Stronger Communities

London / Sheffield / Liverpool / Stoke

The “Stronger Communities, Stronger Economy” discussion in London took place on 25 March 2009 at Community Links in Canning Town.

Who participated?

Participants in this discussion group were; David Robinson, Vice Chair on the Council of Social Action and Senior Advisor at Community Links, Elle Dodd, Trustee of the British Youth Council, Gareth Sear, Director of Enterprise Gateways, Oliver Bramford, Host of The Hub, Kings Cross, Gina Langton, Co-ordinator at Localeyes, Tessy Britton, Directory of Thriving, James Sandy, Campaign Manager at Make Your Mark, Sally Goldsworthy, Director of Discover, Dermot Fitzpatrick of Awareness Business Development, Nick Stanhope, Head of Education at We Are What We Do, Jan Levy, Director of Three Hands, Sue Cohen, Director of the Single Parent Action Network (SPAN), Clare Cooper, Deputy Director: Community Empowerment Strategy, DCLG, Radhika Bynon, Development Manager at the Council on Social Action, Betty Kobusingye, Community Links Youth Team, Hilary Harvey, Programme Co-ordinator at the Council on Social Action, Jason Hardia, The Children’s Society, Geraldine Blake, Head of Links UK, Richard McKeever, Head of Publications at Community Links, and Laura Hyde, Chain Reaction Events Manager

What happened?

The discussion started with a speed networking session where participants were invited to connect with other members of the group by identifying shared passions. Geraldine Blake then thanked attendees, and gave a brief description of the work of Community Links, and the Chain Reaction event held last year. With the national Chain Reaction event the purpose was to connect people, sharing experiences to facilitate a space to collaborate and commit to take action together. This year we are planning something different which will include smaller events at a local level.. The Stronger Communities meeting is about sharing ideas more widely and to gather feedback, to generate new ideas for collaboration and to inspire participants to take action in their own communities. In involve people interested in social change to talk about their ideas on social renewal.

David Robinson then spoke briefly on the role of the Council on Social Action and the thinking behind the Stronger Communities, Stronger Economy paper.

Participants where then asked to form small groups of 5 people to discuss the ideas proposed in the Stronger Communities, Stronger Economy paper and add further ideas to those proposed. “What else would you do?” Participants then fed back their ideas and proposals to the rest of the group.

The resulting discussion was connected to the groups running simultaneously in Stoke and Birmingham, and online users via Twitter Click here to view the conversations

Feedback & Ideas

The Challenges that face us

Less money can mean more conflict in communities
Role of media in reporting the recession is always negative. We need more positive news!
Generally, there is a lack of confidence, which is caused by job losses / less money / loss of esteeme
We need focus on redistribution and reducing inequality
Focus on moral/values about the collective not the individual
Income inequality does not work
We now have the opportunity to frame social issues in economic terms
We need to rethink how we measure the things we value - People not possessions are the things of value
More work needs to be done with grassroots organisations
Build capacity for social self-organising
Education we receive shapes our actions – schools are an opportunity, and also informal education, to look at educating people in the values of sharing experiences with others, doing activities with diverse groups.
Values based society is a particular issue for secular societies.

1. Common Goals
Common Goals is a proposal from the paper Stronger Communities, Stronger Economy. Common Goals is a programme deploying and developing the skills of those with reduced working hours or no paid work and focusing this national resource on the sustainable legacy of stronger, healthier, more engaged and more supportive communities.

Feedback from participants was;

Reinvest in green
Needs brokerage
Must be sustainable when people go back to work
Everyone has skills

2. Community owned Businesses

3. Build capacity of self organising
People need to support each other, and there is a need to ensure that people mix and bridge those gaps in our society. Co-operation not competition. A programme to build community building skills, and collaboration. We can do better together. The tools need to be available to enable the sharing of ideas from around the world
Video Hilary Harvey and Elle Dodd talk about self organising groups
Discuss Discuss this idea on the Chain Reaction network

4. Businesses need to be accountable for public benefit
Big businesses can be a core benefit to society - often businesses can make decisions and take action where government and community groups cannot. Businesses should demonstrate the public benefits that businesses deliver, and not just via CSR statements.
Discuss Discuss this idea on the Chain Reaction network

5. Community Leaders
To create community cohesion we need to have non political leaders for each area or local community, who would be a role model. Someone who provides good stories that media desperately need, and could be a personality in their local area. Rather like a mayor. Having this role model would help create community cohesion, and could help change the behaviour of young people and get them to suppor their communtiies.This person would need to be accountable to someone.
Discuss Discuss this idea on the Chain Reaction network
Vote Vote for this plan on the we20 website

Response to David Robinson’s question “What can the Prime Minister do about these points?” .

We need to use all available networks
Engage and motivate people
Implement a new system on how we communicate
Give people experiences of values
Close the gap of perception between public and private sector
Public sector should become a facilitator and offer the resources that people need by listening to the community
It is not a function of the Prime Minister to decide what he needs to do, is us who should do something about it. We need a movement in the country.

Public Sector - what should they be doing differently?

Public sector is shifting. They are more facilitators. They need to provide more spaces and the environment to listen to what the community requires.
Support groups/mentors to give people the negotiation power to establish a local enterprise
Public sector has the scope to diversify, to be flexible. We need something that enables people to grasp the opportunities (maybe money, expertise, etc)
Something is stopping people, there so many barriers
Set up support networks within the Chain Reaction group
Public sector is about how you engage communities. Are there examples around of young people that can be involved in decision making.
It needs to be about practical roots

Government - what should they be doing differently?

This Prime Minister gives people more power
Build on what’s there
In regars to tax and benefits it needs to close gap at the top

Businesses - what should they be doing differently?

More ethical businesses

Third sector - what they should be doing differently?

There needs to be more partnerships
More attention to the financial side, and knowledge and experiences in how the government works
Cross sector collaboration
The distinction between Public Sector, Private and Third Sector is not that valuable as it used to be or as useful. There is a remix now (cross sector)
The major banks are now owned by the public. Which potentially creates lots of opportunities

Individuals - what should they be doing differently?

Changing consumer behaviour
Focus needs to be on sustainability
How do we harness consumer instinct?
People are doing things instead of shopping
New community leaders are young people

Summing up
David Robinson summed up the meeting, and reiterated that the Stronger Communities, Stronger Economy meetings are a great opportunity for us to feedback to the Prime Minister what we think can create a stronger community.

Individuals still have the opportunity to go away and run meetings in their local areas and feedback back to Chain Reaciton and the Council on Social Action.

Video David Robinson sums up (apologies for sound quality)
Video Oli Bramford feeds back
Video Gareth Sear feeds back
Video Dermot Fitzpatrick feeds back
Video Sue Cohen feeds back
Video Gina Langton feeds back

London / Sheffield / Liverpool / Stoke