Riot Us.

I've just returned from the first of three 'Camden Summits': community events in which residents, officers, councillors and representatives of businesses and voluntary sector organisations have been invited to come together and share 'views on the public disorder in Camden'. To my chagrin, an astute member of the public named causes which in my previous blog I missed: the British Board of Film Classification and 9 o'clock watershed.

That aside, it was a fairly typical community meeting. Fronted by Cllr Nasim Ali, with additional perspectives from Borough Commander John Sutherland and CNJ news editor Richard Osley, the evening opened with a series of reflections and questions before being opened up to the floor: over one hundred sat around circular tables, with plenty offering comments, questions and opinions (many of which were not altogether relevant).

This is a brief blog, and not one intended to analyse the meeting itself. It wasn't bad, it wasn't brilliant. It was my first encounter with the Borough Commander, and I have respect for Cllr Ali. It was nice to see Richard Osley's opinions added to the mix, a voice problematising and questioning some of the assumptions and narratives being articulated, in that won't-quite-go-away kind of way. But I think there's a bigger question we have to ask.

I don't know how other local authorities or communities have responded to the riots. I don't know whether what Camden has done in having these conversations is beyond or short of what others are doing. But it did strike me on the journey home, that we should be very clear about one thing. These summits are not about finding solutions. They are not about seizing an opportunity presented by the seismic but all-too-temporary moment we experienced in the evenings of early August. That's not intended as a criticism: they should be measured against what they're intending to achieve. I'd certainly prefer they were happening than they weren't. But, they are at best an opportunity for a collection of people to air their views, and to air views that may well be fed back into the various meetings which have been set up. This is not a bad thing. But it is not more than this.

Any sensible person who has taken the opportunity to sit back and observe the quite frankly endless cascades of analysis and comment since the riots happened will be well aware that the causes, explanations and justifications being given are a dime a dozen. Even those with a certain (sometimes party political) aversion to particular analyses and positions should be able to understand that the truth resides across a wide range of causes and symptoms. For example: Is it a poverty-related issue? Yes. Is it a values-related issue? Yes. Is it an isolated instance? Not really. Is it inexcusable criminality? Well, sort of. I mean, yes. But that sort of feels like an easy answer.

The riots give us a rare and once-in-a-generation (hopefully not more) opportunity to genuinely reflect and to fashion an ambitious, visionary and integritous response to the direction in which our society is moving. If we were serious about this response, we would for starters be taking at minimum a month to engage every demographic across the borough we could think of, through all sorts of fora: community meetings, surveys and questionnaires, innovative stakeholder consultation initiatives, going door-to-door, inviting opinion pieces, setting up online spaces. We'd be casting the net far and wide, and we'd be organising what we were learning into different categories: Questions. Opinions. Analysis. Randoms.

We'd then be looking at how we could explore these findings further. Why not group them into several major categories? Why not look at the research and reflections on these areas published elsewhere? Why not engage expert organisations in these categories around their opinions? Why not hold a lecture series or discussion panels in which these subjects were outlined and debated? Why not bring them together in a way which sought to understand the different and complex factors at play and how they have contributed, interacted and resulted in the riots?

And then, the 'where next'. Perhaps this is the biggest sacrifice we need to accept when we can only afford to invest minimal resources in such a process. It would be extraordinary if the entire purpose of this process was to develop a manifesto for change in Camden. To explore the very holistic and wide-ranging requirements of us as a borough - individually, in our communities, in our businesses and organisations, in our council - which need to be thought about and addressed. The cuts, the Future Jobs Fund, sponsoring a young person, ensuring the Education Commission is engaged in these debates, challenging VCS organisations to and civil society to adopt deliberate approaches which support communitarianism rather than individualism. Real suggestions to real causes developed through real discussion.

