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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
10 May 2017
Updated: 22 October 2020
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This blog was originally published on Civil Society Futures, The Independent Inquiry, and is written by 2014 Clore Social Fellow Louise Cannon, UnLtd Award Manager, Building Futures Lead.
I was recently invited to talk to the group responsible for the inquiry into the future of civil society on behalf of UnLtd and the social entrepreneurs with whom I work. Following some scene setting about what the group are looking to achieve, the current challenges facing communities and the scope of the inquiry; one of the members asked me, and another invited guest, whether we were optimistic or pessimistic about the future role of civil society?
Here is my answer.
To state the obvious and somewhat predictable, I believe there will be an important place for social entrepreneurs in the future of civil society. Consistently over the years I have seen social entrepreneurs bring forward enterprising solutions to social issues. Regardless of the challenges of the operating environment, people have come forward to make a change and UnLtd have supported them on their journey.
Whilst we are supporting great ideas and passionate individuals who are achieving results, I have seen a limited number of social entrepreneurs tackling the root causes of the social issues we experience today, due either to the complexity of wicked social issues, or because they are stuck in the day to day operations trying to survive and grow. We are continually looking to improve our ability to support social entrepreneurs and so our own journey must be one which enables us to understand the barriers which prevent a larger proportion of social entrepreneurs from being able to look beyond their individual solution. We need to invest in collaborative approaches to address broader systemic challenges.
However, the burden of responsibility cannot solely be carried by those individuals without support. We exist to provide that support, but how do we help those who are not within our network to start up and thrive, or support others to do so?
In 2015, myself and a small team of colleagues in Birmingham were tasked with exploring how we could reach more social entrepreneurs with the same resources. It might have been easy for us to assume we understood the challenges facing social entrepreneurs, but we decided to make sure and test our assumptions. Our first step was to speak to as many people as possible, in fact, we conducted in depth interviews with over 50 people, both social entrepreneurs and supporters of, and tested the results on over 1,000 more social entrepreneurs. The results were in, and the challenges and opportunities were clear, some even a little surprising. Of those that stood out, were just how regularly social entrepreneurs experience feelings of isolation. Social entrepreneurs are also finding it hard to access funds beyond seed capital, because they simply don’t have the resources to spare for failed attempts. We also discovered some powerful actions that can have a transformative effect for social entrepreneurs.
So we had our answers and so began a series of prototypes to test out ideas and methods looking at each of the challenges and prototyping solutions. Many of the ideas we tested were not new ideas but slight adaptations which allowed us to test their impact for social entrepreneurs. We have used and commissioned research to understand ideas we saw around us that were working in helping people to connect, collaborate and share. We will be sharing the results in the form of a Playbook which will map out ideas we love, tools, methods and solutions we have tried, and more importantly, how others can do the same. We are also working to map the state of social entrepreneurship in Birmingham and the wider West Midlands Combined Authority area which will be replicated if it proves useful for social entrepreneurs in navigating support and finding their own allies.
To come back to the question. I am positive about the role of civil society and the willingness of citizens to act but there are three challenges we cannot ignore:
Empowerment
We need to continue to find creative ways of supporting people to connect, share learning and support each other, this will be critical in embedded solutions coming from communities.
A sense of community is not something which can be dictated by top down idealism, active participation is required. Less empowered individuals and communities need people who they know and trust to help break down the few visible and many more invisible barriers standing in the way.
Scale
We still need large scale solutions, and to drop the hang ups about scale and innovation. Some ideas are worth spreading and innovations worth scaling.
Massive urban growth and climate change require city administrations to realise both the legitimacy and potential of local communities and grassroots movements. Small actions build to large movements.
Limiting Financial Burdens
- For social entrepreneurs trialling new technologies and solutions, the impact of BREXIT and loss of European funds for R&D will be a stymie if not replaced.
- Successful ventures are limited by restricted funds which prevent them from doing what they do best, turning money into impact.
- We need to invest in opportunities for collectivism so that social entrepreneurs and stakeholders can work beyond their individual solutions, and in collaboration to resolve social issues.
- We seek answers to community resilience through social entrepreneurship and community participation to build the bridges to the future without destroying what already exists.
To find out more about how we are doing this get in touch, and finally, to share some of my favourite examples of people, and places making things happen;
Please share you comments below about this blog, or you can contact Louise on Twitter. Louise is an UnLtd Award Manager, Building Futures Lead and Clore Social and Winston Churchill Fellow.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
19 April 2017
Updated: 04 December 2020
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Daina Leigh is Global Conversation Catalyst for the Bavubuka Foundation and founder of fashion social enterprise Fabric of Life.
