The place of kindness: combating loneliness and building stronger communities

Author(s)

FERGUSON Zoe

Publisher(s):

Carnegie UK Trust

Publication year:

2017

Reports on the second stage of a project to explore what can encourage kinder communities at a time when isolation and loneliness are recognised as major challenges. The project was carried out by the Carnegie UK Trust with the support of Joseph Rowntree Foundation, It worked with seven organisations in Scotland over a period of nine months, exploring the importance of places and opportunities to connect, and the intrinsic values that underpin interactions and relationships. This report identifies examples which show how kindness and everyday relationships can affect change and support the wellbeing of individuals and communities. It also identifies key factors that get in the way of encouraging kindness both in individuals and organisations. These include real and imagined rules relating to risk; funders and policy makers valuing the formal and organisational over the informal and individual; and modern definitions of professionalism and good leadership obscuring every day and intuitive human interactions. Examples of the work carried out by the seven organisations are included in the appendices. (Edited publisher abstract)