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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