Breaking through the ‘us and them’ barrier

In my last blog I confessed that my approach to assignments usually involved ‘leaving everything until the last minute’. Well, I am pleased to report that I did indeed break the habit of a lifetime in September. Working together as a group finally forced me to reconsider the merits of the cramming technique.

So my last piece of solo written work for my foundation degree course in sustainable communities was finished two weeks before the deadline. The fact that I was on holiday for a fortnight prior to the due date should perhaps be taken into account. Still, it’s an achievement I’m somewhat proud of!

We had a choice of five questions to round off our module in economic sustainability and I opted for: How can community self-help best be harnessed in deprived neighbourhoods?

I couldn’t have found a question more interesting or relevant to my current line of work – or one closer to my heart. (For those of you who haven’t read my earlier blogs I’m a client support officer for Apprenticeships for All, a scheme run by Burngreave New Deal for Communities in Sheffield.)

I believe passionately that service providers concerned with delivering sustainable communities have to do their utmost to promote self-help. And this requires a fundamental shift in the way they approach service users – to one based firmly on anti-oppressive practices.

Such terminology is embedded in the area of social work, but it seems strangely absent from policies or programmes aimed at creating sustainable communities, promoting community cohesion, self-help or empowerment.

What do I mean by anti-oppressive in this context? Service providers are often the holders of knowledge, opportunity, information and even power. If we really want to do more than just pay lip service to the idea of empowering communities, service providers have to be willing to relinquish some of these things. In not doing so, I believe we are acting in an oppressive way.

All too often there is an ‘us and them’ attitude which fosters a reluctance to hand over power, knowledge, opportunity and information. It’s as if doing so requires a commitment to say to the service user – “you are on the same social level as me; you are my equal”. And this is a commitment that people aren’t usually prepared to make.

The tragedy is this: the communities we so desperately seek to engage with are right under our noses. They are there in the service users we interact with on a daily basis – people who perhaps don’t come to community consultation events or who wouldn’t join a residents’ group.

But they are there and they are willing to participate – they just need a little help and a little less oppression from us.

What this course is helping me do is identify where elements of sustainable communities policy might be falling short in this area. Before I started at Sheffield, I think I would have assumed that those formulating the policies knew what they were doing, were more educated than I, and wouldn’t dream of ever being oppressive (whether consciously or unconsciously). Twelve months into this degree and I am re-evaluating that position slightly. I’m more confident now at challenging practices and policies where I can see they are being oppressive, where they are not treating everyone as equals.

That confidence has also manifested itself in my first job application since starting the degree. It’s for a post with the Neighbourhood Renewal unit in Sheffield – as a project coordinator working on diverting young people away from Islamic extremism. It’s just the sort of move into project management which I dreamed the course would lead me to. And it offers me the opportunity to get involved at the strategic level – creating programmes and projects which will have a real impact. And I wouldn’t be in a position to apply for it without this course. Watch this space!

This is the fourth blog from Lisa Butchart in a series about the Academy’s foundation degree.