Note from an online roundtable: Coronavirus - building community and connection 2
Note of a second online roundtable on the coronavirus crisis and the power of connection and community, 12 May 2020
1. SUMMARY
Once again, many people came to join us to talk about the Covid-10 crisis and the power of connection and community - we started with speakers who set the scene, then went into four breakout groups, and came back into a plenary discussion in which the groups reported back. The key messages were that:
Sometimes positive, radical change does come out of national crisis, but we can’t take this for granted – it takes hard work and it remains most likely that inequality will get worse, not better as a result of the crisis;
Together and individually we can build a compelling story of the changes we want to see;
New connections, collaborative leadership and stronger communities are being built, locally, and provide a potential platform and inspiration to others;
If we can draw examples and key lessons from them together and share them, we can help build momentum for this change.
2. IN MORE DETAIL
Caroline Slocock, co-convenor of the Better Way, introduced the discussion. She explained that this was a second meeting on Covid19 and the power of connection and community. Our Call to Action for a Better Way called for a radical shift to liberate the power of connection and community and in recent weeks across the country we have seen inspiring examples of this, despite physical distancing.
Our first meeting identified some things we would like to change for good and some things we want to work on (see appendix). At our first meeting we also told a tale of two possible futures: the first where we see far more connection and community, the second where things become more authoritarian and centralising. The danger is that in our excitement about the first we might ignore the powerful forces driving things in the direction of the second.
SHARING POWER
Nick Gardham, from Community Organisers, explained that the community organising network is concerned with the building of collective power, understood as the ability to act. That is, people coming together to mobilise around the things they care about.
In this crisis communities have indeed organised to respond to the immediate challenges people are facing. Public bodies, especially local authorities, are catching up. In the best examples we have seen an organised but not professionalised response to tackling the crisis:
In the Wirral three community organisations are working together and are running the council’s food distribution hub, providing over 7,000 food parcels. These have been recognised by the council as best-placed to respond to the crisis, because they are deeply rooted, committed to people, and hold the local relationships. The council has realised its best role is to sit behind with its infrastructure and facilitate and enable the response, not deliver it itself.
In Haringey, the Selby Trust has operated in Tottenham for many years, is deeply rooted and trusted, and connected to hundreds of local groups. In the Covid-19 emergency, the Selby Trust has developed a collaborative approach with council-employed local area health co-ordinators and 31 mutual aid groups.
However, there can be difficulties in ‘marrying’ the self-organised organic community-driven responses with the more formal and centralised approaches from local authorities. Some local authorities seem to have absolved themselves of responsibility and in some cases have been entirely absent. Some have placed great burdens on local groups. Those trying to contact the council have been passed from pillar to post. If some councils are not willing to engage, to enter into a community space, how can we encourage them to let go of their power?
We have seen the power of local and of neighbourly acts. A physically distant but neighbourly arm around people can be more powerful than action by local institutions. Some local authorities talk about ‘harnessing’ community driven efforts, but is that the best way of framing the relationship?
Furthermore, we need now to move beyond acts of neighbourliness to a shared conversation about social justice. This pandemic is not a leveller, and some sections of the community are deeply afflicted and hit hardest.
CHANGING PRACTICES
Amy Middleton, from the Mayday Trust, explained that her organisation has adopted a model which is answerable to the people it works with and supports, rather than to prescriptive contracts. Covid-19 has tested the resolve to stay true to principles and not revert to traditional working by for example simply managing risk, as so often happens in a crisis.
The Mayday Trust’s coaching teams, which provide person-led support for people experiencing tough times such as homelessness, have had to step back from face to face contact. How can they continue to provide meaningful coaching, not a tick box transactional service? The answer, it turns out, is to be led by the person and what they want, and to provide people with phones and other devices so they can be connected. The Mayday Trust has been able to make good use of small amounts of funding to help people pay internet charges and stay connected, and Amy hopes this type of funding will continue in future.
The internet can be scary for some who have avoided it in the past. But this crisis can be an opportunity to learn online skills. While we all understand the value of face-to-face contact it should be recognised that some people find that difficult, and the Mayday Trust is discovering that in those cases relationships can grow positively when the pressure for face-to-face meetings is removed.
If we are to help people thrive not just cope, we must stop seeing those we work with as vulnerable. Tough times and social isolation are not new for many people, and we need to allow people to exercise choice and control over their situation, not jump in to fix things. In recent weeks some of the people the Mayday Trust works with have applied to volunteer with NHS or other voluntary groups, becoming the person offering help rather than being on the receiving end only. Services need to recognise better that the people they work with are valuable and that they have assets they can offer their community.
WE CANNOT JUST WILL A BETTER WORLD
Duncan Shrubsole from the Lloyds Bank Foundation has recently written a blog for the Better Way, offering personal reflections. In some charity circles, he said, there much talk about opportunities to do things differently, but a willing a better world is not enough, it will be a long hard slog. And we should not underestimate the negative effect of Covid-19. It has made many things even worse, including economic exclusion, loneliness and isolation, domestic abuse, and the experience of BME communities.
Duncan’s blog addresses five topics:
Some really basic things need fixing and fast. The social care system is in a mess, benefits are too threadbare, and we haven’t invested enough in public services.
We need to better understand our society and economy as an ecosystem and to support and nourish it as such. We need both well-funded public services and effective and responsible businesses to do what they can best. We must fix the relationship between the centre and the local: we shouldn’t be helping people in poverty through local foodbanks, we should be doing it through a national benefits system; and we shouldn’t be mobilising volunteers through a centralised app, but rather through local charity responses. Moreover, the role of the charity and voluntary sector in the ecosystem need to be better understood, not least by the Treasury.
