The new normal: connection and wellbeing

Belfast Friendship Club’s response to COVID-19

Under normal circumstances, Belfast Friendship Club (BFC) hosts a vibrant, diverse and thriving space in which newcomers from anywhere in the world are warmly welcomed, along with locals, to join our huge, unruly ‘family’ of members.

In practice, this results in meaningful connections and friendships forged with one another irrespective of our backgrounds or circumstances, be that migrant worker, unemployed, retiree, asylum seeker or refugee etc. Perhaps this sounds too good to be true? The truth is that, a one-point agenda of consistently offering a safe, inclusive and impartial space pretty much weekly for 11 years can create this human warming in action. We are hard-wired for connection after all.

However, current circumstances are anything but normal.

As coordinator, my role during that time has been to juggle people, resources, opportunities and ideas, but nothing in our experience could have prepared us for lockdown!

When the news first broke, instead of springing into action immediately, a group of us thought carefully about the role of BFC in members’ lives and what that dictated in terms of how to respond. Connection and wellbeing came into focus pretty quickly and so we started work.

Being ‘online’ swiftly became the accepted new norm, the virtual world of Google Meet, Zoom, Jitsi and their respective challenges. But being online assumes a level of phone/internet credit simply absent for many people including a lot of our members, whose experience of digital exclusion came into sharp focus.

‘Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive’ Hafiz

In response, our efforts became concentrated on connectivity by whatever means possible, and on a range of initiatives to help keep people involved and engaged with one another and hopeful in these strange, surreal and dislocating times. Here are some of them:

Keep talking: a project whereby BFC asylum seekers can receive phone credit remotely;

A buddy system: members are linked together for regular phone contact;

A virtual craft table: members take turns to lead a craft activity using simple household materials;

A fitness group: one of our members leads an online cardio fitness session for others;

A mindfulness group: one of our members leads guided meditation sessions and a chance to talk about our mental well-being in a supportive environment;

Virtual BFC online: a weekly welcome to join other members for a chat, see and hear familiar faces and voices:

Chief pirate’s address to the crew: my weekly video message to reach out to and reassure our wider membership, boost morale, flag new opportunities and serve as a reminder about sources of help and support.

However, the pandemic has also given birth to another new initiative that will undoubtedly live on to become part of our new normal.

Our weekly BFC music podcast took off at 8pm on Friday 27th March 2020, finding an immediate and enthusiastic audience, due, in no small part, to the professionalism of our host and the knowledge of our musical guru. Music plays a central and very popular part of BFC activities/events and the podcast gives us a chance to unify around the musical choices, announcements and dedications that usually take place at the club. The future potential for this is clear as a means of including members who cannot physically attend BFC for various reasons. Our sights are set on an internet radio show and the possibilities are endless.

In this new normal, Naomi Klein’s message has never seemed more prescient:

‘We live in an interconnected world, in an interconnected time, and we need holistic solutions.’