Of course, this is an ambitious remit and not one which we feel is affordable given the terrible constraints on public spending we're currently facing. There are also legitimate critiques of this back-of-an-envelope suggestion. What can be done about areas which typically are the responsibility of central rather than local government? Where does the resource for this process come from? Does our political system allow space for questioning rather than asserting? But we should be clear. Discussing, understanding, analysing and responding to this challenge cannot be done meaningfully in one, two or three Camden summits. If the riots are to become a turning point, a learning moment: then we should be bucking a trend and investing in a process which does it justice. This evening reinforced my sense that we have some very impressive people in Camden. How can we afford not to take the opportunity?

Distracted by the sensational.

Here's the full text of the piece printed in this week's Camden New Journal.

My heart sank last Wednesday as news of major police activity in Queen's Crescent emerged. At first, I feared the worst, not knowing that it was part of a long and carefully planned operation. Then, fear gave way to the frustration of another cliched headline: youth, crime, drugs, violence. And then I thought, I really hope this doesn't knock the real news out of view: the decisions which would be made that same evening at the Town Hall.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what it did. Last Wednesday night, the Cabinet decided to accept recommendations which will reduce budgets for work with children and young people by £2.8m and £2.3m respectively. It will have a profound impact on families as well as their children, and is likely to force up to a quarter of current Play & Childcare-using parents into unemployment (according to a report commissioned by Camden). Of course, a 200-strong police raid complete with Territorial Support Group, dogs, helicopters and an impressive enroute arrest by Chief Supt Sutherland is pretty exciting news, and it's the sort of thing that trumps the countless similar news stories this decision on services will eventually espouse, which lacks the same drama and immediacy.

In fairness, the Camden New Journal has done its fair share of reporting on this issue, including a front page devoted to the two fantastic (albeit ignored) girls who challenged councillors over proposed cuts to Play & Childcare services earlier in the year. But the absence of adequate coverage of the final decision, relegated by a high-profile event, is symptomatic of a much larger and very typical problem.

As my mother would say, we allow the urgent to overtake the important. The decisions made on Wednesday night, as they stand, is a case in point. It can only lay the foundations for an increasingly fragmented and dangerous future. Cabinet Member for Finance Theo Blackwell has said as much, warning that cuts will have a real and negative impact on the lives of Camden residents. It is a good thing that this is understood, but concerning that it is accepted. What is clear is that psychologically, politically and socially we humans struggle to recognise and respond to this deeper, seemingly more mundane 'real story'. We have a sensationalist bias and preference. Despite what common sense tells us, what research in the children and young people's sector makes clear, indeed what Camden's own Day Care Trust-commissioned consultation shows, we are failing to make the responsible decisions required to deal with problems which are very big, but can be tackled.

Tomorrow's raids, tomorrow's gangs, tomorrow's underachieving young people, will trigger the lecturings of the next generation of politicians and policy-makers who tell us how they can solve these problems whilst at the same time having no choice but to action further Operation Targets and ASBOs and child incarcerations. And yet we know that the solutions which exist are not implemented because there is not the resource which requires political will to see them succeed. Indeed, such is our commitment to the sensational over the important that we make this rod for our own backs.

The mountain we have to climb - as children and young people or those working with them, as parents, as a wider community, as a borough - just got a lot higher. But if we turn on the news and dazzle ourselves with the latest sensation, we might just be able to forget about it.

Posted on Aug 1, 2011

Why the Winch has got involved in Belsize Library

It's quite possible a few eyebrows will have been raised with the news that, amongst the headlines of libraries 'going it alone' and 'call-ins', the Winchester Project has been mentioned as a possible 'community-led solution' for Belsize Library. Indeed, it's been an interesting process for us, and one which reflects a conversation happening across much of the public and voluntary sector.

