Part 19. Getting involved.

Clearly, loving your neighbour includes everyday acts of kindness and help. Doing the shopping for a poorly neighbour,  visiting a lonely person etc. All very important activity to acknowledge as making life more bearable. We must not underestimate the value of one-to-one social contact and support.

Many people desire to do more and volunteer to join organisations engaged in activities supporting people in the community,  either as helpers, committee members or officers.  Thus a person may join a lunch club to help serve meals and if it is an independent organisation becoming a committee member or an officer of the club. 

Conversely the club may operate under the direction of perhaps a church  or group of churches, a community centre  or an organisation with a broader remit, such as a mental health charity or a charity providing a range of  services for older people.  

However it is run the lunch club is providing a service for the benefit of members of the community, as are youth clubs, keep fit clubs, community cafes etc.  Such activities can make a significant contribution to an individual's well-being and have a wider beneficial effect.  Thus a youth club may draw its members away from unsocial behaviour and free up police time.

Important as all this activity is it is  working only at the margins. Far weightier intervention is required to combat the root causes of multiple deprivation. This involves Christians engaging with secular bodies and with people with very different mindsets and expectations to their own.