2021 has been a very busy year for the North Berwick Compassionate Community project. The pandemic had disrupted many of our plans last year, but we decided as a small core group that we would adapt and experiment with what could work during this time of zoom and isolation. If you remember our project had two key threads: the Big Conversation Thread and the Support Thread.
The Big Conversation Thread
At the end of last year we decided to experiment with Armchair Chats on zoom with the intention of creating a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere whereby people could chat from their armchairs during the winter evenings.
We arranged for four chats once a month. In February we provided the community with an update on the project and entertained people with poetry and music. The use of poetry and prose and music was really effective in creating an atmosphere that supported the deep chats about difficult issues by providing some light relief. Although, often the readings and poetry also focused on the topics of death and dying and grief, but it was uplifting. Once we had discovered this format we used it for every Armchair Chat. We were keen to involve as many people as possible and we learned how to use subtitles on zoom. The second armchair chat was on legal issues involved in death and dying and a local author Isla Aitken read from her book about breast cancer ‘ Making Pearls from Grit.’ It is a funny, self-deprecating and thoughtful and honest account of coping with breast cancer. A Soul Midwife Jude Meryl who is the coordinator of Soul Midwives in Scotland led our third Armchair Chat. She outlined the philosophy and how they work with people who are dying. We also had readings from a local Death Doula Lucy Ackroyd, who has written a very helpful book called ‘Leaves of Love.’ The fourth Armchair Chat invited Kathryn Mannix to explore with us her book ‘With the End in Mind.’ The armchair chats had about 40 people signed up for each event and usually about 25-30 people turned up on the night.
The armchair Chats led us into the Fringe by the Sea events. We had always planned to have a large event supported by the infrastructure of Fringe by the Sea in terms of advertising, managing the tickets and providing the venue and stewards and sound technicians. This was cancelled in 2020 but we were able to go ahead in August 2021. We kicked off the festival with a book club that discussed Kathryn Mannix’s book ‘With the End in Mind.’ Kathryn Mannix and Richard Holloway followed this in conversation in the Big Top, accompanied by beautiful singing from Ruth Stapleton. Kathryn and Richard covered a vast range of subjects and the audience was spellbound. We continued with our inclusion policy and provided interpreters for the Deaf Community. 130 people attended the Big Top event. We were thrilled by the attendance. Alongside these events we held an emotional and wellbeing master class led by Alan Mclean for young people and youth workers and teachers on ‘Mastery over Mystery.’ About 20 people attended this event.
A local art group pARTicipate supported us by making an art display in the old telephone exchange phone box where people could add the names of loved ones who had died. 70 names were added.
Using the format of the festival enabled us to reach many more people that we would normally reach. Good outcomes were the involvement of the local Nursing Home in the book club and the number of local organisations who attended the Kathryn Mannix in conversation with Richard Holloway event.
Support Thread
This was the part of the project that we felt was going to be the most challenging. But by chance St Columba’s Hospice were developing a Compassionate neighbor project and we negotiated to be one of the pilot areas. Currently six local people have been trained by the hospice and they have also undertaken the EASE training. Two of the core group became EASE training facilitators ad ran the local course for North Berwick. We were concerned about the long-term sustainability of the support thread, so we negotiated with a local social isolation project Community Connections to integrate the Compassionate Neighbours’ objectives into their proposal for funding to the lottery. If this is successful we will have worker hours to support the Compassionate Neighbours and manage all referrals and training for three years. The St Columba’s Hospice will provide transition support for the new worker.
So after a hard summer of work we have completed our objectives set out in our Truacanta proposal. We have almost certainly developed a sustainable model for the future. The pandemic has probably made it a less whole community approach, but we have had a wide reach and involvement from local people and organisations. Not bad work for three volunteers!
If you live in the North Berwick area and would like to know more or get involved, please email Deborah
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