If you were in the city centre of Newcastle upon Tyne and you were to walk directly east you would soon find yourself in a small residential neighbourhood called Shieldfield.
Once a largely green area of farming and horticulture, Shieldfield was transformed by industry into a bustling neighbourhood of housing, pubs, and shops. In the mid-late 20th century, via a slum clearance programme, much of the terraced housing was demolished to make way for high-rise tower blocks, and more recently the area has seen an explosion in purpose-built and privately-owned student flats.
Today, like many urban areas in the UK, Shieldfield is home to an increasingly complicated mix of people, diverse in cultural background, social status, nationality, faith, sexual orientation, and lived experience.
A community-led strategic plan for the neighbourhood, published in 2022, identified the demographic of Shieldfield as; “a multi-cultural area with around 5,000 inhabitants. It is intergenerational in makeup, and home to many new and young families, students, and older residents. Shieldfield also hosts housing for refugees and asylum seekers.”
Within this social mix, the last eight years or so has seen a notable number of initiatives emerge. Led by residents and/or locally based organisations these initiatives share the broad aim to meet the range of emergent needs in the neighbourhood. These initiatives include;
A volunteer run community cafe with reliable opening hours, cups of tea at affordable prices, a friendly welcome, and a programme of events for cross-cultural celebration (The Forum Cafe).
An open and accessible community garden where skills and knowledge are shared to grow fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers for collective joy and consumption (Shieldfield Grows).
A free-to-access youth programme providing space, resources, and support for the social and creative development of the many young people in the neighbourhood (The Shieldfield Youth Programme).
A community co-operative which provides a democratic framework for people of all ages and backgrounds to actively participate in their community, be it town planning solutions, knowledge sharing, or regular social events (Dwellbeing Shieldfield).
An annual community football tournament, co-organised by residents and organisations, encouraging participation regardless of age, gender, or ability to co-create a festival of mutual care and collective joy (The Shieldfield Community Cup).
A regular and free-to-access hot meal and community larder, as a form of active solidarity, run by a nearby co-operative cinema, gig venue and café (The Star and Shadow Cinema - Community Kitchen).
A committed team of people who provide a wash, dry, fold and delivery, laundry service for elderly and disabled people living in the area (Caring Hands Community Launderette)
A small contemporary art gallery which runs workshops for young people and prioritises space within their public programme to exhibit their work, developing confidence, skills, and fun social interactions (Slug Town).
I Could go on…
In a political and media landscape which repeatedly alerts us to the dangerous or self-seeking ‘other,’ these acts of solidarity demonstrated in Shieldfield may seem extraordinary, if not radical, given the increasing levels of precarity and individualism we are living through.
Yet, I am hesitant to use the term ‘radical’ because as we witnessed throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, these collective tendencies have so often been our response to crisis. Amidst the unfolding of Covid-19 wide-ranging instances of kindness and solidarity were being reported from people reaching out to their neighbours by singing from their balcony, to the formation of solidarity groups such as Food & Solidarity in Newcastle (UK) or Adopt a Grandparent, which started in Surrey (UK) and spread worldwide.
The exceptional circumstances of the pandemic encouraged new mutual aid groups to emerge, but it also made visible the kindness and solidarity that had already existed, as Rebecca Solnit observes in a collection of essays entitled Pandemic Solidarity, “they are indeed everywhere and always have been … they are what sustains us.”
If we acknowledge that positive social action can result from connecting to people around us, from collective rather than solo action …
How might this be reflected in the stories we tell?
Credits:
Animation - Graeme Patterson
Drawing - Andrew Wilson
Narration - Sue Richardson, Sharon Bousfield, Val Middleton
