Contributing To Community Development

There are three activities that I'm most keen to develop further as a contribution towards Community Development:

1) Sharing what we own
2) Developing Mutual Support Systems through Timebank Brokerage (Focussed Networks of Time Exchanges that build Social Justice).
3) Building a comprehensive Community Justice System (so that no grievance is left over; everyone knowing how to get support to process any dispute or conflict.)

A brief film from me on Sharing:


A brief film from someone in America I've never met about Timebanking:


Summary of the 6 types of Vision I've put out for St Leonards (& Hastings):


Now here's an interview of an influential friend made in 2010, Dominic Barter (visiting from Brazil) about the "Radical Efficiency" of his way of working with community justice, which seems to predict OCCUPY etc:

At the close of this video (from 7 minutes and 53 seconds in), Dominic asks the key questions that promote engagement in vital dialogues as a pro-active considered choice rather than a reaction to what's going on that is taken on the hoof:

How can we create communities which are resilient enough, robust enough, to deal with this [period] of intense transition that we are in on almost every front:

• transition in relationships
• transition in parenting
• transition in education

But also huge coming social transitions

• with the way we distribute resources
• with the way that we deal with the consequences of massive climate transformation
• with the way in which we deal with the increasingly volatile economic situations

WE WILL BE MAKING DECISIONS
WE WILL BE RETURNING TO TOWN SQUARES
WE WILL BE RE-OPENING PUBLIC DIALOGUE ; if not because of the exciting potential that that gives us for democracy, then simply because the kinds of situation that we are increasingly confronting demand that of us.

So I would like us to learn to get more and more skilful about:

1. How do we create social dialogue?
2. How do we create procedures which support social dialogue?
3. How do we create outcomes from that process which (actually) effectively meet fundamental human needs?

(The link to the film is http://youtu.be/GtFsOBt81y0)

Does anyone want to join me in filming more in this series about (Hastings &) St Leonards being the place we know with the highest quality of life at the lowest cost of living & CAMPAIGNING TO PROTECT THAT FROM INITIATIVES WHICH RAISE THE COST OF LIVING AND FALSELY RAISE THE VALUE OF OUR PROPERTIES. ('Funny Money' is unsustainable and taints us with the 'greed' of which we accuse others).
Sadly, there are Council led initiatives which threaten the low cost of living here. This is part of a questionable regeneration strategy risking generating only another Brightonesque "London by the Sea"?
This film is the first in the new CAMPAIGNING series: "The Cost of Living in St Leonards):


(The link to the film is http://youtu.be/ceXVYSa2Qpg)

To complete this background information by providing the two pages about freelender.org, Edmund Johnson & I in "The Moneyless Man" by Mark Boyle (being published in 16 languages, I'm told:

(www.youtube.com/v/TJy7Vb8efSg)

Here's "The Moneyless Man"; demonstrating that humans don't need money to meet their needs; money is a strategy (not a universal need) & MONEY OFTEN HAS A HIGHER COST THAN FORMS OF TRADING THAT BUILD MORE TRUST, COMMUNITY & GENEROSITY:


(The link to the film is http://youtu.be/-PuyYVVVkIM)
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St Leonards Sharing Consortium has all these members so far, and welcomes new organisational members to provide mutual support for fulfilling the consortium objectives as listed here.

One of the partners in delivering change in St Leonards is the Centre for Peaceful Solutions in London, headed by Maria Arpa:
Maria on TV:


Maria in the Centre for Peaceful Solutions Charity Shop, 18, Chamberlyne Rd, Brent, London:


(The shop website that I set up for CPS as part of the St Leonards Sharing Timebank's work is www.ps-shop.org)

Here's Maria after a training event she did in St Leonards:


Here's the chair of the Pier Trust, Ray Chapman, after that 2 day training:


(NB for the next 2 day training -probably October 2012- please follow the "Ethical Outings in Hastings" blog)

And from April 2010, here's Maria talking about the relative importance of my various Community Development projects -crucially www.freelender.org - and how the Centre for Peaceful Solutions is working innovatively in also generating the skills for the well-being of communities, skills to be held by all, rather than put in the hands only of professionals:

