The first was the fun of facilitating a review and
planning exercise for a church-based project in north-east London supporting
homeless and isolated people, set up following a report I wrote in 1998. One of
the issues arising from this review is that new employment opportunities need
to be created for people who, owing to disability, mental illness or offending
history will never be attractive to employers.
Employability schemes tend to cherry-pick those most likely to enter
employment, leaving others with little hope of ever being shortlisted. When I had my first experience of employment
in the 1970s (in local authorities), far greater allowance was made to find employment
opportunities for all people. Efficiency
savings, downsizing, outsourcing (and other euphemisms) now mean that the
workplace focus is on maximizing productivity to the exclusion of the other,
equally important, purposes fulfilled by work.
A second event this past fortnight is the closure, after
some 17 years, of a church-based employability scheme which has enabled
hundreds of people to find employment or vocational training. Having been involved in its early planning,
as well as accompanying this social enterprise over many years until I left
London, I grieve the loss of both the project and much-valued colleagues, as
well as sharing a sense of pride in the team, the trustees and their work. Motivated by Christian concern but not ramming Christianity at people,
this scheme’s success arose in part from it being local to the population it
served and from the fact that it refused to cherry-pick the most employable
clients. They often chose to work with people that the other agencies would
have dismissed as uneconomic. North-east
London is the poorer for its departure.
Finally, I saw a documentary – the third in the Secret Millions series on Channel 4
which can be seen here. Katie Piper,
herself a victim of a horrible crime, is shown spending time with ex-offenders,
exploring the creation of a social enterprise around the manufacture of high end
value furniture. For some of the people
she worked with, this was their first experience of paid employment and its
transformative properties. The documentary ended with the news of a Big Lottery
award to fund similar social enterprise start-ups for ex-offenders across the
country. The work of the Acumen Trust was also mentioned in this regard. I have seen first-hand some similar projects
in First Fruit (manufacturing cheerleaders’ accessories – but it’s paid work!)
and Greenworks in London Borough of Newham; also Aspire which is in other UK cities. I also co-led an attempt to set up a
co-operative in Redbridge some years ago.
Too many of my friends are denied the dignity of work and
the sense of wellbeing it can bring by an economic system that measures the
worth of a worker solely in efficiency and productivity. Nor can we rely now upon
schemes that match people and skills with existing vacancies. We (and by this I
mean people with consciences and – I dare to hope – people of faith) need to do
more to create wealth for its social as much as its financial ends. And yes, I am aware of the irony of speaking
of wealth creation less than a week after the ceremonial funeral of its champion,
as I gaze upon the world she is partly responsible for shaping.
I am due a sabbatical in 2014 and I am wondering if this
time might be used to explore practical options for the creation of further
social enterprises (CFS already has our shop, Shared Space). I would be glad to hear about examples of
community-led social enterprises which have succeeded and, as importantly, those
that have failed.
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