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Leeds Neighbourliness Circular – A Timely Response to the Cold Spell?

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I received this circular email on 13 January through the Leeds Third Sector Mailing Lists after snow had been on the ground for 4 weeks.

Dear All,

Current cold and icy conditions: A call for help to staff, friends and the community

As the cold and icy conditions continue to affect the country, please consider the impact of the wintry conditions and plunging temperatures on those more vulnerable to its impact than yourself. This might include those less able to get out and about, such as elderly neighbours, or people who are living alone or on low incomes, and who may be at risk.

During this sustained cold spell, we would ask that you consider checking that neighbours, friends or family are safe and warm and are not left without vital practical help. The icy conditions may mean that you can help someone by running errands, helping pick up a few provisions when you nip to the shops or simply providing a friendly voice. Ask the basics, such as:

  • Are they keeping warm?
  • Are they eating at least one hot meal a day?
  • Are they keeping as active as possible?
  • Are they keeping in contact with family, friends or other neighbours?
  • Do they need anything or can you help in any way?
  • Is there anyone in your neighbourhood that might need your support?

This year is Leeds ‘Year of the Volunteer’ and there is probably no better start for those who aren’t sure how they might do something for their own community than this.

If you have genuine concerns for a neighbour, relative or friend then please check on them. It might be that they need more than you feel able to provide and they may ask you to contact the appropriate local public services – this may be the Council (eg. Social Care, Housing or Benefits), Voluntary Organisations or Health Services. They are all in the front of the Phone Book and the numbers do change depending on where you live.

Further advice on keeping safe and warm is available online at a variety of locations including such sites as:

http://www.direct.gov.uk/

http://www.helptheaged.org.uk/

http://www.nhs.uk/

The BBC News website is also providing a good summary of advice covering a broad range of related issues relevant to all of us.

Please forward this email onto colleagues, friends and family whether they live in Leeds or not. You might end up helping someone who is desperate and in need of your support.

Although the weather is easing at present, conditions are still treacherous underfoot and who knows what weather the next few months may bring.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best Regards,

XXXXXX

Principal Emergency Planning Officer

Resilience Team

3rd Floor West, Civic Hall

Leeds LS1 1UR

I have my own thoughts on the timeliness, content and assumptions that lie behind such a circular.

Third Sector Leeds – Vision 2030

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Friday 22nd January 2010, 9:15am – 12:30pm at Banqueting Suite, Civic Hall

An urgent message from David Smith, Director, Leeds Voice…

“I want to urge you and your colleagues to clear your diaries and make the debate about the long term future of Leeds the top priority for the morning of Friday 22nd January in the Civic Hall.

The Council and its partners are working together through the Leeds Initiative to develop the new sustainable community strategy for Leeds. Better known here as the Vision for Leeds, this is now a statutory requirement So there is a lot at stake for the future of the city in these discussions and as a sector we need to make sure our voice is heard, both in the interests of a thriving third sector, and to make sure that the voices of diverse and often marginalised communities are heard in the debate.

This is also the first event for everyone in the sector organised by the Third Sector Leeds Leadership Group. Come and find out more about this exciting development to give the sector more influence in partnership discussions in Leeds.

If you can only attend one conference this Spring, make it this one!”

Please make sure you have booked your place at this event and please circulate this email to as many of your third sector colleagues as possible and encourage them to attend the event.

Bookings are being handled by Leeds Accommodation Forum: please contact Lisa on 0113 244 4221

Richard Robson
Strategy Group Coordinator
Leeds Voice
Suite 56, Concourse House
432 Dewsbury Road
Leeds LS11 7DF
Tel: 0113 277 2227

Strengthening and representing the voluntary, community and faith sector. A Leeds Initiative partner.

Precautions for All Governments – John McKnight

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In John McKnight’s ‘Building Communities from the Inside Out’ is a chapter on ‘Providing support for asset based development: Policies and Guidelines’.  John may not be the greatest crafter of a punchy headline on the planet, but he does understand the process of community development – and the content of this section is right on the money.

In a section called ‘Precautions for all Governments’ he points out the problems that governments and other institutions of the state have in working with what are often small, simple and informal community development groups.  He suggests that often, in trying to play its role, government ends up ‘dominating, distorting and demeaning’ the work of local people.  McKnight offers a few principles that can help government officials (council officers, RDA employees etc) to avoid this ‘overbearing propensity’.