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"The cost of living in St Leonards -Part 2":


(The link to the film is http://youtu.be/s9u7jDlv-jA)

"The cost of living in St Leonards -Part 3":


(The link to the film is http://youtu.be/http://youtu.be/2TPM2Hyn_HM)

And as a bonus video to the two above, here's a quick perspective on "Impoverished Artists in Hastings and St Leonards":
http://youtu.be/blrCpzRMddg

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I do much of my work on facebook; the stages of my best work being

1. Dreaming and Visioning
2. Planning 
3. Networking & Doing, 
4. Reviewing

(Then round this cycle again and again. I even taught the dream-cycle to a year group of students in the central city of India -Nagpur- in 2010: http://nagaloka-dream-cycle.blogspot.com)

One organisation that supports me in doing much of my work is the company I set up after being "Head of Restorative Justice" for 5 years at Mediation UK -the national charity which used to exist to represent and support community mediation services. The company is called Mediation Support Ltd. If you are interested in developing any of the above areas of work, please drop me an email via the Mediation Support contact form which clearly states what you'd like to happen next to further your interests.

Another structure that (alongside co-director Edmund Johnson) is being offered to communities in East Sussex and beyond is the Community Interest Company (a bit like a charity but easier to run) that we set up in 2008 and whose work has been hailed both by the leading UK Sustainability Think Tank, Forum for the Future, and within one of the seminal "transition books" of our era: "The Moneyless Man" by (out-there) Mark Boyle. The Community Interest Company that you are invited to apply to co-direct is currently called Freelending CIC. One of the fun spin-off of this work in developing how communities can share more (eg tools, clothes, cars, beachhuts, DVDs, conversations) and build-trust is the creation of the "Lend-It-All Man" persona:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRqu3xaeluM&feature=youtube_gdata_player)


Below are the links to websites & organisations related to these activities and with which I am, or have been, associated:

To see a glimpse of the ideas of how “Sharing what we own” might develop, see www.streetbank.com, www.freelender.org, www.freelenders.blogspot.com

For “Creative Timebank Brokerage”, example websites are www.timebanking.org www.stleonardssharing.info www.east-sussex-veg-people.blogspot.com www.ethicaloutings.blogspot.com
& Here's part of an interview I made with Sarah Bird from Timebanking UK which shows, amongst other things, that Timebank volunteering has been recognised as taking the pressure off the council Home Repair Service:

(The full interview is available on YouTube channel Toothpaste007 at http://youtu.be/yh1gVBx9aKk)

For “Building a Community Justice System”, prototype websites include www.peoplesjustice.org.uk & www.restorativetechnology.blogspot.com (based on winning the Social Innovation Camp 2010 -”the web idea most likely to reduce youth offending and youth custody” & www.apologyplus.org.uk (earlier foundation work from 2006).

For “Door-knocking as a Team-Building Occupation”, my inspiration comes from work which I did whilst employed by www.karuna.org The “two-step” fundraising model they use has great potential as I see it to be applied to increasing our connections with our neighbours. (More background on the skills, ethics and integrity required in the kind of door-knocking that opens hearts available on request; this is what in my opinion Community Development Work could benefit from greatly …..)



And now for the Walking Buddhas of Hastings, St Leonards & making this the place of grand sculpture in SE England?

(http://www.youtube.com/v/ZoAURxQK9dw)

And here's the Walking Buddha Statue being replicated as part of the re-positioning of Hastings & St Leonards in the new cultural and economic world order:

There are three activities that I'm most keen to develop further as a contribution towards Community Development:

Though I haven't yet inspired a St Leonards team to knock-on doors for the sake of the development of our community, I sense that this possibility is getting nearer after the 2012 St Leonards Community Planning meetings began. Below I'm with Erica Smith of the Hastings Network and with Jeremy Birch, the leader of Hastings Borough Council:

(The link to the film is http://youtu.be/GtFsOBt81y0)


Below are the links to websites & organisations related to these activities and with which I am, or have been, associated:

To see a glimpse of the ideas of how “Sharing what we own” might develop, see www.streetbank.com, www.freelender.org, www.freelenders.blogspot.com


For “Building a Community Justice System”, prototype websites include www.peoplesjustice.org.uk & www.restorativetechnology.blogspot.com (based on winning the Social Innovation Camp 2010 -”the web idea most likely to reduce youth offending and youth custody” & www.apologyplus.org.uk (earlier foundation work from 2006).

