The importance of hope
As we emerge from the festive break and the opportunities that a New Year brings, we’ve probably all heard the usual words and phrases that we associate with this time of year - resolutions, peace, hope etc. For some reason, in recent years I’ve often found myself giving more thought to the words that we use, how we use them and - importantly - what they really mean when we use them.
“ Resources such as the PRAN Network … will be vital … to ensure more collaboration, further understanding of issues such as poverty and how we can all work together.”
Lee Collins
The word hope is something that I regularly find myself coming back to. I’ve sometimes been challenged by it potentially being used as just a cliché - a word used in place of something substantial or genuinely hopeful. Despite this, I still find myself struck by the power and the beauty of the word when it’s used as an intentional drive for something better and more fulfilling. I suppose a big part of this stems from the fact that the opposite of hope and hopefulness is hopelessness - a devastating word.
I was struck by David Graeber’s assertion that hopelessness isn’t natural; hopelessness is something that’s produced and designed into society and communities to make us feel that a better way of doing things isn’t possible. In much the same way, it feels like things such as poverty and inequality are produced and designed into society (even though we’re often told the opposite).
It certainly also feels like these experiences are frequently intertwined - the experiences of poverty and inequality often lead to the inevitabilities of hopelessness (anything good will inevitably come to an end and it’s inevitable that potential in communities won’t be realised because that’s just how things are).
At St. Andrew’s Community Network, over the last 20 years or so we’ve been very fortunate to be able to work alongside local organisations and communities to develop initiatives to support some of the most vulnerable and marginalised people across North Liverpool and beyond. The networks of food banks, community pantries, money advice, and volunteering opportunities that we support are also part of the broader network of local and national charities, organisations, mutual aid groups etc. that do similar work.
What will always stand out for me in any of these initiatives is the word that features in the name of the organisation that I work for - community. Just as poverty and hopelessness can feel like they’re intertwined, notions of community and hope often strike me as being intertwined. More significantly, it feels like hope and community can play a big part in being the antidote to those experiences of poverty and hopelessness.
There is certainly hope in the community. Despite the long-term impacts of austerity, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the never-ending cost-of-living crisis (which I’m guessing most of the people reading this also see on a day-to-day basis), people still come together and communities still devise and develop ways to support each other. This is because creativity, imagination real hope and the drive to make things better lies within communities.
Looking ahead to the rest of the year, it has to be one filled with hope and embracing opportunities to build stronger and more sustainable communities. Resources such as the PRAN Network (and beyond) will be vital to ensuring more collaboration and a better understanding of issues such as poverty. We need to work together to intentionally follow the course of designing poverty out of communities. We have to try to be positive, creative and intentional about this because the alternative (less community, increasing poverty, increasing division) leads to more hopelessness. And nobody wants that.
