Be More Pirate – Re-Write the Rules

You may remember that I wrote a while ago about us ignoring the advice of the GM Poverty action team when they recommended a toolkit should be used only by professionals. We gave it directly to people, putting information right in their hands. Well we were asked for feedback and we shared what we’d done and some of the things we’d noticed as a consequence when you shift from consumer of service to seeing the function of communities as producers of community life.

We noticed that men prefer not to be seen as needy and that’s echoed in our early insights from the developmental evaluation we’ve started. 

This seems to be true for some of the women in the neighbourhood too, who have taken action for family members, through using the numbers and then working collaboratively with professionals as family units / neighbours. You can see how it’s starting to shift self image – from consumer to producer. Building self esteem, purpose etc 

Low income neighbourhoods often internalise the labels we apply. 

We’re also pretty big fans of the Camerado principles too- if someone needs help, ask them to help you. We’re finding that men prefer to show up with purpose. Pride and working class narratives I suppose. Takes time to create spaces in which we can all step out of the stories we’ve created and internalised 

We are so pleased that we chose to ignore the guidance and equally pleased that in doing so we might see more power placed into the hands of people across Greater Manchester. You often hear the horrendous term, patient activation. Well if we want to cultivate agency, then we need to stop spoon feeding and step into the alongside position. 

And the amazingly good news is that the GM tool folk think we did right by ignoring their advice, and we are going to get together to chat more about it!