UNDERSTANDING HOW THE POWER OF COMMUNITIES CAN CHANGE LIVES
In 1980 when the Herefordshire high school headteachers and college staff started to work on collective pre-vocational programmes two fundamental outcomes occurred. Firstly they began to develop a shared pre-vocational 14-16 years curriculum with appropriate accreditation which was relevant to a significant number of their students. This was a clear response to the 1963 Newsom Report, ‘Half our Future’. Secondly, they learned that working together as a community was a real strength and that within this new community the individual schools, their students and teachers became stronger and more confident. In short, they had shared values and goals.
Roll forward to 1983 when the Thatcher government offered local authorities the opportunity to submit proposals for a new Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI). This newfound Herefordshire community, without blinking, sat down, and wrote up the three-year work that had been undertaken, bypassing the local authority and submitting the proposal directly to the Government as the Herefordshire TVEI 14-19 years proposal. The rest is history as they say because it was immediately seized by the Government as the first of ten pilot projects across the whole of the United Kingdom. The barons of power in County Hall in Worcester didn’t think too much of it initially but they had to recognise and embrace this innovative rural community.
Roll forward to 1989 when TVEI (Extension) was introduced across the whole of the UK and the Herefordshire Consortium became a dedicated 14-19 years education community within the broader Hereford and Worcester local authority area. This rural community of high schools and colleges was given its own dedicated budget and delegated authority to manage it.
In 1991 the civil servants were so impressed with the work of the Herefordshire 14-19 years Consortium that they offered Coopers and Lybrand consultancy to work up a Co-operative model for the Herefordshire schools and colleges going forward. In 1992 the Marches Consortium was born as a legal entity and over time this led to the Robert Owen Society and the Robert Owen Group. Thereafter the history has been written as 32 years of rapid innovation and activity had brought in over £40 million of inward investment for its members.
Of course all this is history and we live today in the here and now in a poorer ,much divided and individualistic Herefordshire and Welsh border community. Public services have been atomised because the mantra is that competition is good and only the strong survive. We of course refute this because we believe that the focus for real local regeneration must return to communities and the understanding of the real power of communities to change lives.
As we launch our new website we start the series of discussions on communities and how they have the power to regenerate and to positively change local places and local people. For this to happen and become effective we need your involvement and contribution to our collective thinking.
A community simplistically is a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. In sociological terms a community is conceptualised as a group of individuals who share common geographic , social or cultural characteristics and are bound by a sense of belonging or mutual interdependence. A community such as the original Herefordshire schools community results from a web of complex and interdependent relationships that form over time among individuals who share common interests, values and aspirations. Community members care deeply about one another and work closely together towards a common purpose. In short, they talk to each other, seek opinions, listen to what each other have to say and take action where necessary.
Experience within the Robert Owen Society has shown us that in order for a community to work effectively the individuals must respect each other, share common values and goals, understand one another’s needs and want to work together to achieve them. In all of this communication is essential. Thus communities are built out of individuals and of small groups of individuals who already relate to each other. Ideally, a community is a place where everyone can live in peace and harmony because the common culture both decrees and encourages this. In short, the community should be built around values of freedom, security, equality and enlightened thinking.
In the Robert Owen Society, we see the 5 regeneration pillars and hence challenges as:
Human beings are at their best when working together and we recognise that a strong community can play a crucial role in shaping an individual’s personality and sense of well-being. The interaction between the global society and the local community can, through societal norms, family values and local expectations influence the development of the individual’s psyche and identity. The culture of our community makes a difference in how we view ourselves and others. It affects our values and in turn impacts on the direction of the community – in short, is a two-way road . Hard experience over more than 30 years has shown that artificially creating communities to access money, grants or recognition just doesn’t work. These have within them the seeds of their own destruction before they start.
So the burning question is: how do we develop effective communities to help regenerate our local settlements?
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