The possibility of getting involved with Belsize Library emerged last November, when the Cabinet published its medium-term financial strategy for dealing with the budget reduction from central government. Belsize has always been one of the most vulnerable sites, scoring relatively low on usage and lending rates in comparison with other better placed, more popular libraries. This announcement of a £1.6m reduction from the library services coincided with the Winch securing funds to develop a number of social enterprise ideas intended to inform our future strategy and refurbishment plans. More specifically, the funds allowed us to research and produce preliminary business proposals for up to 15 different ideas. I approached our local councillors and the Friends of Belsize Library to offer one of the spots, and they didn't just give us a green light: they proposed a unanimous resolution in support of developing proposals and speaking to the council. Cllr Siddiq and council officers were also extremely supportive, meeting with us along the way. The rest, as they say, is history. Albeit unfinished.



Our initial involvement was well-intentioned, if a little fuzzy around the edges. Belsize Library, like libraries all over the borough, is a fantastic asset whichever way you see it. In Belsize ward, it is the only public interface with the council. It has a thriving Rhyme Time community, based as it is only a stone's throw from England's Lane Hostel. It has an active Friends association and other groups who use the space for various activities. How does one approach such an organisation with not only the intention of maintaining its existing offering, but looking to improve it whilst building a sustainable structure which can continue into the future?

We put a lot of work into developing a vision and a potential structure to support these aspirations. The starting point, of course, was the Friends. We found there support for being proactive about initiatives which might safeguard the library's future. And we also went out talking to other organisations, doing surveys and knocking on doors. We asked people how they used the library and why they didn't access it more. We asked more generally what people's hopes and fears were, what their aspirations for the area were, and what contributions they could make. We were overwhelmed by the response. We had stumbled on a rich resource of local people interested not only in accessing activities but in offering them. Teaching Spanish, delivering lectures, giving pottery-making workshops and providing salsa classes were amongst the contributions volunteered. Beyond the question of compatibility with a library, these activities were evident of a quality of offering which was both challenging and inspiring.

I then attended a Friends of Belsize meeting in February during which former chairwoman of Camden Public Library Users Group, Helen Marcus, gave a speech about the importance of libraries and, particularly interestingly, their founding principles. It was an inspiring reminder of a vision often cited as one of the most important planks in the vast public reform programmes which gradually took hold of Victorian society and led to the establishment of a raft of progressive foundations and initiatives we still hold dear. It also got me thinking. If libraries were established for the primary purpose of providing free education for 'the poor', for the swathes of society without access to the resources and tools which allow people to transform their lives and exploit their potential, how were we doing at fulfilling this mandate? What does this task look like today in the context of a library?

From 826NYC, an educational creative writing space in New York.

The establishment of the public library system, a subject I make no claim to be an expert on, is based on a timeless set of values and aspirations. There is no doubt that a commitment to education for all - and in particular extending that commitment to those who are let down or left out by our current education system - is of huge importance. Furthermore, the integration of diverse communities around single or central experiences and learning spaces has been shown to have profound effects on the learning and wellbeing of all involved. (One example of this from Johann Hari explores the different approaches to educational reform in the US cities of Syracuse and Raleigh, primarily through the mixing of children with different educational achievement levels and socioeconomic backgrounds.) Either way, the idea of rediscovering the meaning of the library movement for the 21st century was one which we could get excited about, albeit with a series of caveats. Recent works such as Architecture 00's excellent 'Compendium of the Civic Economy' explore case studies of individuals and groups acting innovatively to realise change in new and creative ways. The conflation of these ideas led us to a vision about enabling our wonderfully rich and resourceful area to expand the conception of ‘library’ to include a place for accessing not just books, but also other tools, resources, knowledge and courses, and more than anything seeing the library as a meeting ground, a place for diverse members of the community to come together and to take initiative together. There is the potential to (re)create the village square of the modern age, and to develop a more entrepreneurial operating model that enables Belsize Library to be open more and to offer more than it currently does.

I should at this stage offer some words of caution. The vision is an exciting one, but not without legitimate critique. There is good reason for libraries to be publicly funded, no matter how safe or trusted an alternative community organisation is perceived to be. There is a major difference between a professionally run library and a space which embraces entrepreneurship and volunteerism. There are as many perspectives as people on what constitutes a top local authority priority, and as such an offer of involvement like ours might not be as welcome in every context as it has been at Belsize.

