‘Love Southampton‘, the ecumenical gathering of churches and Christian charities which is committed to social action in the city, gathered representatives from churches at Central Hall, Southampton to mark its 10-year anniversary. Church leaders from our diocese, including Bishop Debbie, joined the forum to offer their insights and share stories of sharing God’s love impacting their communities.
The collaboration of churches and charities was first created with a view to getting more involved in some of the key challenges in the city – at that time, significant budget cuts were made to Children’s Services so the first initiative launched by ‘Love Southampton’ in 2013 was a hugely successful campaign for new foster carers – ‘Families for Forty’. Churches also kept open youth centres which otherwise would have closed.
Since then, Love Southampton’s work has included a winter beds project for rough sleepers, debt advice services, and supporting both international students and refugees in the city. Most impactfully though has been its work in emergency food provision: ‘Love Southampton’ managed to obtain funds through the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (under the ‘Faith New Deal’ grant programme) in order to enable community groups to improve their food provision across the city, from emergency food banks to marketplaces. A recent food census in Southampton reported that nearly one million free meals are given out by churches and charities each year.
For example, St Mary’s Church in Southampton is just one of the churches that has set up a food provision ministry in partnership with Southampton City Mission (SCM) and supported by Love Southampton. Serving the SO14 postcode, ‘The Marketplace’ acts as a membership food project – service users pay £5 and for that they can purchase £30 worth of fresh and healthy food in a friendly and supportive environment. Saint Mary’s now also offer a pay-what-you-can toastie cafe, an exercise class, training courses and access to signposting and advice through the local GP practice social prescribers. With the growing need for multi-purpose community spaces where individuals have access to a range of services, this year they added ‘The Meeting Place’ – a social space where lots of great conversations are being had and they have seen friendships formed and opportunities to pray for people.
Churches in Southampton and the surrounding area who are not yet in the network are warmly encouraged to get in touch with ‘Love Southampton’, so the work of all local churches can be supported and celebrated and to grow this vital and impactful ecumenical work.
DATE FOR YOUR DIARIES: All are invited to the Annual Report launch on Monday 6th March (2-5pm) at Saint Mary’s Church (Chapel Road, SO14 1AQ). See https://www.lovesouthampton.org.uk/ for more details.
