When you think of your ‘community’ what, or who, comes to mind?
Your close friendship circle, even if you only manage to see each other six times a year, max?
Or maybe it’s the familiar faces in your favourite corner of the internet?
Maybe you’re still finding your community.
Community can look different for everyone. It’s about the relationships we build, the support we offer each other, and the collective sense of belonging that stays with us, not just in the good times, but through life’s challenges.
And when it comes to our mental health, community can be everything.
Why Community Spaces Matter for Wellbeing
Being social is in our nature. Numerous studies have shown that having quality social connections can help us reduce stress, combat loneliness, make us emotionally stronger and even help us live longer.
When we feel seen and valued, our wellbeing improves.
But in recent years, has that sense of connection started to feel harder to find?
If so, at what cost?
The mental cost of lonliness
Loneliness isn’t just about being alone, it’s about feeling unsupported and disconnected.
Studies have shown as much as 22% of adults feel lonely at some point, and it isn’t just emotionally challenging. Being linked to higher rate of anxiety and depression, isolation has a real impact on our mental health.
When we feel we’re without a community, we’re left to cope alone. And the impact on mental health is often severe.
Social isolation has been linked to higher rates of depression and anxiety. It can chip away at our confidence, stall personal growth, and leave us feeling lost.
But the effects don’t stop with the individual, they ripple outward.
When people feel disconnected, trust breaks down and social cohesion weakens. Opportunities to come together, care for each other, and tackle challenges become harder to come by.
It becomes a cycle.
We begin feeling isolated, which fractures our community…and fractured community makes connection even harder to find.
And so the cycle continues.
What’s happening to our communities?
We’ve all felt the pinch of the cost of living crisis, and so have the spaces that keep us connected.
Over the past decade, communities across the UK have faced significant challenges, including the mass closure of shared spaces that once brought people together.
Between 2010 and 2020 alone we saw 750 youth clubs, 800 libraries, and over 1200 children’s centres close their doors, casualties of funding cuts, and more recently, the last effects of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the cost of living crisis continues to threaten the financial stability of grassroots businesses, places that often serve cornerstones of community life.
As these spaces disappear, so too does the social fabric that helps us stay connected.
Where once you might bump into a neighbour, meet someone at a fitness class, or find support in a new parent group, these interactions become increasingly rare. We’re living next door but leading completely separate lives.
How Community-Led Projects Can Improve Mental Health
We know, when the places that keep us connected and supported start disappearing, it’s no wonder things feel…bleak.
BUT there is still a way for us to move forward.
Improving the nation’s mental health starts with rebuilding a sense of community in meaningful, sustainable ways that most importantly, place people at the centre.
That means supporting community-led projects, creating welcoming spaces where people can give and receive support, and making room for shared, positive experiences and interactions.
It means recognising that solutions must be shaped with the community, not just for it.
And the best part? We know it works, because we’ve seen first-hand.
By joining Cii projects and regenerating empty homes, people from all walks of life come together and create new communities built on shared goals, establish safe spaces to build their confidence, learn new skills, and discover a renewed sense of self.
We’ve seen individuals take pride in where they’re from again, reconnect with others, and for many, finally feel like they belong.
And we’re just one example.
Across the UK, social enterprises are improving mental health by creating inclusive community spaces where people can connect, access new opportunities, and find the kind of support that truly changes lives.
Read more about how we’ve been supporting community connection and even building our own communities here.