We are also realistic. I said a couple of weeks ago, that if it is viable this is not something which the Winchester Project will do or can do on its own. In terms of the local community, this means people with energy, expertise, time and investment coming forward and getting involved. It means more from the council too. Our discussions with experts in the Asset Transfer Unit, for example, have said that unless access to Camden stock and IT systems are included and made freely available, the chosen 'Option A' is simply a non-starter. With a 100% cut to annual funding from the off, the £49k devoted to 'transitioning' Belsize Library over the 2012/13 financial year is woefully inadequate and must be revisited. (For example, we had explored contingencies based on anything up to a 60% cut.) Presumably arrangements for 'community-led solutions' will include favourable lease and maintenance conditions, and a zero or peppercorn rent on the building. If not, it is unclear whether what might have been an opportunity for Camden to trailblaze and save libraries will simply be experiments destined to fail. In this sense, whilst the move to 'call in' the Cabinet decision by opposition councillors seemed quite bizarre given our conversations in Belsize and the Big Society backdrop, it will provide an opportunity to clarify a number of these important points.

Our aim at the Winch in entering this conversation is not to influence or legitimise the debate or decisions on libraries in any particular direction. It is a recognition of the importance of Belsize Library to the community, and an attempt to explore how we might be part of a solution to the challenge it now faces. It reflects a desire to grasp and enshrine in a way which is meaningful and impactful for our time and place the founding principles described by Helen Marcus. Whether or not that proves viable, is ultimately in the hands of our elected representatives across the parties, and the officers who work with them. So far they have been excellent, but now the heat is on.

A field trip across the pond.

It's been a little while since I was involved in taking a large group of young people away, and not something I've done before on the same sort of scale as we just did at the Winch. As reported by the Camden New Journal and Ham & High, we took a group of about 18 young people, youthworkers and a couple of hangers-on to New York, to learn from some inspirational projects working with children, young people and the wider community. It was a profoundly affecting experience.

BBC News | The Winch in Harlem from The Winch on Vimeo.

Taking young people away is always terrific fun. And exhausting. And memorable. But there was something about our Harlem Learning Journey which made it a different type of 'residential'.

The past six months at the Winch have been incredibly busy, even more than before. We secured funding last November to commission two big pieces of work. One was a social enterprise feasibility study, the other a full set of architectural plans for the refurbishment of 21 Winchester Road, for which we appointed Architecture 00, an exciting firm with an unusual interest and engagement in the political and social debates framing our plans.

Harlem Learning Journey was about the central process of change, reflection and reimagination the Winch has been undergoing for a while, but which has been given sharper focus and intensity by the arrival of these new partners and the work they're doing with us. At the heart lies a very simple set of questions. What is our raison d'etre at the Winch? How good are we at achieving this? And how are we currently - and could we be better - achieving this?

This is a conversation which every organisation should of course be having all the time, over and over. For us at the Winch, it is something which we had regularly touched upon, but the suggestion that an organisation needs to spend substantial time and resource on such a process is one which can be daunting, and is often only precipitated by a culmination of other quite wide-ranging factors: the ongoing desire to not simply 'do good work' but understand its effectiveness and impact, the occurrence of events or incidents which call into question orthodox ways of doing things, broader shifts in economic and political debates which mean we must reevaluate our approach, and the opportunities for change brought about by all of the above.

In New York, we visited six amazing projects:

52nd Street Project: Founded in 1981, working with children to write their own plays, performed by professional actors and set in Hell's Kitchen, at the time one of New York City's toughest neighbourhoods. A sister project, Scene & Heard, runs in Somers Town and was recently given the Queen's Award (the MBE for voluntary organisations).

