Faith-Based Youth Work and The Big Society -

a building block for our time

Nigel Pimlott

What is the Big Society?

What is the Big Society?

Faith as identity …

• Declining faith institutions• Young people voting with their feet• Social and faith capital dynamics• Many ‘faith’ choices• Getting past the media sound-bites• Places of faith still have significance• Faith schools highly popular• ‘Big Society and faith, both have a

drive towards common good.’ Sikh YW

‘Nowadays we have the worst of the left and the right combined in one philosophy: an authoritarian, illiberal, bureaucratic state coupled with an extreme ideology of markets and the unlimited sway of capital. Little wonder then that most Britons feel they cannot influence their locality, let alone their region or nation. Passive and compliant, all we can do is shop – and after a while that doesn’t make us particularly happy either!’ Phillip Blond Red Tory p22

‘Cos, I don’t think, (pause) I don’t think, (pause) currently, I don’t feel fully part of what society is doing or what the Government is doing. You just feel like people are deciding. Stuff is there and that’s it.’ Youth Worker

To lose your “identity” as a citizen of To lose your “identity” as a citizen of democracy is but a step from losing your democracy is but a step from losing your identity as a person. People react to this identity as a person. People react to this frustration by not acting at all. The frustration by not acting at all. The separation of the people from the routine separation of the people from the routine daily functions of daily functions of citizenship citizenship is is heartbreak in a democracy.heartbreak in a democracy. Saul Alinksy Saul Alinksy Rules for Rules for RadicalsRadicals

• Social Policy• Toxicity• Demonisation• Moral Panics

Young People – asset or liability?

‘The Big Society is widely thought of as a political programme. But it is more than that. It is a set of interlocking ideas, even a philosophy; a concerted and wide ranging attempt to engage with the twin challenges of social and economic decline, and to move us towards a more connected society. It rests on a bold conjecture, that lying beneath the surface of British society today is a vast amount of latent and untapped potential energy.’ Jesse Norman, The Big Society p195

‘The Big Society is a critique of everything that has gone wrong in our country …. Trying to return to people, what people value.’ Phillip Blond, speaking at Big Society and Church, May 2011, Nottingham

BS Not about (in its purest sense)…

• Cuts• Volunteering instead of

employment• Doing things on the cheap• Smaller State

However, ‘how can we get to where we want to go when we are not sure of the intended destination, we don’t have a map and there is insufficient fuel in the tank’ Caron Bradshaw, Charity Finance Directors Group

What we do know is that it is underpinned by several key declared values. These are:•The desire for long-term social action and change•Public service reform•Effective community engagement and localism•Empowering and involving people•Increasing volunteering•Decentralisation of power •Opening up of public services•Promoting transparency•Developing civic action and responsibility•Maximising innovation and enterprise•Paying service providers by results

N Pimlott The Big View, Forthcoming Aug 2011

Impact on the church/mosque/temple/synagogue?

Opportunities

‘There is part of me that feels quite liberated by it. I think I have been quite doom and gloom about it so

far, but I do feel quite liberated and I think there is a huge

opportunity for faith-based youth work.’

‘There is a lot of good stuff that can come out of this. We face a choice of either embracing it and getting stuck into it and making work for us in our local context and maybe in a wider context or being cynical and saying this isn’t for us we are not going to get anywhere with it. A bit of positive energy feeding into this now could reap great rewards going forward.’

Opportunities

Institutional Isomorphism ‘This is a process where religious organisations reshape themselves to fit government policy and thereby lose their unique characteristics, while taking on the same institutional shape and processes as state agencies.’ Bretherton, L. Christianity and Contemporary Politics p43 After P. J. DiMaggio & W. Powell.

‘with young people there might be the smoke-screen of the Government’s hidden agenda in front of the Big Society - so that is why everyone is scared of the two words.’ Youth Worker

‘I worked in an ‘open door’ youth centre for 14 years. It was very friendly, it embraced local ideas, had money like you wouldn’t believe, but there wasn’t queues of people wanting to do stuff. It just makes me wonder, like even stuff we see on our road, people don’t involve themselves in anything. I don’t know if the government thinks that there is all these people on the edge waiting to do something. I don’t personally see it. People are much more insular.’

Challenges

‘So actually the Big Society, in my opinion, is being asked to do what we have already being doing, but with potentially with even less resource than was previously available. Also, picking up the pieces of things that are around the community that have been dropped and been let go because of lack of funding .’

Challenges

Equality and Cohesion

• Language largely missing from the coalition Government rhetoric?

• BS could bypass the marginalised?• ‘Local community’ could be mono-cultural,

factions, exclusive – responses?• Need to develop intergenerational, cross

cultural, inclusive work?• Come together around what we do agree on?

Responses to Community Challenges - Emerging Themes …

• Lack of understanding of BS• Optimistic and pessimistic positions (in equal

measure!)• Partnership is key• Need to be values orientated• Open to compromise• Faith-based sector robust and resilient• Creative and ‘out of the box’ thinking and responses• Need to be more intentional

‘Radical youth workers work informally with young people and takes them seriously. Their daily work is informed by political and moral values: opposition to capitalism and authoritarianism, belief in equality and respect for the environment. They question, ‘common sense’ and reflect critically on their work. They are aware that practising their beliefs will involve debate and struggle, but try to have fun too!’ Belton, B. Radical Youth Work p69

Bad means for good ends? ‘Does this particular end justify this particular means?’ Alinsky, S. Rules for Radicals p47

Is there something that you want to take away from here and act upon?

I think that the Big Society is:1.A great opportunity2.A big challenge3.Irrelevant4.Too uncertain to form an opinion

 

Comments, Questions, Discussion …

Thank you …

nigel@pimlott.orgwww.pimlott.org07940 54 54 69