To paraphrase:

  • Remember that government workers and programmes are public servants.  A servant supports and does not control.  A servant never suggests that an employee might ‘participate’ in the servants’ work.  The servant finds how best to serve the employer.
  • Understand the limits to government.  If it replaces the work of citizens and their associations it will not create a healthy society –  but a dependent one.  The community will look to government to solve local problems and government will be unable to fulfil this role.  Local problems will worsen. ‘Secure, wise and just communities are created by citizens and their associations and enterprises, supported by governments making useful investments in local assets’.
  • Let local people who do the work take the credit.  Don’t send the mayor to ‘cut the ribbon’.  Let those that did the work have the glory.  Send the mayor to thank them.
  • Don’t replace local associations and institutions with new systems and agencies.  ‘One of the most significant causes of weakened local citizen initiatives, associational work and institutional capacity has been the introduction of new government sponsored structures and organisations.  As new organisations appear in the neighbourhood with impressive buildings or offices, lots of money and well paid outside professionals (sounds familiar?) they unintentionally but necessarily replace some of the power, authority and legitimacy of local groups.  Although they assert that they are there to strengthen community, they are likely to replace community initiatives.’
  • Government representatives should ask “What do you local people think we should do to support you?” rather than “We have this new programme we are bringing to your community.”
  • Ones size does not fit all.  Characteristics of local projects are diversity, proliferation and informality.  Government and bureaucracy however is more often characterised by uniformity, standardisation and formality.  They usually seek to develop processes and systems that will ‘fit all’.  This approach is structurally and culturally ‘at odds’ with creative local initiatives that are vital to community regeneration.

One of the challenges that I believe government (local, regional and national) and its agencies has to address is how best do we make our expertise and professional ‘knowhow’ available to community groups?  Instead they appear to be have succeeded in co-opting the expertise and knowhow of community groups to deliver governments’ policies programmes and targets on dependent and disempowered communities.

Time for a change methinks.

Good Work….

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Just reading Schumacher’s Good Work again.  Although the original lectures on which the book was based were first given in the 1970s it seems that we have made little progress in helping people with the challenge of finding good work.

From the Foreword…

At the heart of our system of work lies our system of values, and more precisely, our view of the individual and his relationships with others. By way of illustration, consider one of the current pseudo-intellectual clichés, that work is part of the Protestant ethic and that a more enlightened view of it is (presumably) that the less work you can get away with, the better.

This is a cynical and degraded view of human nature (certainly not subscribed to by any religion that I know of) because it assumes that money is the sole reason for working. Set this view against Schumacher’s opening remarks in this book, in which he identifies three purposes of human  work:

  • to produce necessary and useful goods and services;
  • to enable us to use and perfect our gifts and skills; and
  • to serve, and collaborate with, other people, so as to “liberate ourselves from our inborn egocentricity.”

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From the Preface….

A recent article in the London Times began with these words:

“Dante, when composing his visions of hell, might well have included the mindless, repetitive boredom of working on a factory assembly line. It destroys initiative and rots brains, yet millions of British workers are committed to it for most of their lives.”

The remarkable thing is that this statement, like countless similar ones made before it, aroused no interest: there were no hot denials or anguished agreements; no reactions at all. The strong and terrible words “visions of hell,” “destroys initiative and rots brains,” and so on–attracted no reprimand that they were misstatements or overstatements, that they were irresponsible or hysterical exaggerations or subversive propaganda; no, people read them, sighed and nodded, I suppose, and moved on.

Not even  the ecologists,  conservationists,  and doom watchers are interested in this matter. If someone had asserted that certain man-made arrangements destroyed the initiative and rotted the brains of millions of birds or seals or wild animals in the game reserve of Africa, such an assertion would have been either refuted or accepted as a serious challenge. If someone had asserted that not the minds and brains of millions of workers were being rotted but their bodies, again there would have been considerable interest.

After all, there are safety regulations, inspectors, claims for damages, and so forth. No management is unaware of its duty to avoid accidents or physical conditions which impair workers’ health. But workers’ brains, minds, and souls are a different matter.

Bradford PMN Programme for 2010

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I am pleased to say that PMN and Gumption Centres in Bradford are partnering together to give you the opportunity to become an outstanding manager in 2010.  If you want to get better at managing people to improved performance then this is the programme for you:

February 3rd – How to Be an Outstanding Manager – Free Introductory Event

March 24th – Brilliant 121s

April 14th – Giving and Getting Great Feedback

May 12th – Practical Coaching for Progressive Managers

June 9th – Effective Delegation

July 7th – Effective Time Management

Each session will run from 10am till 12 noon at the lovely Gumption Centre in Bradford.

Places will be limited so register your interest now.

Prices (subject to confirmation) will be £120 plus VAT per workshop.  We will be offering discounts for booking early – £99 plus VAT for bookings received 4 weeks before the event.

Or you can book on all 6 events for £475 plus VAT.

You can book your place online here or contact me through this page for further information.