AGAIN:
If you are interested in developing any (or all) of the above areas of work, please drop me an email via the Mediation Support contact form Please reflect first on what you'd like to happen next to further your interests & your care for the well-being of your local community.

+++++++++++++++++++++
And...,
To say a little more, as a Community Development worker, four things that I'm particularly troubled by in the UK are:
1) "An English man's home is his castle" property protection mentality
2) Mass (individualised) Consumption rather than collective ownership eg How much easier it is for people to purchase stuff than to use the Internet to find the same stuff being shared.
3) That nonviolence is not deeply understood as a life-course.
4) That the vision of community is often so limited by all of the above -AND MORE

THESE ARE SOME OF THE REASONS WHY I WISH TO DRAW ON MY DEEPEST EXPERIENCES OF COMMUNITY which I have found in Indian Ambedkarite Buddhists. The Normans coming out of the sea may be more relevant to Hastings' past. I'm not the person to advance that project. Rather I'm wanting to work on agendas such as the "cities of sanctuary" project to build a healthier approach to immigration. We have so much to learn from my friends in India, particularly "how to live better for less". "how to live better for less" is also St Leonards' unique selling point. This is partly the basis on which I'm inviting Amber Rudd (MP), Jeremy Birch (leader of the council) and Kim Forward (Mayor) to a meeting to discuss how government, local and national, can best support sharing of cars, houses etc and what social policies, cultural links and arts will best position Hastings & St Leonards as a resilient, well-connected place in the face of the coming new world order?

The process said to be necessary to build any community with any depth:


The Stakeholder Analysis in relation to Hastings Pier:


LINKS THAT CAN BE FOLLOWED UP ACCORDING TO WHAT AREA OF COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO BE INVOLVED IN DEVELOPING OR MAINTAINING:

12 videos to give a flavour of the range:
Rough & Smooth Paul

Paul Crosland's tweets (Twitter account /paulcrosland)

Nagaloka Dream Cycle

Hastings Sangha Blog - the start of an attempt to
link Buddhists

I want your advice - the Lands End to John O'Groats 'outing'

Hastings Justice (NB IF YOU WANT BETTER JUSTICE, please JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP OF THE SAME NAME'

"St Leonards Sharing" Timebank (with outreach work in the name - Brighton (Triratna) Timebank

The 'Man of Many Shirts' (on the Sussex Community Blog)

The 'Imperfect Idealist'

'Lend It All Man'

The Freelenders Blog

The Freelender Community

Restorative Justice

Restorative Technology Ltd

Mediation Support Ltd

The Centre for Peaceful
Solutions

Action for Happiness

Hastings & St Leonard's Action for Happiness

The "What Kind of Water are You?" Blog

In preparation for the Paul Crosland 'Obituary'


Hastings Observer pieces:
June 2011 -"We need to act if we want justice"
June 2011 -"Group aims to get Hastings smiling again"
September 30th 2011 -"Talks to mark the anniversary


AGAIN:
If you are interested in developing any (or all) of the above areas of work, please drop me an email via the Mediation Support contact form Please reflect first on what you'd like to happen next to further your interests & your care for the well-being of your local community.

At the close of this video (from 7 minutes and 53 seconds in), Dominic asks the key questions that promote engagement in vital dialogues as a pro-active considered choice rather than a reaction to what's going on that is taken on the hoof:

How can we create communities which are resilient enough, robust enough, to deal with this [period] of intense transition that we are in on almost every front:

• transition in relationships
• transition in parenting
• transition in education

But also huge coming social transitions

• with the way we distribute resources
• with the way that we deal with the consequences of massive climate transformation
• with the way in which we deal with the increasingly volatile economic situations

WE WILL BE MAKING DECISIONS
WE WILL BE RETURNING TO TOWN SQUARES
WE WILL BE RE-OPENING PUBLIC DIALOGUE ; if not because of the exciting potential that that gives us for democracy, then simply because the kinds of situation that we are increasingly confronting demand that of us.

