Alone, together
Our team feeling happy and collaborative in a Friday afternoon Zoom meeting.
One third of humanity is currently self-isolating to help staunch the spread of the coronavirus. If you are one of millions making the hard but ethical choice to stay home, protecting vulnerable people from this disease, thank you!
It is inspiring to see so many people make sacrifices for the greater good. But physical isolation comes at a cost. Humans evolved to rely on our social contacts to survive, and we experience long periods of isolation as a threat. Loneliness induces high levels of stress hormones, undermines sleep, aggravates depression, and is as dangerous for health as smoking.
Lockdown can also disproportionately harm those who rely on informal social connections as part of their safety net, research shows. Lower-income community members pool resources, make small loans, and share information about available services or opportunities. Physical distancing interrupts these connections, and risks undermining the support residents need most in a time of international crisis.
The good news is that we can demonstrate care for each other and blunt the pain of isolation, even in times of lockdown. Here’s some inspiration from creative loneliness-busters around the world.
Neighbours connecting for mutual support
Stacey Milbern saw that homeless people in her city, San Francisco, were at severe risk of contracting COVID-19 — it is hard to self-isolate when you live in a homeless shelter, or ask for money to survive — so she decided to do something about it. She and a small group of friends got together to create “anti-coronavirus kits” to give to homeless people: paper bags containing home-made hand sanitizer, vitamins, masks, and gloves.
When Milbern proposed this project, she didn’t have to start from scratch, because she was already part of a “mutual aid network,” an online platform that connects people who need help with people who can offer help. Milbern helped set up the network in response to an earlier crisis: California’s rolling blackouts. This offers us an important lesson. The systems we create today in response to COVID-19 can make our communities stronger for future crises too.
This visual from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Mariana Kaba explains how we can support our neighbours while maintaining social distancing. (Credit: https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1240446071022784512)
Residents of other cities are now creating their own mutual aid networks in response to COVID-19. One network in Toronto is focusing on the hyper-local scale. The Parkdale People’s Economy is setting up “Neighbourhood Pods”: groups of local residents who communicate via text message and WhatsApp to check in on each other’s wellbeing and respond quickly when help is needed. They use old-school technology to better support those who might not have internet access at home, and elderly people who may struggle to use an online platform. Leaders of each pod also communicate with each other, creating a wider network to distribute resources and share information with the whole community.
Research shows people are happier when they know their neighbours, and this pandemic is helping some people build those bonds — even if not in-person. In my own building, someone started a Facebook group and posted an invite on every door. Weeks ago, no one who lived here knew each other, but now we are sharing ideas about how we can help each other. One simple action emerged: if anyone needs help, they’ll leave something red outside their door.
Credit: Tristan Cleveland
Many communities are also starting to use nextdoor.com, a social network that focuses on connecting people who live in the same area. California is using Nextdoor to help identify people who need food, and to spread critical information.
Someday this pandemic will pass, but many of these new connections will remain. This time is an opportunity to establish bonds of trust and communication with the people who live near us, even if we cannot see each other face to face.
Art in a time of COVID-19
A performance in Turin, Italy on March 13, 2020 (Credit: Nicolò Campo / Getty)
We’ve all seen videos of apartment residents joining in song, hosting concerts from their balconies, or cheering for front-line health workers. You may also have seen Spanish residents playing bingo, yelling numbers between distant windows. These small, playful acts bring some of the joy of other people into our lives.
Some residents are using art to bring some of that joy to the street. In Halifax, Canada, one resident put invites in all the mailboxes along a street inviting people to create an outdoor art gallery by putting paintings in their windows.
Credit: Twitter. Other examples here.
Some kids are using their extra free time to make their neighbourhoods more colourful using sidewalk chalk. Their messages thank front-line health workers, janitors, and retailers. Some offer helpful health reminders. Others offer a bit of hope, and that “this too shall pass.” All of them add colour and delight for people going on those short, crucial walks that get us out of our homes.
Kids need fun, active games at a time when they can’t see their friends. One community has created a “bear hunt” for kids, inspired by a children’s story. Neighbours put teddy bears in their windows, and kids try to see how many they can find.
Coming out stronger
Successful physical distancing means two things: halting the spread of a disease, while leaving the fewest scars. Many experts are rightly focused on blunting an economic recession, but we must also address the risk of psychological recession: the simultaneous decline in a whole society’s mental condition.
People in cities around the world are showing how we can come out of this stronger than we went in. We have offered a few of those ideas, but we want to hear from you. Have you seen other interventions that reduce social isolation during this time of distancing?