Brooklyn Superhero Supply Store: The shopfront for 826NYC, part of Dave Eggers' fantastically successful 826 Valencia, works with students from 8 years old up to support their creative writing skills through encouraging their imagination and partnering them with writing professionals for one-to-one support, publishing a number of books in the process. The first London '826', Hoxton Street Monster Supplies, opened last year.

Harlem Children's Zone: Described by President Barack Obama as 'An all-encompassing, all-hands-on-deck, anti-poverty effort that is literally saving a generation of children', HCZ is led by Geoffrey Canada, named by Time magazine this year as one of its '100 Most Influential People'. It is an extraordinary organisation making the difference it aims to make, changing the odds for children growing up in one of America's most deprived neighbourhoods.

Lower Eastside Girls Club: Established in 1996 to address the historic lack of provision for young women and now engaged in its own multimillion-dollar capital refurbishment project, the Girls Club works with girls and young women to enable them to 'grow, learn, have fun, and develop confidence in themselves and their ability to make a difference in the world', employing a broad range of activities including social enterprise.

Red Hook Community Justice Center: Set up after a local primary school headmaster was shot when he went looking for a missing child, the Justice Center is at the heart of a transformative process which has turned Red Hook from a deprived, dangerous neighbourhood to an increasingly prosperous and thriving community. Combining restorative justice theory with educational and support functions, and fully plugged into the wider legal system, it includes a pioneering youth court where young people resolve cases in partnership with their peers.

The Children's Storefront: Running for 45 years, the Children's Storefront is an independent (read private), tuition-free school which operates a lottery system to select Harlem children for a high-quality education. It engages in fundraising rather than fees to pay for its services, and delivers educational outcomes over double the Harlem averages.

I mentioned above that Harlem Learning Journey felt like a different kind of 'residential'. The key reason was our agenda: we were still doing the things we want to do around the development and support of young people, but we were undertaking a very similar process in relation to ourselves, as individuals and as an organisation. We were asking questions about why we do what we do, whether it's as good as it could be, how it needs to change. We were asking about what works elsewhere, why that is, and whether it can be brought back and incorporated in our own approaches and work. And as professionals, these questions were challenging us in the philosophy and theory of work out of which we act and work on a daily basis. The partnership of young people, youthworkers and other professionals in this discourse of discovery and its application to the Winch has had a huge impact as we think increasingly critically about our future and what that means for our shape, our services, our building and our relationships with children and young people, and the local community, council, partners and funders.

Over the next few weeks I'll be writing up some of my learning from New York, focusing on each of these six projects. Admittedly, there is plenty to inspire but not necessarily to import. But I do think that the catch-22 we need to overcome as leaders and activists of the voluntary sector is accepting that whilst we do some fantastic work, we have plenty of room for improvement. Indeed, our failures or shortcomings are often the best springboard for such processes of reflection and change, and we need to come to see them as such. I hope that, as so beautifully paraphrased by one of our newly arrived young social entrepreneurs at the Winch, 'failure makes progress'. It certainly will if we let it.

Where now for the voluntary sector?

Yesterday I received a phone call from one of the countryʼs top youthwork funders. ʻItʼs bad news, Iʼm afraid,ʼ said the voice on the other end of the line. ʻItʼs never been as tough as this. Of the nine projects we proposed to the Trustees, only four were funded. Thatʼs us done for the year.ʼ Ours was one of nine initiatives from across the whole country shortlisted and recommended for full support, from hundreds of applications.

Itʼs an increasingly common experience in a sector reliant on the generosity and support from others. Money is tight, resources are limited, people are cautious. And in the meantime, need remains critical, with the recession hitting the poorest hardest. The bottom line is that for work to be effective, it has to be resourced. People donʼt want to hear it, but there are no shortcuts. Of course, there is work which is more or less effective, organisations which are more or less efficient, but why should the business of making a difference in children and young peopleʼs lives be cheaper (or less worth investing in) than others?

