Take a seat on the HelloBench

Give a warm welcome to the HelloBench – reset a while, chat and beat loneliness with the new initiative in Woodley & Wokingham

Sit down and have a chat – that’s the simple invitation going out around Woodley and Wokingham in a bid to combat loneliness and help people to make connections.

The initiative called HelloBench will see plaques placed on benches in parks, town precincts and shopping areas inviting you to ‘sit down and have a chat’ and encourage people to ‘get us all talking to each other”.

One of those behind the project is Aliya Musa. She explains a little more about the idea: “Loneliness and depression are close bed fellow and here in Woodley and Wokingham, a grass roots initiative is growing to get us all talking to each other, maybe a little bit more.

“To scoop up those of us, who find it not so easy to start a conversation. It’s for people who for whatever reason find themselves on the margins. Maybe you spend quite a lot of time on your own at home, maybe you are a new mum, maybe someone who works from home, maybe you’re retired. No matter your age, if you’re lonely perhaps you haven’t even noticed it creep up on you.”

In 2018, the Government published a strategy to combat just this problem and many organisations, both central and local government, have been investing in and implementing programmes to reduce the stigma around loneliness. The 2023 Campaign to End Loneliness report acknowledged the effect Covid had on the issue and believes people need to be more connected.

There are already programmes to combat loneliness in the local community with over 50s clubs, ‘chatty tables’ in cafes, lunch clubs and outreach programmes, many of which were set up during the Covid lockdown and continue and others which Aliya concedes have fallen by the wayside adding there’s always room for more.

Friendship benches or buddy benches are not a new idea and many already exist in schools.

The initiative was launched on July 13th, two days after World Loneliness Day. HelloBench benches will all be labelled clearly and marked on Google maps which you’ll be able to find on the Facebook page. Aliya says: “The hope is that even if one or two people are helped each week on these benches – that’s a worthwhile hello.”

She issued a special thanks to Vicky Cooke, owner of Vammahs Print and Design who has provided the signs for the benches and a banner on T-shirts on launch day last month.

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