Tom Tolchard; SiiWA Project Director discussing his recent trip back to the UK and some observations about some of the changes taking place there.
I recently headed back to the UK for a few weeks. I tend to have mixed emotions every time I go back. I’ve only headed home three times in the past ten years, I have to say that I wasn’t exactly in love with England when I left for Australia, it seemed too expensive, too aggressive, too little opportunity but each time I go back I notice all the great aspects life in the UK and inevitably find myself daydreaming about what life would be like if I returned. I imagine living in the leafy suburbs, playing village cricket at the weekends, drinking warm beer and complaining endlessly about, well anything really. This thought never lasts long but it was enough to start me thinking about the state of the UK and how it’s people and government are addressing the considerable social issues, which have arisen over recent years.
During my first week back in England the government released a frightening new statistic that made me consider just how important the need is for effective social innovation thinking. Having conducted a 6 month long, national survey the UK government we’re embarrassed to report that the number of children now living below the poverty line had increased from 1:5 to a staggering 1:4. That’s one in four school children in England going to school with no breakfast in their tummies, living in houses without adequate heating, wearing school clothes that don’t fit etc…. That was the same week the government rather quietly announced the need to down grade the UK economic forecast by an additional 7% (on top of the 5 % down grade three months prior). This wasn’t quite what I’d expected to find in my old country.
In a nut shell things were bad, as someone looking from the outside in, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of understanding from the people as to how the UK citizens are collectively going to address these social ills. Some may suggest that the recent rioting and the social unrest that we have witnessed to be a byproduct of this rather gloomy reality. I have very little insight these days into the social fabric of life in England but one thing that resonates for me is that many people believe that it is “the absence of hope for many young people in England” that is manifesting itself into dysfunctional and destructive behavior (or as my good friend put it to me recently “who’s country is full of convicts now Tom?”). How does a country build hope for hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised residents and do it in a way, which does not displace the happy folk, buggered if I know but I’d love to have a go at working out some solutions?
It was with these lofty questions and concerns in mind that I decided to go and find out what the Big Society mob were up to and how if at all they were planning on stopping the rot. For those who are new to Big Society I’ll provide a quick introduction. Big Society was launched by the UK government in 2010 to act as a think tank and ideas center for bringing about positive social change. “Our aim is to champion people and organisations that are part of social change. We are a catalyst creating partnerships for the wider society and are open to everyone” (www.thebigsociety.co.uk). The thing I like about Big Society is that it is thinking on a large scale, its see’s this social unrest as an opportunity to drive best practice in social enterprise, develop scalable, exportable models and their aim is to be regarded as global “best in show” at delivering innovative social capital but by their own admission they have one hell of a long journey ahead of them.
I caught up with a representative of Big Society in Manchester and asked her to explain some of the projects she was working on. One of the Big Society projects she showed me around focused on re-energising the high street and CBD retail strips.
The City of Manchester has initiated a project where it is subsidizing 50% of the rental costs of un-occupied, prime high street locations (mainly vacant due to the huge number of independent retails who have gone out of business over the past two years as well as the consolidation of many retail chains) for new start up social enterprises which encourage skills acquisition, training and employment opportunities for long term unemployed. This means that socially driven organisations, which seek to trade in order to sustain themselves, stand along side the likes of Tesco, Top Shop and Marks and Spencer but also ensure that property which has high trading potential is utilized rather that sitting vacant.
The high street has been seen as a social focal point for centuries and there is evidence linking the deterioration of high street communities to a direct correlation in dysfunctional behavior. By taking an empty retail space (which is a symbol of failure in the community) and turning it into a supported and subsidized social venture it becomes an asset to the community. This is just one example of how Big Society are throwing out the rule book and using social innovation create hope for people in England.
So what can we the residents of Western Australia learn from the Big Society initiative, a few suggestions I’ve been mulling over include the following. It would be benificial for all to create social welfare systems designed with and not for the disadvantaged people of Perth, empowering and including them as our primary stakeholder. Perth could also seek to use some of the hundreds of thousands of square meters of vacant prime CBD real estate to facilitate the rise of new social enterprise and hybrid models (a project that City of Perth has started to map vacant spaces in the CBD). I’d also like to champion the emergence of commercial social investment, in the USA the socially responsible investment market is now valued at $3.07 trillion. Its important for us to shift our thinking away from subsidiary or loss making social investment to a belief that social investment can produce positive returns both in economic and social measures.
Big Society thinking was reinforces the view that its often the guy on the street that is close to the real issues and who has huge value to add when designing social solutions. It’s also a great example of hand up not hand out where risk is shared but equally so are the rewards. For more info and a nosey through their work check out www.thebigsociety.co.uk
Things are really starting to move on the Co-working, Collaboration and Innovation space that SiiWA is building in collaboration with a growing list of partners at 45 St Georges Terrace now called 
Enterprise Learning Projects (ELP) provides a first point of contact for individuals and communities wanting to engage in microenterprise development. From the seed of an idea to piloting and facilitating specialist support, ELP works with individuals and communities to bring their ideas to life. The tailored process they go through with the community helps ensure businesses and the people running them are sustainable and able to grow.
ELP is currently partnering with The Smith Family Katherine as part of the Australian Government’s Communities for Children Initiative. Working with the community of Yarralin, they are supporting individuals to pilot a range of business ideas. Here are just a couple:
