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In March 2009, The Council on Social Action (CoSA), set up to advise government departments on their agendas for social action, began to engage the Chain Reaction community in developing ideas about creating social renewal alongside economic renewal. (Click here for the summary paper)
As a result, self organised discussion groups took place in London, Birmingham, Stoke on Trent, Sheffield and Liverpool (thanks all who contributed) and feedback was shared with the Chain Reaction community, the we20 initiative and The Council on Social Action.
Following these Stronger Communities, Stronger Economy meetings, a strengthened strategy paper went back to the Council on Social Action to share with government ministers.
CoSA will be reflecting on the outcomes from this work in September and publishing a second Commentary in November.
However, one immediate outcome is particularly noteworthy. We recommended that “third sector agencies should develop a new National Talent Bank to lead a brokerage campaign matching employers and underemployed employees with opportunities to serve the community”. Last week the Prime Minister announced government support for this initiative to be led by Time Bank and Business in the Community.
For more information on Talent Bank see www.nationaltalentbank.org.uk
“This is a supermarket that is run by the people, for the people, selling the best food at the lowest possible prices”
I read some exciting news yesterday via Twitter (thanks for sharing Amanda!) about the possibility of a co-operative supermarket opening in London some time soon.
The People’s Supermarket - as it is called – is a venture of chef and eco-warrior Arthur Potts-Dawson, founder of Acorn House the eco-friendly training restaurant, and the Water House restaurant. In an interviewwith The Independent back in March, Arthur talks about ‘taking on Tesco with a people’s supermarket’, and it looks like this mission is now on its way.
A co-operative, in general, is a collaborative, not for profit organisation that is owned by a community for mutual benefit. The People’s Supermarket will work by providing affordable food for members, in exchange for a few hours volunteering each week.
“Forget anonymous superstores which make millions of pounds of profit and become a member of The People’s Supermarket. Here’s how it works…
Anyone can join The People’s Supermarket – and as a member you must work in the shop for a few hours every month. Because the workforce is nearly all volunteers, staff costs are kept low – which means your shopping can be cheaper. And any profits we make go back into making the food even cheaper still. There are no bonuses for bosses or dividends for shareholders. It’s the members who benefit from shopping here”
There are many examples of successful co-operatives to draw upon - from the larger initiatives such as the Mondragon Co-operative, founded in Spain in 1956 (made up of 264 companies it is the worlds largest), to community owned supermarkets such as Boston’s Harvest Co-op.
Let’s hope that The People’s Supermarket is just as successful, and although the address of the People’s Supermarket is still unknown (at present), it is possible to register your interest in participating on the website.
Village SOS is an exciting new initiative from the Big Lottery Fund, the BBC and Make Your Mark - applications close at noon on Friday 14 August 2009!
Village SOS is searching for six UK villages with a great business idea and six enterprising individuals to act as Village Champions to help them achieve their ambitions. Together they will create a brand new venture that will bring new life and energy to the village with funding of between £100,000 and £400,000 from BIG.
The journey of the six successful villages and their Village Champions will be filmed for a major prime time BBC One series in winter 2010.
Villages are invited to apply to BIG with ideas for successful enterprises that will help revive their communities, create jobs and improve the quality of life for local people. If you live in a village with fewer than 3,000 people and have an idea for a business that could bring energy and life back to your community, then Village SOS could be for you.
Village Champions will work and live full-time in the village to get the enterprise up and running. These individuals will need vision and a “can do” attitude, with a track record of running a successful enterprise or project. The champions will bring their expertise and add to, not replace the existing skills of people in the villages. They will receive a £30,000 salary, and may also invest their own money into the project.
To find out more or to apply visit www.bbc.co.uk/villagesos. Alternatively please call 0844 88 88 677.
By David Robinson: Vice Chair, Council on Social Action
Yesterday the Daily Telegraph ran a front page story suggesting that almost one million people across the UK are now working part-time because they cannot get a full-time job. The story suggested several major employers have offered staff reduced hours or extended holidays in an attempt to cut costs. The story goes on to suggest that unlike previous recessions this time there are “more dramatic changes in the labour market, with hundreds of thousands cutting their hours and pay in an attempt to hold on to their jobs. “
Today at a breakfast meeting with actual and potential partners we are introducing the National Talent Bank.
The NTB is an idea proposed by the Council on Social Action – a time limited partnership promoting and supporting volunteering amongst those with more time to share as a consequence of recession.