Word – Sound – Power is the belief in the power of the vibrations within speech and music to impact the world directly, for better or worse. The power of voice, and its capacity to inspire and initiate change, are central to the practice of the young indigenous hip-hop practitioners that I have had the privilege of working with as part of my role as Global Conversation Catalyst with the Bavubuka (youth) Foundation in East Africa. Observing their practice over the last couple of years, I have noticed something important about leadership that I want to share.
These young leaders utilise the power and position of the Emcee - the leader/performer - to use spoken word to convey their authentic self using their indigenous language to communicate ideas and positive affirmations, and to engage dialogue around finding community solutions.
This performance medium is being used most powerfully within Cyphers (community spaces) where young people use their gifts, such as freestyle rapping, to tell stories, share ideas and celebrate who they are. This unique way of engaging young leaders has inspired even more young people to step forward and serve their community in their own unique way.
What I have learned from participating in these extraordinary events is that voice and sound alone, without a deep knowledge of self and context, is not sufficient to generate transformative energy within communities. The power to lead that these young Hip-Hop practitioners hold, is rooted within the discovery and nurturance of their own unique gifts and personal stories, which people in the community can relate to.
What has been truly significant for me is seeing the way young leaders continually offer themselves in service to people and their surroundings, totally transforming perceptions of a ghetto youth, while also developing a new sense of pride. The young leaders I encounter do this willingly because they believe in the underlying ethos, which is that without service and connection to the community, they really have nothing of significance to say on the microphone. This is powerfully shared within the Kenyan movement ‘Hip-Hop Beyond the Mic.’
Having watched this community activity through my own eyes as a development worker, I see that despite the challenges these young people face, they have some important lessons to teach me and other social leaders about the art of leadership. For me, this has been about understanding that everything I need to be as a leader lies within me, and my aim is to find my own authentic self, leadership style and compelling story.
Finding my own voice remains a challenge, but I continue to learn in my leadership role in Uganda. Here I support the personal development of the young people I work with to utilise the Word–Sound-Power magic that is available to them to help them address the issues they encounter, whilst learning to thrive within their surroundings. Being of service to the community in this way has given me direct experience of what authentic leadership is really about.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
03 April 2017
Updated: 04 December 2020
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As part of her 2016 Clore Social Leadership Fellowship, Amelia Viney developed a video blog where she explores what could be done to unleash the power of young people to help them transform their worlds.
Amelia said:
‘We all want young people to have the power to influence decisions about their lives, but the vast majority feel excluded from participating in our democracy. Not having a voice in the big conversations that directly affect their futures - like housing, crime and education - has a dangerous impact on confidence and aspirations of these young people. It also means that valuable voices are missing from the debate, leading to policies and provisions that fail to reflect the diverse experiences and interests of all our communities.’
Amelia debates these issues in her vlog, which includes some of the young people she works with at The Advocacy Academy. Join the conversation with Amelia on Twitter.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
28 February 2017
Updated: 04 December 2020
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I’ve worked with the Armed Forces community for many years, both in military help-seeking research at the King’s Centre of Military Health Research and in healthcare policy at the Royal British Legion. I was fortunate enough last year to be a Forces in Mind Trust Fellow on Clore Social Leadership’s Fellowship Programme.
An area I care very deeply about is the mental health of our Armed Forces community. We live in a stressful world, there is no doubt. The World Health Organisation reports that mental health and substance misuse problems are the leading cause of disability worldwide, and one in four of us will experience a mental health problem in our lifetime.
In the UK Armed Forces community, the most common mental health problems are depression and anxiety. Most recent research suggests these may be experienced by Service and ex-Service personnel at double the rates of those in the general population. Despite much effort to improve service provision and mental health attitudes by the Ministry of Defence, the NHS and Service charities, help-seeking rates in the Armed Forces community continue to remain extremely low.
My provocation piece asks us to rethink our conceptions of mental health and help-seeking in the Armed Forces. The piece begins with an imagined character in the Armed Forces giving advice through a letter to those struggling with mental health problems. Whilst this letter is my creation and exaggerated for effect, it is based on some real views I have had recounted to me in my research interviews with the Armed Forces community. The language in the letter seeks to highlight some very important issues that prevent individuals from seeking help for mental health problems in the Armed Forces.