The voluntary and community sector (VCS) is made up of thousands of groups and organisations: a response to and expression of our collective responsibility and aspirations. It is a complex coalition of cultures and networks, facing major challenges in the months and years ahead. Some of these are programmed into the cultural DNA, whereas others have been given sharp focus by the financial crisis and looming cuts. Either way, if we are to ensure that the sector is not decimated and continues to play a powerful and meaningful role in society, there is work to do.

The challenges we face are oft-quoted and well-known: a lack of stable and sustainable funding, the weight of expectations, increasing levels of paperwork, attitudes towards what we do and who we work with. There are issues which undermine individual organisations: attitudes towards the private and statutory sectors, cultures of dependence and entitlement, a perceived lack of professionalism, a lack of recognition for what is done on limited resources by hard-working people going beyond the call of duty, who could have earned four times as much employing their energies and talents in the private sector. The achievements of VCS agencies are a wonder even in the years of plenty; their fate in the coming, leaner times fills me with fear. Is all the talk of Big Society underpinned by real investment or simply a smokescreen for fast-disappearing support?

In this environment, how do we ensure that the myriad of agencies, charities, organisations who do so much for our society do not simply survive, but also thrive?

Firstly, we must take a good, long look at ourselves. A huge amount is done on very little, but that doesnʼt make it sustainable or of the highest quality. In a less commercial environment, the idiosyncrasies and relationships within a charity can relegate the most obvious necessities to missed opportunities. There is an edge to our work, but sometimes an amateurishness to our efficiency. We must consider how we do things and why, and what needs to change: whether that is at ground level, in our business operations, or at Board level. We must marry our experience with the ever-evolving environment in which we operate.

Secondly, we must explore the alternatives for sustaining our work. Much of this is around partnership, in some form or other, whether with like agencies or across sectors. The Hub in Kings Cross is an excellent example of not only harnessing a business model for social good, or even of providing an ethical product, but of bringing together professionals from entirely different walks of life. Here, a youthworker meets a banker who meets an artist who meets a policy wonk. People who would never have crossed paths not only encounter each other, but in so doing, they create. In developing partnerships and exploiting their potential, we must look at the resources we do have rather than those we hanker after. At the Winch we have a long-serving staff, a fantastic site, a proud tradition of making a difference. Other charities will have other strengths which they can develop and trade: in order to sustain and improve the work.

Thirdly, others who have an interest in the success of the voluntary sector (and, assuming that people generally want to live in places free of fear, knowing their neighbours, with no crime Iʼd say thatʼs all of us) should also look at what they can offer in this synthesis of give and take. A local tenants and residents association has offered space for our children to grow fruit, and weʼve asked whether theyʼd like assistance in applying for funds. The Wet Fish Cafe, a terrific establishment in West Hampstead, ran a charity dinner donating £5 a ticket to the Winch, in exchange benefiting from increased exposure and publicity. Local authorities in particular should take note of this: patronage must be replaced with partnership, short-term targets with the bigger picture, ivory tower plans with investment in people with innovative, sustainable ideas. The Winch is a perfect example: give us security and support in our building and we will commit to delivering on a vision of the voluntary sector which is sustainable, inspirational and as committed as ever to our mission. In this sense, change on only one side will be futile: we are all partners in building a better society.

In all of this, our responsibility is to maintain focus: the opportunities presented by partnership may be exciting but not always relevant. We must commit to maintain our principles of being relational and responsive. We must do what we say we will and be honest about our failures, understanding this teaches as much as the successes. We must challenge attitudes of entitlement and self- justification, and take responsibility for financial sustainability. However, our ultimate success will hinge on the actions and reciprocity of others: the local authority, the private sector, people who live and work in our area, people like you and I. Back in 2002, speaking at the United Nations, Kofi Annan said, ʻIn an age where community involvement and partnerships with civil society are increasingly being recognised as indispensable, there is clearly a growing potential for cooperative development and renewal worldwide.ʼ I only hope we recognise and harness this potential here in north London.