The Community
Wellbeing Index
Using insight from the Index has helped us to make sure that we’re targeting our activity in locations where we can make the greatest difference to people – mobilising communities to support each other with grief.
Lucy Dennis, Connecting Communities Project Manager at Cruse Bereavement Support
A new partnership between Co-op and Cruse Bereavement Support is aiming to help people talk about death and grief more openly. The partnership recently completed research with YouGov which found that just under half of people (49%) who have not experienced a bereavement feel unprepared in helping a bereaved friend or relative, and one in eight (12%) have actively avoided someone who is grieving because they don’t know what to say to them.
Cruse Bereavement Support are the UK’s largest bereavement charity, providing free care and counselling to people suffering from grief. The charity aims to help people who are grieving through the offer of bereavement support and information - either by phone, email and through their website, or with the offer of face-to-face and group counselling. Every year Cruse answer 33,000 helpline calls and in 2021 they supported 27,000 individuals who were struggling following a bereavement.
Funded by Co-op members through the Co-op’s Community Partnership Fund, the partnership aims to empower people in their local communities to provide everyday support for those who have experienced a bereavement. The partnership has produced a suite of bite-size resources that feature Cruse experts and members of the community and address important issues such as understanding, normalising and identifying the signs of grief and signposting people to the support that’s on offer.
Co-op is delighted to be partnering with Cruse to mobilise communities to support the bereaved. Our research shows the vital role that communities have in supporting the mental wellbeing of those who have been bereaved, from supportive conversations about grief and signposting to more formal support, to providing hubs, networks and activities that can help with social connection, routine and meaning that may be missing following the death of someone close.
Rebecca Birkbeck, Director of Community and Member Participation, Co-op
The partnership is also piloting on the ground help in several communities across the UK, to provide informal support for people who are grieving and demonstrating how communities can come together to talk more openly about bereavement and to support those in need.
To identify areas that would benefit most from this new approach, we looked at the Co-op’s Community Wellbeing Index (CWI). Using insight from the CWI, we created a shortlist of proposed communities for the pilot through the lens of vulnerability – focusing on locations with poor long term health status and a high number of one person households aged 50+ (which is used as a proxy measure for loneliness). We also considered whether we already had a Co-op presence in the local area so that our Member Pioneers who work to connect communities could support the programme and we checked that the shortlisted locations were of a suitable size for this type of activity.
Using the CWI, we identified the following locations for the pilot - Splott in Cardiff, Kilwinning in Scotland, Manor Park and Tottenham in London and New Lodge in Belfast
In each of these areas, the Connecting Communities Team have been working closely with Co-op Member Pioneers to learn from community groups and identify local bereavement needs. So far the project has helped to connect existing bereavement support and has begun developing new training which offers guidance to community members to better support one another following the death of a loved one.
The CWI, alongside other data and resources has been invaluable for the pilot. Using insight from the Index has helped us to make sure that we’re targeting our activity in locations where we can make the greatest difference to people – mobilising communities to support one another with grief and bereavement.
By Lucy Dennis, Connecting Communities Project Manager at Cruse Bereavement Support
It looks like one of our systems has fallen over.
Our team is already patching it up, so please try again soon.
We care about the wellbeing of our local communities, which is why we are applying a few changes to our postcode search for you to find your local wellbeing score.
You can still find out about the great work involved throughout the Community Wellbeing Index on site.