The Common Good

I’ve been mulling over something that happened the other day and a conversation that I had with another community member a while ago.

We were at Wellgood socials and a community member who holds a position of power came in and noticed two of the younger women who are contributing their skills to the community sat with a retired youth worker. She was coaching them and helping them think about the community play sessions that they are planning.

The first thought of the person in a position of power was that this youth work woman was ‘poaching’ the women they had ‘poached’ from the Wellgood. (The irony made me smile!). The person in a position with some power attached to it, wanted them to ‘work for them, and be a member of their group.

It also made me think about another person from the community who is being questioned by their faith group when they get involved in more general community work. They are trying to get the faith group members to see the need to look outwards and have a wider vision, but it’s tricky and a challenge.

It’s a common problem I suppose when community members are seen as customers or consumers. That lends itself to wanting to recruit to a faith group, political party or even a project in order to prove demand for more.

The first thought of many can be, will this person be good for ‘my group’ a ‘champion’ for my service?

What might happen if we were less territorial, less interested in our own agendas and more interested in the common good?

This year in the neighbourhood we want to grow opportunities for the different groups to come together, for the common good. To get to know more people who are not like them, as the Camerados say. Developing the website has been the first step in that. Seeking to invite the different groups across the neighbourhood to begin sharing what they offer together.

The insights from the initial development evaluation are already revealing that that’s happening. More people are getting to know different kinds of people.

‘I never thought I’d be sat here talking to someone like you. If we were in the pub together, we probably wouldn’t say hello.’

And perhaps too, it’s now time to begin to bring the very local civic leaders together, in community, with each other to break some bread and start some small group conversations exploring how we might contribute to the problems we complain about. And the possibilities that might emerge if we could get over ourselves.

It’s hoped that an organising circle will form from this year. We already have the basis of this, we’ve been growing it from the grassroots out. We hope that this will mean that when we widen it to those who currently hold some power in the community, perhaps with easier access to funds, or the keys to buildings, we are inviting them into a different way of being and doing, for the common good.

After all…

The earth was made to be a common treasury for all.

Image from Radical Tea Towel Company of Gerrard Winstanley of The True Levellers or ‘Diggers’ movement