Confessions of a Recovering Volunteer (Part 2)
To read the first part, take a look here.
N.B. No individuals have been named in this blog.
Bad
There is an unmistakable bond where charities and politics are concerned. From a national perspective, campaigns are geared towards the relevant figures and ministerial brief to push for change. My experiences have given me multiple platforms to address those in power and give voice to a particular cause. This often consisted of mental health, housing and education for SEN learners. To an extent, they can be effective and stimulate the necessary debates, bills for legislation and MP/peer backing when representatives take a close interest. Not wanting to put a dampener for those who are yet to get a taste of the corridors of power, I have found that words, powerful or compelling they may be, also tend to fall on deaf ears.
Hard as it can be to accept, it cannot be overlooked that the debates of 5 or 10 years ago remain just as current as they were when I or others confronted those same issues. Take a look at mental health: anyone remember the ‘Future in Mind’ strategy? Five years on, here at 2020, when such strategies should be due for renewal or evaluation of successes and failings, it would be hard to regard this as a shining beacon of government aptitude. I should know, as I was one who attended the Takeover Day at the former Department of Health 5 years ago when it was shiny and new. For learning disability, have lessons really been learnt from Winterbourne View? For all the countless APPG events (talking shops), I have sat in or spoken to an obscure backbench MP, who have less scope to drive change on their own accord, it is difficult to fight off the feeling of disenchantment. The system moves at a snail’s pace, politicians give lip service to well-meaning campaigners and activists and what is proposed as a step forward for change is dismissed as soon as X minister leaves the committee room. Who could forget the farce when one MP who filibustered to undermine a bill that would train first-aid skills for all school pupils? That example sadly is not the only incident of its kind.
What’s worse, certain charities are cautious in their criticism of government too severely for fear of being financially cut loose. For all the visits I made to parliament, which I remain grateful for, it is hard to exactly pinpoint how my own or others’ efforts won the hearts and minds of those who could actually do something.
Amidst these trips to Westminster, it would be remiss of me to not consider how I was balancing my own commitments to how I found time for a personal life, or what there was of it. It was not until I became a Young Champion at Time to Change (2016) the concept of ‘self-care’ was brought to my notice. As an overall self-assessment of building this practice in my life, it would be rather lamentable. If I wasn’t falling asleep and missing my train stop, realising just as the train was pulling away from Winchester station, I was double booking myself one time too many; it is not a good act for others to follow. My third-year university supervisor gently advised I would have to decide what was of greater priority. Knowing what I do now, especially when I was unwell, I did myself no favours in adopting a superhuman guise when I was in no fit state.
Where mistakes or missteps were taken, and even at times which are not easy to admit myself, the fault can also lie at the door for organisations who are not always inclined to acknowledge their foibles. One such example occurs when young people are tasked to allocate funding to projects. An important and rewarding responsibility though weakened by the fact the young people did not design or have input into criteria and once that voice has been allocated, what next? Regrettably, for one such institution (not a charity), their delivery of participation can only be described as haphazard and without any clear understanding to retain the confidence of those who were engaged. Individual opportunities or events — very enjoyable, but when it came to planning a coherent strategy for achieving a meaningful programme…certainly found wanting. More bizarrely, an advisory board I successfully applied for never came to fruition. No communication or thought as to explain why those like myself were left in the dark. This from a charity, which exists today, and prides itself on the support they give to young people from their service.
The moral of this story is whether it is an organisation which specialises in the work they do with under-25s or branching out to work with a younger demographic, engagement that looks good on paper is not always given the depth and range required. One year commitment on projects, which is fair to offer equal opportunities to more, on the one hand, proves to be insufficient if you want to make a real impact and the chance for those involved to own some kind of legacy. It might be a question of money (what isn’t?), but as I have come to learn is that when ideas are not bombproof when they are let loose, ‘a failure to plan, is a plan to fail’.
Frustrating
There is, by all account of research and insight into social action, areas to be hopeful about. The proportion of young people who are either interested or actively engaged is either increasing or steady, as shown by research by the #iWill Campaign. Much has changed and has evolved, for better or worse, to the climate when I first became associated with youth volunteering — not least my experiences of school exams are now rather distant. What became apparent was the hollowing out when the government agenda began to shift the goalposts and what was priority before, was no longer. Take how much of the focus for funders has been centred on employability — perfectly valid, though not quite the same as something which enriches youth volunteering for its own sake (see v or vInspired before government backing was withdrawn).