So I would like us to learn to get more and more skilful about:

1. How do we create social dialogue?
2. How do we create procedures which support social dialogue?
3. How do we create outcomes from that process which (actually) effectively meet fundamental human needs?

The Happiness Agenda relates to all - not just the political right!

Don't surrender happiness to the political right! -a response to Suzanne Moore's article in the February 9th 2012 Guardian

“For Happiness we need Collective Action” were the words of the Labour leader of our local council when he first heard of the local Action for Happiness group, which I co-ordinate. I applaud the identification by Suzanne Moore (Guardian, 9^th February) of the danger of the privatisation of happiness; seeing well-being in all its dimensions as being entirely a matter of individual responsibility. The politics of the individual pursuit of happiness in the politics of the U.S.A. -which leaves people without the equivalent of our NHS. The pre-cursor of the NHS, which academics (in Social Policy) see as a causal factor, was World War 2. (When a country is called to fight a mass war, the legitimacy of the war is affected by how the nation addresses it's own inequalities in health & political power).

A successful social movement has certain characteristics, and my efforts are directed at supporting “the happiness movement” to develop the necessary organisational and political awareness. The danger for “the Happiness Movement” at this time is rightly identified as our being used as pawns in David Cameron's game, or that of any other political leader.

With my background over 20 years being in “restorative justice” and related work, I recognise the importance of a cause that benefits all being forwarded in a way that is not party political. My monitoring of the progress of Restorative Justice in the UK ever since I became Head of Restorative Justice at Mediation UK (in 2001) and invited by Tony Blair to 10, Downing St to be thanked in 2004 for my work on behalf of victims of crime, is that all three main political parties, and the Greens, can take credit for their support for this communication between victims, offenders and communities that improves public safety.

In the favelas in Brazil, my friend Dominic Barter has been one of the world's top "radical innovators", as lauded by NESTA, the “National Endowment for Science, Technology & The Arts”) [http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/reports/assets/features/radical_efficiency] . In Brazil, the challenge has been to unite more polarised state departments (from the left-wing Ministry of Education to the militarised and right-wing Ministry of Justice) behind the “restorative circles” social policy. The left have bought into these restorative processes on the basis that they place attention on the social causes of crimes; the language being that “some people have fewer choices on the menu” when they want money, influence etc & this contributes to violent crime. The right have bought into the development of these restorative processes as alternatives to court processes on the basis that “restorative circles” emphasise personal responsibility. Thus, though “the menu” in the favelas may be experienced by one who lives in a hut sliding down a muddy-hillside as limited, the individual who choses to pick up a gun to address their sense of inequity is still responsible for the choice made, and the wider community can hold that person to account more effectively than courts usually do.

I live & work as a Community Mediator [http://mediationsupport.info]/ Community Development Worker/ Action for Happiness Activist in the 19^th most deprived town in the UK; and St Leonards is even worse-off than it's neighbour, Hastings, with whom this figure is compiled. There is a major challenge that the St Leonards Sharing Consortium has taken on in embarking on “truth, reparation and reconciliation work” in the wake of the burning of the local pier. This work is part of restorative justice work that seeks to avert riots like those experienced in more major urban areas of social exclusion. The challenge is “How to build common ground between people across the range of geographic/socio-economic and interest-based communities in a town and it's hinterland?”

In constantly re-asking this question and finding many different ways to work on that agenda, I get much encouragement from Dominic Barter, in Brazil, heralding “Action for Happiness” work as a way for someone as politically reticent as some of his older relatives to actually become part of a mass social movement in these crucial transition times of failing economies. (If it's not failing economies across the globe the dominant alternative appears to be models of economic growth that short-change the chances of survival for much of human kind.)