I highlight the main barriers to seeking help for mental health problems in the Armed Forces. These include mental health stigma, the preference to solve problems alone, a lack of social or family support, and finally the pervading culture of masculinity that equates help-seeking with weakness.
In terms of what can be done to address these barriers, I suggest that:
- We need to get talking about our mental health to one another and to our families;
- We need to educate ourselves on how to look after our own mental health, how to spot signs and symptoms of mental ill health and know what services are available that can support us;
- We need to challenge the weakness culture. We cannot continue to uphold the notion that seeking help is akin to failure. True courage is found in honesty, in facing up to problems, taking action to help ourselves and being strong through support found in others.
Our significance as leaders is measured by the courage of the questions we ask in order to confront and change negative cultures and attitudes that should not be promoted in our communities. The barriers and cultures that prevent Armed Forces individuals, past and present, from seeking help is a problem that all people in the Armed Forces community can take a stand upon and demonstrate leadership in promoting the type of environment we want to live in. It is time we changed the conversation and refuse to accept the state of things as they are now. I believe changing the culture around help-seeking for mental health problems in the Armed Forces will need all of our combined strength and leadership.
You can download Marie-Louise Sharp’s provocation piece here.
Please share your views and comments below, or you can contact Marie-Louise on Twitter.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
06 February 2017
Updated: 04 December 2020
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"I am human, and nothing of that which is human is alien to me." Publius Terentius Afer
At the end of his 2016 Reith Lectures, Kwame Anthony Appiah left us with this striking quotation. Written by a man who was ‘ a slave from Roman Africa, a Latin interpreter of Greek comedies and a writer from Classical Europe’, the words attest to a profound appreciation of what it is to be human, and how our humanity, once acknowledged, transcends concepts of nationality, identity or status.
The term ‘alien’, still used within US federal law to describe those born outside the country, is rightly considered an embarrassing and derogatory term in the UK, with connotations of dehumanisation and scapegoating that we prefer not to own. But in my experience of working with marginalised migrant and refugee communities, it’s often a term which recent arrivals, or even those who have lived here for decades, use to describe their treatment by UKBA officials, UK institutions, and even their lack of welcome by the Great British majority.
This painful reality is the opening precept to my Provocation Piece which I developed as part of my fellowship with Clore Social Leadership. The piece explores our current preoccupation with social integration and asks whether we can reconcile this with often fearful or nostalgic concepts of ‘British values’. If, as the Casey Review maintains, we are really looking for a ‘common life’, I argue that we need to be more questioning, more courageous, and more open to a reflexive discussion about ‘who’ we are and what ‘our values’ might look like in collaboration with those who arrive from abroad. What can we learn from people who have experienced themselves as ‘outsiders’; what reality checks can they give us about ourselves and our assumed cultural values; how might their experiences of migration and integration contribute to a dynamic model of cultural heritage for the future?
These questions have framed my Clore Social fellowship in a tumultuous year for issues and debates on migration, culminating in what can only be described as a crisis of national consciousness. Amidst the confusion and strife, it has also encouraged me to look for good practice in advocating for a model of social integration which addresses how we welcome and learn from new arrivals at ground level. From this, I’ve come up with four suggestions:
- We need to acknowledge that citizenship is not a birthright, but is earned by those who want a stake in society. Instead of an Integration Oath, why not use a Citizenship Celebration which brings together and rewards anyone who actively contributes their values and culture to their local community?
- Developing relationships across cultures takes curiosity, empathy and patience. Whether at work, in your neighbourhood or in the school playground, simply making eye contact, exchanging a friendly word is a great start; thereafter, accept that the normal social codes don’t necessarily apply – ask, explain, invite, explore, adapt, exchange and don’t give up.
- You can’t support social integration simply by saying nice things on social media. Stepping out of our comfort zone is what enables us to appreciate what it’s like to feel like an outsider: offer to teach English to your neighbour; ask them to teach you how to cook their cuisine; provide a night stay for a homeless refugee; join in with local or school activities which seem to be ‘for minorities’- you will be amazed by what you learn.
- Let’s offer experiential diversity training for our statutory services which doesn’t balk at exploring cultural difference and can promote empathy, intercultural awareness and cross-sector collaboration.
Whilst it’s a good thing that we starting to have ‘difficult conversations’ about values and identity, we have a long way to go on understanding the dynamics of privilege and power. Step into the shoes of a new arrival, question yourself and your assumptions in relation to those different to you, and you will awaken your own precious humanity.
Please share your comments about Emma’s blog and provocation piece below, or you can join the conversation on Twitter.
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