now more concerned their family will become homeless as a result of the Covid crisis, new research from Shelter shows (see). As the country moves out of lockdown, the chronic lack of social housing has left struggling families with few options to escape the insecurity of private renting. A third of parents who rent from private landlords are more negative about their long-term housing situation. Shelter reported that 49,000 have resorted to using foodbanks since lockdown and cut back on food to help pay rent; 550,000 took on debt (overdrafts, credit cards, payday loans, borrowing from bank/family/friends) to help pay rent since lockdown. Pray for people in poverty to have a home they can afford. See also the next article, ‘Outdated Planning System’.

Wearing face masks in shops creates massive communication barriers for deaf people who lip-read. The group Deaf Connect have produced cards which deaf people can carry round, asking people to remove their masks when they are speaking to them. Action on Hearing Loss is advising the general public to remove their masks, make sure they face the person they are speaking to and recommend speech-to-text apps. Janice Silo from Signs of God told Premier Christian Radio that lip-reading people wearing masks is impossible. She said, ‘Sometimes we ask people to write things down and they behave as if that is beneath them. Like they'd never heard of paper and pencil before! But writing stuff down is really useful. Also, when coronavirus is finished and we don't have to wear masks any more, please continue what you've been doing, being patient and writing stuff down.’

Pilgrim's Friends Society, which runs Christian care homes, said the government has been worse than neglectful in its care for elderly people for years. Successive governments have put the prospect of good social care plans in the 'too difficult to do' basket. The society was responding to a report which stated that the Government ignored care homes during the coronavirus pandemic. The evaluation of the readiness of the NHS and care homes for the Covid-19 crisis found they were just about able to cope, but it was a different story for adult social care. The report said, ‘Years of inattention, funding cuts and delayed reforms were compounded by slow, inconsistent and at times negligent government approaches to giving the support needed during the pandemic: discharging 25,000 patients from hospitals into care homes without making sure all were first tested for Covid-19, and continuing the patient moves even after it was realised that people could transfer the virus without ever having symptoms.’

The restrictions of lockdown fostered a community spirit in Britain, with feelings of solidarity and togetherness. However a campaign called Together, which includes the NHS, charities, media groups and employers among its founders, says this sense of togetherness is beginning to fragment and fray. It is organising a national public consultation on how to avoid new community divisions opening up. Analysis of the polling of 2,000 adults during May-June has led to the warning, ‘There's a risk that past divides are re-emerging as society starts to re-open. The shared experience of lockdown made many people feel more connected to their neighbours and local community. Now that sense of togetherness is starting to fray, but people would rather we kept hold of it.’ There are expected to be challenging months ahead.

A year ago Boris Johnson promised to tackle the social care crisis. Age UK director Caroline Abrahams said the PM must honour this pledge, or thousands of elderly people will continue to suffer needlessly and the social care sector will never recover from the hammer blow caused by the pandemic. A huge petition, signed by 110,000 people, was handed in, to put pressure on him to deliver on his promise to provide the decent level of care the elderly deserve. Also the UK Home Care Association, which represents those providing home help, said that unless he acts the vulnerable will continue to receive rationed, underfunded services that are started too late to prevent independence deteriorating. When Mr Johnson became Prime Minister, he said his job was to protect people from the fear of having to sell their home to pay for care costs.

In the light of George Floyd’s death, the Evangelical Alliance has joined thousands of voices around the world, to declare that the indescribable pain and dehumanisation of others because of their skin colour has to stop. ‘Let us stand together as brothers and sisters in Christ, as we cry out for justice, as we stand with those suffering oppression, as we weep with those grieving and in pain. We all have a responsibility to act against discrimination and systemic racism in our workplaces, churches, justice systems, and wider communities. We cannot view this as white vs black. This is a clarion call for us to come together and fight every form of racism in all its disgusting manifestations. As the Church we must unite across all ethnicities in saying, and showing, that all are created equal, all people bear God’s image.’

On 1 June 1921, in Tulsa, the US experienced the worst race riots in its history. A prosperous African-American community, dubbed ‘Black Wall Street’, was eradicated by rioting white people. Within hours luxury shops, homes, restaurants and food stores belonging to black families disappeared. An unknown number of people died - many when planes dropped bombs, others when mobs burnt down the remaining neighbourhood. Racism’s root of division that began with killing native Indians and using black slaves is still active 99 years later. Entire groups of people accuse and hate each other over everything from government policy to religion. God never intended this. His purpose is explained in Revelation 7:9: ‘After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.’

25,000 contact tracers started work on 28 May, making their contact calls to track down the 2,013 people who tested positive the previous day. They will be told to self-isolate under new test and trace schemes being launched in England and Scotland. Tracers will text, email or call people who test positive with coronavirus and ask who they had contact with. Any of those contacts deemed at risk of infection will be told to isolate for fourteen days, even if they are not sick. Those who have already had the virus will also be asked to self-isolate. The aim of the system is to lift blanket lockdown restrictions and move towards more localised, targeted measures. Contact is defined as spending 15 minutes or more at a two-metre distance; household members; or people with whom you have had face-to-face conversations less than one metre away.

The Prime Minister has asked scientists to review the two-metre social distancing rule to see if it can be reduced in an effort to help public transport and the hospitality sector. On 27 May, Boris Johnson told MPs that members of the scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage) had been told to review the guidance. While hotels and restaurants are currently scheduled to start reopening from 4 July , hope has been raised for beer gardens to be opened much sooner. Mr Johnson said, ‘On hospitality we are trying to go as fast as we can. It is really difficult to bring forward hospitality measures in a way that involves social distancing. But I am much more optimistic about that than I was. We may be able to do things faster than I previously thought.’ He has now announced that the lockdown will be eased further with effect from 1 June.

Christian Concern write: ‘For years, the abortion lobby has wanted to make home abortions a reality. Now that the Government has introduced them due to the coronavirus lockdown, abortion rights activists will be determined to keep DIY abortions in place long-term. On the surface, the policy makes abortions as convenient as possible - a goal of the pro-abortion lobby. Dr Gregory Gardner, supporting our High Court legal challenge of the Government's decision, says that home abortions risk real physical and psychological harm to the mother and increase the possibility of coerced abortions. Ann Widdecombe added, “This change is contrary to promises made immediately before parliament went into recess - thereby undermining its proper constitutional functions.”’ 4 May marks 52 years of abortion culture in the UK.