Today we are publishing a discussion paper to stimulate dialogue and engagement and issuing a call for partners to build the Talent Bank together.
The Council on Social Action (CoSA) has been considering the role of social action in recession and what might be done now to ensure that we emerge from this period with not only a stronger economy but also happier, healthier, stronger communities.
Strong communities benefit from the engagement of the many, not the few. They nurture a commitment to one another sharing the opportunities, the experience and the knowledge we need to shape the decisions that affect our lives, to fulfil potential individually and to live and work effectively together. These are timeless values but particularly significant today: Recession could drive division and exclusion or it could unite us, extracting greater value from all that we have, embracing new ideas and working together on common goals.
Working with The Talent and Enterprise Task Force at the DCSF, TimeBank, Business in the Community (BiTC) and CAPP we’ve developed a short list of opportunities, a framework for expansion and a call for partners to build the National Talent Bank together.
The Plan: The Bank will not be a big new bureaucracy. It will be the sum of its programmes, each run by an independent set of partners. It will offer light touch brokerage to employers, not individual employees and to NTB programmes.
NTB will have a fixed life, probably two years, and will unleash the potential from temporary circumstances. It will target those employers who are releasing employees for a fixed period or are reducing the working week.
The Need: We know that 17% of UK employers have implemented short time working programmes, with a further 13% intending to or considering the option. (CBI Employment Trends Survey: June 2009) The “under employed” includes employees working shorter hours, required to take sabbaticals, retained in the workforce but under occupied or “deferred” – new recruits with a deferred start date.
We also know that large numbers of children would benfit from extra one-to-one literacy and numeracy support, that debt enquiries at Citizens Advice Bureaux were 21% higher in the first quarter of this year compared to last and that Child Line have experienced a comparable increase in demand.
On the one hand there is need. On the other there is the capacity to help.
The Action: We intend to build three themes. Action for Young People, Action on Climate Change and Action on Money Management. Beneath each theme we are developing a set of volunteering programmes
As recession continues more people become available and more problems become more entrenched. Employees are making choices about how they use their unexpected time when it becomes available. As the economy picks up they will once again have less time available. The need and the opportunity exist now. So should our response.
Do please download the report and have a look at the video. We are developing a short list of opportunities and a framework for expansion if you have any comments or you would like to be involved please leave a comment below or contact me info@nationaltalentbank.org.uk .
Conceptual art is always likely to generate heated opinions. Recently there has been much discussion about Anthony Gormley’s latest work One and Other, which involves members of the public selected at random occupying the empty “fourth plinth” for an hour at a time in London’s Trafalgar Square.
Comments about the art project have ranged from incredulous to the hugely supportive it has even featured on The Archers! Last Friday I went along to see for myself. Actually I went to be part of the group supporting Russell Tanner who used his hour on the plinth to draw attention to the Colalife Campaign.
Colalife is an idea to use Coca Cola’s extensive distribution networks in developing countries to distribute small, but necessary aid – like dehydration salts or mosquito nets which could save the lives of countless children. Its an excellent example of the sort of cross-sector collaboration championed by Chain Reaction and demonstrates that, with commitment, a small action could make a massive impact.
The campaign is also notable for its impressive use of social technology to build support – again an area of relevance to the Chain Reaction community. The crowd at Trafalgar Square had largely been invited by Twiter and several new supporters were encouraged to became a Facebook friend.
In the video below Russell Tanner and campaign originator Simon Berry talk about using the opportunity to raise awareness of Colalife in Trafalgar Square.
Have a look at the Colalife website and join in the campaign.
This week has been a good week for events.
On Saturday 4 July, I was up bright an early to help volunteer at 2morro09, a youth participation festival that took place on London’s Southbank
Around 500 young people took part in the event, with interactive workshops on topics such as film making, using your mac, storytelling and debates on the public perception of youth. A lovely healthy lunch was provided by Leon, and the event concluded with an after party with live music and interactive fun. You can read about what happened at the event here
What I loved about this event was the real ‘festival’ atmosphere. Young people attending were able to dip in and out of sessions and create their own agenda. They could watch live music on the terrace, visit the Big V bus, or just chill in the sun (when it came out!) on the south bank.
On Monday 6 July it was time to “Reboot Britain”, with an event held at the 2 Savoy Place in central London.
Reboot Britain was a conference around how the digital technology in our networked world can help to generate social change and to rebuild our democratic structures.
