wellbeing

Crowd with a large tree above them. A sign held up reads 'Love for all, Hatred for none'

6 September 2023

Empathy, migration and humanity

Clare Richardson Event community, complex-identity, connection, conversation, difference, identity, polarisation, relationships, wellbeing 0

Photo credit: Emma Turner

So many of us feel the hardness, loneliness and disconnection around the places we have lived all our lives. It’s impossible to imagine migrating to a place where you add into that a lack of familiarity with not just the place, but the language, foods, weather, customs and the very landscape itself. I had a very privileged glimpse when my son was a tiny baby and very ill overseas and I had to make sense of the medical system. It seemed impossible to navigate and I was faced by person after person who could not understand exactly what it was I was unable to comprehend or confused by, being so familiar with it themselves. The process to get seen by someone was unfathomable to me. All was well in the end for us though, I never once imagined I would be turned away once I had found my way and this was just a fleeting glimpse, not a whole new life with a raft of oncoming, interconnecting alien experiences before me.

Lots of us have friends, colleagues or people in our day-to-day lives, around the shops, services and spaces we regularly inhabit, that have migrated to the UK who have encountered the differences, hurdles, assumptions and challenges of living outside of the experience they were born into somewhere else. Have you ever asked them about their unique observations of the UK, the things they encountered that seemed entirely crazy to start with? Some of us seldom cross paths with anyone who has experience of migrating across the world to be here. What are your assumptions around those that choose a life here over the one they encountered as they entered the world?

We know that various players in the media want us to believe certain, simplified and distorted pictures about those that migrate here, to benefit whatever end/policy/camp they are seeking to support. We also know that migrating people come here for many reasons; study, marriage, a perceived better life for themselves and their families, seasonal work, asylum and refuge, and many more complicated reasons beyond. When we choose to migrate to Australia, France, Spain or any of the other usual destinations for migrating Brits, would we expect to be caricatured and labelled too? I’m certain we are and yet we know in our hearts that the reasons behind any movement, especially with family in tow, are complex and unique to each situation and that, as individuals, we all hold different values and cannot possibly be lumped together.

Part of my family are believed to have moved from Eastern Europe and settled around Spitalfields/Whitechapel in the 1880’s, apparently along with 90% of all the Jewish people migrating here, until the first world war. Charitable Societies to support the huge influx of working-class Jewish people fleeing a hostile Europe at that time gave new arrivals the tools to survive, such as signposting to work, soup kitchens, cheap lodgings and made a huge number of small interest-free loans available that enabled many to start their own businesses. So, a collection of people who showed kindness to strangers helped to ensure I appeared here far later in 1977. Thank you 19th C East End Societies.

According to government data, this year has seen the greatest number of people arriving via small boats than ever before, a stat reported widely and yet ‘in 2021, there were around 9 asylum applications for every 10,000 people living in the UK. Across the EU27 there were 14 asylum applications for every 10,000 people. The UK was therefore below the average among EU countries for asylum applications per head of population, ranking 16th among EU27 countries plus the UK on this measure.’ The hyper-visibility of boats coming across the channel makes the front page, not the balanced truth. We’ve seen plenty of reports in the media labelling people ‘illegal migrants’ or just ‘migrants’, using dehumanising language to further set us apart, and we must learn to think mindfully and critically about the information we are being fed. This year, Red Cross researchers found that 74 per cent of the UK public has sympathy towards refugees and asylum seekers – up from 59 per cent in December 2022, so perhaps the divide and conquer rhetoric is not succeeding.

Join us in our new six-week exchanges between people who have migrated to the UK and those whose families have lived here for generations. If you believe a more connected, curious and compassionate society is possible, then let’s examine and reimagine the kind of welcome we offer people. Roots curate up to an hour a week of offline activities between you and a partner that we pick for you for three weeks, followed by three guided conversations for the final three weeks. These offer you an opportunity to reflect on your life and the lives of others, to ask questions, share ideas and to look at our society through another lens. Noticing our similarities always brings great joy and appreciating our differences and talking about them offers us rich opportunities to learn, develop and create a society that works for all of us.

The programme is fully funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, individual participants do not need to pay. We start again in October, please register your interest here.

Blackpool's Holden Mile with the tower in the background and Pat's Bingo in the foreground

17 August 2023

Bingo! What a conversation.

Clare Richardson Event Blackpool, community, connection, conversation, next generation, relationships, wellbeing 0

Photos and blog by Linzi Cason – Community Lead and Co-Facilitator on The Roots Community Conversation: Blackpool

The community conversation was just over two weeks ago and I am still thinking about some of the conversations being had. It felt good to talk with other ‘sandgrown-uns’ about our town and a vision for what it could be. When asked about what we would most definitely keep it was clear that the Parks, Tower and of course Notarianni’s were top of the list. But we also discussed about how strong a community we have here in Blackpool. Comments like ‘we can talk about the bad parts of our town but when someone else does you feel offended and jump to defend it’. We are protective of the town and rightly so, there is so much on offer to locals and visitors.

As the illustrative notes are drawn up from the conversation, Blackpool is once again in the news. First with the Office for National Statistics with its yearly statistics stating we have the lowest life expectancy in both men and women. This then followed by the headline ‘The Prom is Dead’ with claims the weather has meant traders have had the worst year yet. It is hard, as a local, to read and understand fully what these mean. On one hand you consider that your own life might end before others across the country simply because you live here. On the other hand I personally feel for those traders suffering on the prom (as the granddaughter of a rock stall trader). But honestly these only cross my mind as I read about them because with the Rebellion weekend just passing you only see the town filled with people enjoying themselves.