Kindness, in all senses, matters now, more perhaps than it ever has, and we may have more power than ever before to enact it, and to challenge, as the OCCUPY movement has, the manifestation of it's opposite, Greed.

Kindness and Happiness are closely related in ways perhaps too obvious to spell out. One of the “Action for Happiness” slogans is “If you want to feel good, do good”, and my preference is for people to adopt Action 24 from the list of ways of acting for happiness ie Understand Each Others' Needs.

The OCCUPY movement is a response to a crisis that has opened up a large space for creative new thinking. The new economics required for the greatest happiness are (as evidenced by “The Spirit Level”) are economics of greater income equality, and, I would add, sharing of resources. I campaign also as “Lend-It-All Man”, with a personal strapline “Anything I own, you can borrow”. My hope is that humour and thinking creatively about the best way to use all the resources available (irrespective of who believes they own them) begins to engage people either in the light green “Collaborative Consumption”(Botsman) or the deeper green “Collaborative Conservation”, as I call it. Recycling was only stage one, followed by freecycling. Beyond this comes freelending (AKA streetbank.com etc) for releasing an inventory of our possessions to our neighbours and hence building social capital. (how would it be if every time you went to buy something on line, you had an option to check with one-click whether any of your friends, neighbours or others were willing to lend you that thing instead? Is it use of something we want, or ownership? And what are the costs of ownership compared to the costs of borrowing & lending? Alongside this economics of “either a borrower or a lender be” comes timebanking, which values one person's time equally to another and, with skilled brokerage & development, connects us through what we can do for each other.

Timebanking has a radical edge to it in many ways, generating “an informal an unregulated social work system” according to an academic from Bristol Social Policy unit. What I love most about time brokerage (as an alternative currency) is the power of the relationships that can be built up with commercial organisations to release some of their resources for free to the community, and the collective power of the timebank activists to re-allocate surplus value when many people trade a couple of time credits to come to a performance put on by a few, who only get time-credits for the hours they have put in. These excess time-credits can then go to developing a building that serves as a new community hub or some other collectively chosen activity. In Hastings, on the second anniversary of the pier fire, St Leonards Sharing Timebank is putting on the play “Ethical Outings in Hastings” and the the actors and playwright are being paid in time credits for each hour they put in to preparing to share this vision of “a more caring & sharing Hastings & St Leonards”.

If I now jump back 25 or more years, it was in the campaign for nuclear disarmament that I first began to learn the lesson perhaps most valuable to this age; that my well-being is dependent on my active concern for others well-being. My conscience has remained opposed to the holding over a civilian population, at risk to the survival of our species, the threat of nuclear annihilation. Sadly, in the years of my nonviolent direct action in the 1980s, CND became politically marginalised. Though I managed to recruit and retain members from sections of the population who had not previously been political activists, for all my best efforts within the Youth section of the campaign, CND allied itself to tangential left-wing causes (eg the Miners Strike) that lowered the prospects of recruitment from Tory voters.

Hopefully the local Action for Happiness group of which I'm co-ordinator will be more successful as one of many vanguards of a new local economics, sparked partly by the “localism” vs “globalism” of the film “The Economics of Happiness. I hope we succeed in developing the ethic that values peoples time equally (timebanking). I hope that we recognise the importance of of tuning into the needs of others, especially when triggered by behaviours we don't like, not least of whom are those who start the riots! And of course I hope that we act to produce a society that cares enough to maintain (& develop) the best of the Welfare State.

Can national political commentators please see that this is the scale of what is at stake when they attempt to marginalise campaigns for happiness that, if engaged with, can be broadened and deepened to benefit all through collective action. Don't surrender happiness to the political right!

We need to act if we want happiness just as, to cite writing in my local paper “We need to act if we want justice”; social justice. Social justice and happiness are not separate campaigns -they are deeply interlinked.

Paul Crosland

Co-ordinator, Hastings & St Leonards Action for Happiness,

& Co-Director, Freelending CIC

[The above article was sent as a response to Suzanne Moore's article in the February 9th 2012 Guardian