Big Society's Big Mouth Powered by v

Hi Alice, I currently volunteer at a college supporting learning diasable young adults between the ages 16 and 25 they struggle with simple tasks and smile when you help them put their coat on i go to work each day and they wave and smile and i help them improve their number skills and writing their name also with practical tasks like cleaning out pigs and so on. I have made such a bond with them it has inspired me to become a special needs teacher and i am so motivated to getting their. volunteering gives you a sense of satisfaction as you are changing peoples lives, but also it helps you learn a hell of a lot about yourself as a person. Read less

Hi Jamie,

Thanks so much for posting this, the video almost made me shed a tear!

Everything i saw was spot-on; it's not just the practical skills that your volunteers are benefiting from, it's the social skills, the work- ethic, the confidence and the drive that comes alongside taking part in a project like this. It breaks my heart that KICFM is only the tip of the iceberg- essential youth services are being cut all over the country and alongside the abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance and the trebling of Higher Education tuition fees; young people have been left feeling isolated, unsupported and essentially forgotten by the Government Coalition.

It sickens me that in a democracy, the majority of people are still left feeling so god damn helpless! I think it's definitely time that we took a stand and yelled so loud that the government had no choice but to listen...

The question is how?..... Read less

I was lucky enough to visit Egypt last year and meet some youth activists there.

The youth there have some big problems - there's a "youth bulge" which means there are suddenly way more young people there than there ever has been before, so not enough services, jobs etc - I think about half of the population under 25 and unemployment is off the scale. So maybe it's easier for them to take on the government because there's more of them??

But we have seen clever use of t'interweb in recent UK protests, like this from the student protests: http://bit.ly/gzVyEI Read less

Jon, this is absolutely spot-on! I think it's a tad patronising that the government are targeting good honest hard-working citizens (the very citizens that are being made redundant and are suffering due to cuts to frontline services) in their aim to introduce the idea of The Big Society. In the current economic climate, Britons everywhere have EVEN LESS time and money than they had previously. I, for one, will not be rushing to volunteer at my local homeless shelter when I don't even have the finances to put food on my own table.

The Big Society is a great idea and perhaps it could be succesfully implemented- but only if the public felt that the government was protecting their frontline services, sticking true to their manifestos and correctly prioritising funding. I don't believe that Britons feel this to be the case.

I guess it's a case of I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine... Don't know about you, but I'm still awaiting my scratch. Read less

This is a great piece Jon. Thanks.

"We understand the last governments failure to conserve money for a rainy day, but we also understand that the reserves of goodwill have dissipated after years of profit being the main motivator in our society rather than helping others"

There lies the problem...

I would genuinely like to revert back to a time when a Big Society would be possible. SadlyI just don't know if a society is set up that way anymore.  Read less

Thanks for the feedback guys. I think Lord Wei's move is understandable as he has a young family (but he obviously used the wrong words to explain his change), but highlights a huge issue with cutting funding, and about expecting too much from people. He is a smart man who has set up a wonderful social enterprise in TeachFirst and seems to want to make a difference to Britain. WHY OH WHY WAS HE NOT GETTING PAID!! 'Volunteering' as we understand it here is less in Scandanavian countries I believe because if they see a role that needs filling they make it a job and pay someone a fair wage for it.
Looking at the more microlevel, our libraries should not be staffed by volunteers solely, because LIBRARIAN is a job!. As is youth worker, as is a museum attendent, as is a Policy Officer in the Cabinet Office as Wei was fulfilling. I believe it highlights a much wider prpblem with how we value people in this country and how the cuts will make it worse.

Volunteers should support and never replace paid staff. This was the iron clad law which I worked under when working for a local council, trying to get more volunteers into public services. It is the same hypocrisy that allows 'interns' and work experience young people to abused in banks, businesses or parliament. it is a b*stardisation of the good word volunteering, and will put our levels of volunteering back for a decade.

Rant over.  Read less