In partnership with NESTA and the creators of 2008’s 2gether festival, Reboot Britain was an opportunity to hear from inspirational individuals such as lecturer and ‘travelling geek’ Harold Rheingold, the RSA’s Matthew Taylor, and Craig Newman of Craigslist fame (to name but a few), learn about practical community projects such as Talk About Local and Birmingham’s Social Media Surgeries, as well as collaborate in participative workshops such as the launch of the new collaboration tool Social by Social.
Issues discussed on the day tended to focus around the subjects of engaging wider communities in using social tools and how we bridge the digital divide. There was also quite a bit of discussion around young people and use of digital technologies (I think it was Harold Rheingold who said something along the lines that “YouTube would never have been successful if it wasn’t for 16 year olds”) so in some respects it seemed a shame that young people had a separate event in 2morro09, - I think it would have been good to get their perspective. The conference finished with a drinks and networking at the RSA, and you can find out more about what happened at the event here and here on Twitter
And tomorrow, I look forward to participating in Connected Generation – an ‘un-conference’ that will bring together practitioners, researchers, innovators and policy makers to explore youth engagement in a digital age. (We blogged a little about this event a few weeks ago here)
Part of the focus of the Chain Reaction event 2009 will be on youth empowerment, and as per 2008, we will be working with young people to plan and deliver part of the event agenda.
However, this year we will also work with a group of young people to develop the core journalistic skills and social technology skills to enable them to form the social reporting team at Chain Reaction event 2009, and subsequent events and activities. (M0re info on this intiative will be coming soon!) So I’m really looking forward to tomorrows event to find out about what others are doing in the fields of digital technology and youth engagement.
There are no more tickets for Connected Generation available unfortunately, but I’m sure there will be plenty of information available during and after the event. If you are on Twitter you can follow the activity from this event with the hashtag #cgen09
Today is Green Britain Day – a joint initiative between EDF and The Eden Project to kickstart the UK in working together to cut our carbon footprint by the 2012 Olympics.
There are several ways that you can get involved, from getting to know your neighbours with The Big Lunch, holding a clothes swapping party, or joining an eco team in your community. The Team Green Britain website also has many other suggestions on ways that we can all get involved in fighting climate change and making Britain a greener place.
There are varying opinions in the press in regards to the launch of Green Britain Day – some very supportive , and some a lot more cynical (especially in regards to the involvement of a major French energy company in this initiative).
But the sentiments behind the idea are themselves laudable – “Green Britain Day” just serves as a focal point for organisations and individuals to take action towards a more sustainable lifestyle. After all, every single one of us has the power of our own actions, and if our actions are reflected in the actions of organisations, and supported by governments, then, together, we have the power to change the world
So what are your views about the initiative? Do you have any ideas to share on energy efficiency / climate change? What are you doing to get involved? You can share your thoughts and ideas with the network here >>>
This week saw the launch of the Social by Social handbook – a practical guide to using new technologies to deliver social impact.
The idea behind this handbook is to help enable organisations and communities to understand the wealth of tools and online technologies available to support their work, and to allow them to communicate more effectively with their community.
Of course, online technologies are not the answer to successful community collaboration, but they are a useful tool to allow people to connect and collaborate within communities and across boundaries.
Social by Social was actually launched at the Reboot Britain event with a practical game focussing on the fictional town of ‘Slaghampton’ – which had a variety of community issues. Participants, using the Social by Social guide, worked together to consider the different tactics and tools for interaction and social engagement to help improve the plight of Slaghampton (surprisingly, no-one suggested renaming the town!) You can read all about what happened on the day here
Social by Social was commissioned by NESTA and was developed by a core team of technology and social change experts – Andy Gibson, Nigel Courtney, Amy Sample Ward, David Wilcoxand Professor Clive Holtham – who also helped facilitate the game at the event.
As I said above, online solutions aren’t the only way to collaboration, so I think it is great that the guide is that not only freely available online at www.socialbysocial.com , but that the team are also dedicated to explaining and delivering the game offline at events as well. (You can also buy a hard copy if you wish)
The guide is also Creative Commons, which means that anyone can update and adapt it for their own use, and the development of a wiki versionof Social by Social is now underway, which will allow a community to develop and plan ’for real’ online.
I think Social by Social will prove to be a very useful resource, and I look forward to seeing how it will be used within real communities…not just the fictional ‘Slaghampton’…
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