However, what does stay with me, is how people from outside of the town feel when they read these headlines. Does it put them off coming here? And that is where I feel (and others on the call) feel the town needs to be defended. Blackpool has a sense of magic, that is why people return here over and over for holidays and some to stay. As I mentioned on the call, my own work has led me to support those who have returned here from childhood holidays to find all that is gold does not glitter. But that is ok, we know as a town what our problems are – all towns have them – but it is what we do next that really matters.

Although the Roots conversation is over, there are still actions to be taken: residents on the call were keen to start a regular, informal conversation that feeds back monthly/bimonthly to our elected officials – Roots and other friendly organisations working in this field are developing some advisory guidelines to help ensure that the conversational participants remain equal around the table and that no single person gets lumbered arranging them – all ideas on this are welcomed and other places where conversations have been held are looking hopefully at creating something similar too, for residents and by residents.

Finally, it was mentioned that we need to take a trip to Pat’s Bingo and I think that might be a good start to what a regular conversation could look like. So who is going to join me?

For more information or to add your ideas to the conversational melting pot, or to plan that trip to Pat’s contact clare@rootsprogramme.org

12E5977E-59B8-4903-B96C-14BCBE46348F_1_201_a

9 March 2023

Roots Community Conversations & Future Generations

Clare Richardson Event community, connection, conversation, next generation, relationships, society, wellbeing 0

After a longish period of feeling a bit apathetic about life in the UK and politically homeless, I was invited to attend an online event being arranged by our friends at Network of Wellbeing. It was an evening online call called ‘Building Wellbeing Together: Wellbeing of Future Generations’, which, at the time, seemed like an opportunity to share visions of what we might hope future generations may experience in terms of wellbeing. I had no idea what the evening may really hold, but all of us here at Roots love attending these kinds of events for inspiration and reigniting ideas and passions for the work we do and I was interested to listen and learn from the comfort of my sofa.

First up, and first assault on my apathy, was Amanda Janoo, a Vermont-based speaker from the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, who spoke at length about replacing our system and mindset, exchanging economic growth as the central thing our society values as a mark of success with the wellbeing of our planet and the humans living on it. Our second speaker was a woman the same age as me, I don’t know why this made her all the more interesting to me, still yet to figure that out, but it certainly added something to the mix. Sophie Howe is the outgoing, and was the first ever, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales.

Key to understanding Sophie’s story is comprehending the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. Rolling out in 2016, it set out seven well-being goals: i) a prosperous Wales, ii) a resilient Wales, iii) a healthier Wales, iv) a more equal Wales, v) a Wales of cohesive communities, vi) a Wales of vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language and vii) a globally responsible Wales. Which all sounded like lovely things to aim for, but I couldn’t imagine how these points could actually be achieved. The Act set out these goals alongside a small bunch of principles that new developments should be passed through the lens of before getting the ok.

Essentially, as I understand it, all new developments must be examined to ensure that they would allow future generations to enjoy at least the same levels of health and wellbeing that we do now, and if short-term thinking threatened the wellbeing of future generations, then pressure to veto such thinking could be applied. In this capacity, Sophie Howe advised the Welsh government against building a bypass around Newport linked to the M4 motorway because it would result in financial debt for the future as well as destroy local biodiversity. She argued that we were building capacity for extra road traffic we didn’t want. It happened, or rather it didn’t happen, the bypass was canned.

I love the idea that every development through government should be put through this lens. I thought about my son, who was sleeping upstairs as I took the call. My generation inherited a UK in which buying or even renting a house is far more difficult than ever before, Norway enjoys a society enriched through it’s sovereign wealth fund, whilst we sold off our gas to the highest bidder, oh, and older people disproportionately voted for Brexit. Suddenly, what we are creating right now, and the legacy we offer our children’s children, came very sharply into focus.

My son and I are a groovy, solid, single parent and child unit. Engaging in the capacity of putting myself forth as a local councillor is fraught with time constraints and having juggled for too long with a multitude of other things, clubs, sanity and trying to remain afloat financially, I am reluctant to try to go there, even if anyone would have me. Ruth Ibegbuna, Roots’ Founder, worked on ‘Community Conversations’ previously in Wales and then, with a few of us alongside her, in Scotland, partnering with the David Hume Institute. These conversations brought people together as equals for around two hours, online, and were not something I had previously experienced. The digital divide was bridged for these sessions by helpful extra partnerships with other organisations such as libraries and community hubs who supported participants with tech and know-how. The sessions I assisted with struck me, most notably, as really warm and friendly where the people turning up all felt their voice was equally worth listening to, like a chat across a kitchen table. Nothing reminiscent of Handsforth Parish Council whatsoever. Some participants represented local organisations and took their place beside very wonderful, ‘ordinary’ individuals from the community who knew it very well and had special insight, or were new to the area and had unique ideas for connecting the dots better. We had a chatty few hours and created a list of action points that people volunteered to tackle and report back upon.

The experiences of visiting parliament in London, the town council in Bungay, where I live, and the wonderful experiences I have enjoyed bringing together the voices of us, the Norman Normals of the area together to connect and talk, calmly and compassionately about what they want the future to look like in their place have led us to the project we are working on at present. Roots Community Conversations kicks off at the end of March in Bradford, the place in which our founder, Ruth Ibegbuna, grew up and we hope to continue into a community near you, neutral space holders for informality and the less-usually-heard voices.