If you have read through any of the Stories from the foodbank, you will see that while people find themselves needing Harlow Foodbank for a number of reasons, many people are lonely, or say that they did not know what help was out there until they found themselves at the foodbank.
We don’t want people to have to hit crisis point to find out what help is available.
With so many organisations working within Harlow to support people, how could better communication help reduce crisis and hardship, and improve community?
And so, we came together to build the Communitree!
This has been created with people who have visited the organisations in the MRCT Centre – whether that be Harlow Foodbank, The Bounty Club or Bump to Five. Every organisation featured on the tree has been recommended by people who have walked through those doors, or by those we have engaged with out in the community. This means that every organisation featured on the Communitree has been recommended by someone who has used their services.
As Aaron, one of the members of Harlow Hive would say “I won’t walk with you but you can follow my footsteps”.
Posters of the Communitree can be found across Harlow, and feature two QR codes: the top right goes to this page on the Harlow Hive website; top left goes to FrontLine, where you may be surprised to find 280+ support organisations working in Harlow.
We hope this will reduce the number of people coming to us saying: “I didn’t know about all the help that was out there until I hit rock bottom” and “I am lonely and don’t know where to go” – by empowering people with the information they need to help themselves.
YouthTree
“There’s nothing for young people to do,” is also something we hear a lot.
We are also aware that there are growing levels of loneliness and a lack of community feeling with young people in our town and in this country.
We want this to change, so we are in the process of creating a tree aimed at young people – so that they can find the groups they would like to attend to find their place.
We are currently going into schools to find out what young people would put on the YouthTree. If you are a school leader/teacher and would like to arrange a visit, please get in touch.