With the time to ruminate on the current shortcomings or imbalances in this sector lie, it springs to mind that in the context of where we are now, I would have been worse off if I were to repeat history a decade ago. There can be no doubt that the disproportionate support to schemes like the National Citizen Service in comparison to the dismantling of local youth services is obscene. I say this as somebody who once helped in commissioning for the NCS Trust some years ago and acknowledge there are many young people who had and continue to receive rewarding experience with the programme.
Nevertheless, within my local area, Dorset, the former local authority took away all the support for their buildings in the county and stripped off £1million from its £2.2million youth service budget in 2016. Meanwhile, for 2016–20, NCS was awarded a hefty £1.26 billion. The building — home once to many happy memories of those Dorset heritage projects and a lifeline for those most vulnerable in the county —now sold off**. Inside that centre, I witnessed homeless young people and all manner of vulnerable folk visit, some without mobiles, and could use the landline installed to contact DWP and crucial services to avoid their fragile safety net collapsing totally. Complex problems that cannot be solved in a short space of time. Where do such people turn to now in a locality as rural and sparse as West Dorset? As I was not a participant of NCS, I cannot entirely comment on its efficacy and there will be those who took part when aged 16/17 who would take an opposing view.
When offering those first stepping-stones, for people who didn’t possess the ‘drive’ or ‘passion’ at the outset, where is that now to be found? If I were 16 again, my options can only be considerably more limited and steered towards what central government is prepared to offer. Mercifully, NCS has not degenerated into a rehash of the National Service! When it comes to money and resources, it is not just a question of ‘is it enough?’ but how is it proving its value and tangible outcomes. Whether that is NCS or the present strategy, we are left bereft of any actual vision to do something that has gone beyond just empty rhetoric. Ideally, the objective should look to a national strategy that creates a functional and enabling youth service, with operational and spending power devolved to those with local knowledge.
There can be no question that the succeeding generation to my own are enterprising and have qualities that are looking to the longer-term future, with environmental issues taking centre stage. For those who are coming from a point of need with support and nurture to grow into that potential, how would someone like me fit into this new picture today? Several years ago, I was standing for an election process and left floored by an unrehearsed question on stage to present my answer to an audience of other young people. I wished only for the ground to open up as my brain came to a juddering halt. Safe to say, I lost that election and had a complete meltdown on leaving the building. While thinking initially it was down to my own inability and failure as a poor public speaker, it was on reflection symptomatic about how we exclude those who have talents that are not derived from being extrovert and having ‘stage presence’.
To their credit, this organisation did improve their recruiting processes and accommodates those who are more skilled behind the scenes, which I partly aided. Broadly speaking, the inclusion of those with additional needs has declined in my judgement — without genuine projects that bring together those of mixed abilities or spaces for those with special characteristics at a local and regional level, something is fundamentally missing. If my personal experience in the election seemed random at first glance, it is about the assumptions made for roles and opportunities that are designed for a ‘certain kind’ of individual/group. How cliques and exclusionary clubs emerge from this kind of practice.
The ‘usual suspect’ theory consequentially manifests in full.
Conclusion
It may be reasonable for some to judge this as a downcast and critical assessment of a period in which I gave so much and the majority of projects/charities rewarded that commitment. The task of this reflective account, which was not to shame or disparage those who went awry in their own attempts nor was I seeking to just look back on all my own successes that were a source of fulfilment. They both share the commonality of being from another time now. For the latter, that came with less struggle, as my personal strengths, I like to hope, dwarfed over the more problematic traits. A focus purely on everything in years that are more recent would fail to capture any hardships or stumbles that formed part of my backstory. I am content there were far more triumphs and memories of positivity that far outweigh those trickier periods. Indeed, there can be no blog of a tolerable length, which could adequately convey all the stories, people and future progression in any case.
My thinking has grown and developed on some of these more thorny subjects for some time now. Frustrations ferment and observation of the weaknesses intensify as events unfold around you. While I remain a believer that influencing decision-makers, including politicians, are a component for driving change, you soon find much less is attainable than previously imagined. Equally, for all UK governments this past decade, the underlying theme is an indifference to act on concerns, which are of apparent little interest to them. At worst, they cause harm and setback. I might advise to budding activists is ‘think big, but manage those expectations’. Is this the kind of message to dash the dreams and goals of campaigners with their early optimism?
In principle, I subscribe to the theory of gradualism, as swift reform or immediate changes cannot typically be anticipated. Most of us though would always wish the speed to be much faster by any standard. Can I say my own volunteering was on balance a worthwhile experience? Ultimately, yes. More importantly, though, is the current situation for others who are coming through now better and equitable in contrast to where I started off? Sadly, I have more doubts on that score.
** Read more about Routes IAG centre here. I would stress the factors for its closure are entirely separate to the issues raised in my blog.
