Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable…
Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
These days it seems that every step towards the goal of social justice requires a government policy and an associated funding stream. We expect the state to sort this stuff out for us. Well, it hasn’t and I suspect it can’t.
And given how the funding climate is likely to shape up over the next few years, even if the state did know how to sort this out it won’t have the money. So instead I think we need a return to community development work that:
- is rooted in communities rather than government departments
- embraces affordable and human scale interventions rather than national projects and the rolling out of grand plans
- honours the integrity of individuals over the narrow outcomes being purchased by funders
- that attracts investment from venture philanthropists as well as the public purse.
Perhaps it is time to invest less in state funded mangerialism and more in ‘tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals’.