I want to talk about what the role of the community and voluntary sector means to a local government leadership committed to cooperative values:
For the Conservative Party nationally, the voluntary sector is a way of doing on the cheap. They like little regulation and the patronising offer of allowing people to “do some good”.
For me as both a socialist and Cooperative Party member, I have found that we in the Labour haven’t communicated well what the role of community action is … And have very little interest in doing so nationally. Previously we grew voluntary sector but focused mainly on the voluntary sector in terms of their service provision and their feedback – a kind of scrutiny role rather than an active role. We grew some organisations as service providers so much we have risked almost making some of it feel corporate in the process.
Providing safe, dependable and financially well managed services for communities doesn’t need to be amateurish nor does it have to have the hallmarks of a corporate provider.
We need to realise that Labour and Conservative governments have sanitised communities from our consideration of what’s best economically and we have left people isolated and fearful as they move away from their families: Fearful of the people that live around them and this I believe is reflected in the politics we see being played out.
It is my view that for the Labour Party community development has to be considered as an equal to physical development and job creation
In Brighton and Hove are using our grants and investment in community development to foster community owned projects.
– Community hubs – providing advice, training, youth work
– Credit Union – we made a subordinated loan to our credit union to enable it to grow and hopefully provide accounts in the near future for those that need it
We ran a Fairness Commission over the last 12months and amongst the biggest findings were to change “the way” we work to be in a genuinely empowering relationship. And, yo provide the support for communities to take up the rights they have.
Continued investment in community development and activity should be the priority of a cooperator in my view.
Empowered communities are more resilient and so are the people within them.
They are safer, better off financially, and healthier.
We need to end a socialist style paternalism and work hand in hand to solve issues with our communities. That way their trust in democracy and politics will also be increased which I think is really crucial as tensions are heightened.
Examples of a projects that came out of this way of working (and there are thousands across our city)
– HOPE (black and Asian women) undertaken a domestic violence awareness project within their own communities
– Mothers Uncovered peer support for mothers using art and creative workshops to help reduce isolation, increase confidence and feel a sense of their new community
The reasons that these projects are successful is because they are run and governed by the people that they benefit.
I think Labour has failed to articulate our vision for empowered communities but I think that the Coop Party, our sister party, has the right values to provide a vision for empowering rather than “saving” communities.
I would ask councillors here these questions:
– In your council how are you investing in this action?
– Are you able to ensure the council effectively supports rather than gets in the way of community action?
Getting the relationship right between public and community ownership and delivery is a huge conversation – for me it’s largely instinctive because of where I have grown into politics.
It’s my background and passion to work with voluntary and community organisations – the principles of the Cooperative Party make sense to me because of that sense of community collaboration and team work.
These values lead us to focus on social value in commissioning and ensuring we do understand and value the social value non profit providers and community owned providers bring.
They have lead us to value community development towards a vision of greater public involvement in decision making for their areas
Those values have led to a project to consider the social value that could be generated in disposal of our assets and the support for communities to take on assets of community value.
Establishing the committee I chair has elevated this priority to the same level as housing, social care and transport. I am proud to lead that work.
I am still optimistic in the face of everything doom and gloom at present. My optimism comes from taking the power that we do have as collectives, as communities and as elected representatives. My work is to ensure communities don’t feel powerless but take power whenever and wherever they can. I believe that’s what the Cooperative Party is all about.
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