Alison Hernandez: Community outreach at the heart of helping those in need

My convening role enables me to get involved with a broad range of agencies and communities to improve policing, tackle crime and deliver justice.

Interestingly, most of the solutions to this is strong leadership whether at an organisational or community level. 

In all my years, the answer to solving most people's offending behaviour – besides prison for our most dangerous – is having a home, a job and a family to fall back on. Many of the people you see on our streets struggling were not helped early enough, nor the many criminals I have spoken to over the years. 

Do you know what age we will be the most violent in our lives? It’s three years old. If not corrected or dealt with then it is a road to a potentially harmful life. 

George Hosking from the Wave Trust has carried out research all over the world and parenting challenges is where we need to offer the most help. George claims we could solve 70 per cent of violence if we all invested in families with young children more. 

However, we as government agencies are spending most of our efforts on the symptoms – not the cause. That’s why I am always keen to support and promote the work of our communities who volunteer to help get people back on track, even it’s much later in life. 

I recently visited Upton Vale Baptist Church (UV) in Castle Circus, Torquay. It was heartwarming to discover how it is demonstrating a cohesive and coordinated approach to some of the important issues of the day facing the local community.  

Following a strategic review five years ago, UV undertook research to explore some of the burning platform issues locally. Just some of the areas identified were employability and a lack of life skills, youth/ children, grief and homelessness/ vulnerability.  

As a result, the church looked inward to find ways it could recruit its active 300 plus church members to help. I heard about four community outreach programmes the church is running; some of them for several years and others recently launched. 

I met with Senior Pastor Simon Clay whose commitment to “ordinary people doing extraordinary things” was evident and uplifting. We talked about how we can work more closely together to ease some of the effects of homelessness that is so evident in this particular part of the town. That work will be made easier, no doubt, by Simon being on first name terms with many of those involved. 

I was then given a short overview by the UV team of some of the community programmes either funded by themselves, supported by benefactors or established charities.  

Those programmes included: 

• 2B Ready – a free, five-week employability programme for post-education jobseekers and students in education  
• Bereavement Friendship Group – monthly support and friendship for those experiencing loss alongside an annual bereavement service at Upton Vale Church 
• T@3 – a twice monthly support and friendship for those experiencing dementia or memory loss launched last month 
• Ladies Lounge - offers vital support twice a week for women affected by domestic abuse and/ or sexual violence (DASV).   

The latter was established 10 years ago and offers a safe space to talk, advice, get meals and vital support for those in need, and enjoy craft making. There is, sadly, still a critical demand for such a vital service and the women who go along often acknowledge the group has turned their lives around. 

Each of these programmes were inspirational in their own way, and the fact that the support is offered mainly by volunteers is both heartwarming and highly commendable. But what struck me most about my visit was how effective joined-up support can be.  

There is a real cross-pollination of activity between the four groups: the Ladies Lounge team has been able to refer people to the 2B Ready employability courses and vice versa. The Bereavement Friendship Group is dovetailing with the dementia group and other church support services. It’s this kind of collaboration that makes the outcomes so tangible and powerful. 

I realise there are many churches today that are undertaking similar initiatives, but effective community outreach is not simply serving local needs on an ad hoc basis. By researching what’s needed, tackling issues strategically, and engaging the skills and talents of its congregation, UV has been able to match the solution to the need more precisely.  

Coming at the end of a busy day, I found it a blessing to spend time with the UV team in a peaceful and positive environment. I’ll be keeping in touch to see how we can ease some of the growing challenges faced by our local community, together, in the longer term. 

If you’d like to know more about Upton Vale’s community outreach programmes, email info@uptonvale.org.uk.