The Power of Community

In this blog, we explore the importance of community and the power it has to enrich lives.

Community is all around us. It may be where we live, the friends we keep, the country we come from, hobby, religion, belief or even team we support. Communities have been around for as long as us and the meaning of community has changed over time. What hasn’t changed is the power that communities provide through the strength and support of connecting with other people in a joint purpose. 

Community is difficult to define. If you ask Google, it will give you many different definitions of community. But often, community can best be described as a feeling, rather than a description. Proper communities are welcoming places, where people find comfort and acceptance through shared experience and a sense of belonging.

Some communities are brought together through shared goals and these communities have achieved historic changes, especially for minority and persecuted groups. When thinking about community, many of us likely recognise it on a local scale. 

This is why, when living in a major city like London, people often complain that community feeling is being lost, the makeup of local areas is constantly changing and there’s less funding for community services. Hubs which used to act as meeting points for the community are closing at a worrying rate and violent crime is on the rise. 

This means that where we have facilities and services that support communities to come together, share spaces and form connections, they should be protected.

This is where Coin Street comes in. Our aim is to create an inspirational neighbourhood, encouraging the positive development of our community by offering places for local people to meet, free community events for all ages, coffee mornings, free child and parent sessions, support for families and help for those struggling with a variety of issues such as poverty, loneliness, mental health and much more. 

Starting as a group of people who stood up to save the local community from developers, our core values are to look after one another and create a community that is happy, healthy, safe and secure. Over our 40-year history, we’ve done this in a number of ways. Each week we host dozens of free weekly community, youth and family sessions.

We offer thousands of hours of extra support to those in need, provide and maintain 220 co-operative houses and nurture green spaces for people to enjoy along the South Bank. Of course, our job is not yet done, and we continue to find ways to improve and maintain the community and neighbourhood around us. The power of our community is the positive impact we see for people who live, work and play within our neighbourhood and the way being part of our community can enrich people’s lives.  

Our neighbourhood provides an amazing learning environment, full of opportunities to expand the horizons of our children and young people. Located in one of the UK's most vibrant and culturally rich areas, our community members make the most of it. From over 50s art classes to group gym sessions and day trips to boat parties.

Feeling part of a community can offer support, safety and security, but also just a friendly face when you need it. We have tried hard to create a wide and extensive group of people who look out for each other, care for one another, are inclusive and go above and beyond for those they come in contact with. As much as Coin Street and our colleagues have a role in encouraging a great community experience, it is the people in our neighbourhood who make the magic happen.  

We provide the areas to meet and sessions to enjoy, but it’s the community members who create the sense of community for one another. Through these communities, hundreds of local people have been brought joy, happiness, belonging and togetherness. 

If you haven’t got involved with Coin Street before, this is what our community offers. After spending some time with these amazing people, it’s likely you will experience the power of this community for yourself.