Understanding and shaping public opinion is vital. The slogan ‘stay home and save lives’ has been powerful. We need to carry people with us.
If we want to build a better world, we cannot just will it, we have to make it happen. It is wrong to see the NHS and welfare state as an inevitable consequence of the Second World War. People had to work from the 1930s onwards to make the case, and to withstand those who said we are bankrupt and we don’t have the money.
This crisis has revealed the multiple roles we each individually play and need to play. We work in organisations, we are fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and we are also neighbours. We need to understand and bring to bear the multiple roles we play. ‘To thine whole selves be true,’ suggested Duncan.
HOW CAN WE CREATE A LASTING EFFECT?
Participants broke into smaller groups to discuss the question, ‘What can we do now and in the coming weeks to create a lasting effect?’ Feedback from the breakout sessions, and the subsequent discussion, included the following points:
Shifting behaviours: It is not enough to just look at the surface, where we see many different activities. We need to look underneath to see the shift in behaviours and attitudes. The crisis is showing an innate wish for people to help, trust and look after each other. We need to build on these instincts, in which there is a huge national interest, eg the Queen saying ‘the streets are not empty, but filled with love’.
New collaborative partnerships, relationships and new ways of working: These are forming, and old rules, hierarchies and barriers to change are being abandoned, as a result of the crisis, though this is not true everywhere. Organisations are finding new ways of working and changing their practices for the good. We must capture and build on this, and inspire others to show what is possible.
Changing the language: We are finding language is important. ‘Organised’ not ‘professionalised’ activity is what works, community organisers have found, and this phrase signals that mutual aid and other local organisation do need organisation and investment, which some think is not required. ‘Neighbour to neighbour’ groups or ‘neighbour activists’ rather than ‘volunteers,’ which has Victorian connotations, are terms being adopted in some places. One organisation told us they decided not to use the NHS volunteers, as they think it is better to use local people: local connections and relationships build and strengthen communities with lasting effect.
Telling the stories: If we are to achieve a shift in behaviour, and future investment in favour of community and connection, we must tell our stories well. We need a new narrative/framing strategy which recognises that we are in the same storm but different boats. We can produce a clear and effective narrative, using advice from the Frameworks Institute. We should recognise that human emotion, not just rational argument, is needed to make change happen. We will need to find ways to shift the conversation so that people who don’t want to engage with the Better Way thinking will feel that they must
Recognising and tackling inequality: This crisis is increasing division and injustice, and as we move into recession this is likely to become even worse. We should expose this, and not allow injustice to remain hidden. But we can also draw on the best examples of recent practice to show that it is possible to reduce inequality in future, and build a fairer world.
Acting urgently: The desire to get back to ‘normal’ will be strong. We have a short timescale, maybe six weeks before we start to drift back again to old ways, it was suggested. So we will have to act with urgency
Organising well and effectively: It took huge preparatory effort to create the NHS and the welfare state, with sustained effort, detailed policy proposals and implementation plans. We will need to be similarly well organised if we want to bring about change at scale. And we should remember that many elements of the infrastructure and many of the models of working that we will need for the future do already exist, at least in part.
Recognising the limitations of this moment: History indicates that out of national crisis significant change can come, but that can’t be taken for granted. We are not at an ‘Atlee moment’, it was suggested, and the conditions do not seem favourable for a national government-led effort in favour of a more equitable society. But it was also felt there has never been a perfect time to build a better life. So we must not underestimate the scale of the challenge, and we will have to be smart in building our collective desire for something better.
Starting with ourselves: We need to start with ourselves. We can look at our own organisations and consider what can change, and understand better what the people we work with, and our communities, want. We can achieve a lot by working together, as a network, bringing about real change within our sphere of influence.
Going beyond our own immediate circle: We should not just talk to ourselves, we can also influence others. We don’t need to start from scratch. The innate desire to be useful, and for basic fairness, is not found only in the social sector, nor only on the ‘progressive left’. We can recognise and build on the power of long term relationships, across sectors, and use this opportunity, when professional boundaries have often been set aside, to break down barriers. And as Duncan says, by being true to our ‘whole selves’, we can make connections well beyond our immediate work roles.
Finding common cause between community action and local government: Some local councils do understand that it is possible to seek out and build on the shared assets that exist in communities. We can do more to work with them, and to create the conditions for more to follow.
Building the network: We should recognise that many people are incredibly busy at this time, providing services and supporting people as best they can. For many, it is difficult to find time to think beyond the immediate challenges, but the desire to do so is very high. This is the value of a network like the Better Way. This is an important time for existing members to encourage more people to join, not least from the public and private sectors.
Sharing and promoting examples of positive action: As a network, we should not feel too diffident. A few people with a strong shared vision can sometimes bring about huge change. We need to tell strong and compelling stories, wherever we can. We can capture and highlight what is being achieved now when there is a shared sense of purpose, as a guide to how things can be done better locally and nationally in future. With others, the Better Way can highlight what’s working and tell the story of what’s possible based on what’s already starting to happen now, and our members can help by providing video clips and blogs.
We agreed we should organise a further meeting, in a few weeks’ time; and we’ll aim to bring in more members from the public sector. One topic might be: ‘How can we build on the collaborative leadership that is already happening in the crisis so that we #changeforgood.