Gatekeepers of Support

It’s a Friday too! Today I’m thinking about power over and agency. I’ll tell you why.  GM Poverty Action have produced a toolkit, called MART, one for each of the Greater Manchester boroughs. I don’t really know what I was expecting when I opened the attachment a week or two ago, but it turned out to be a list of organisations and phone numbers that might be able to help people during these difficult times. What I found really interesting was the email that accompanied the toolkit, which advised people not to give it directly to members of the community. Something to use ‘with’ someone rather than ‘by’ the person themselves.

Obviously, I ignored that and posted it on our community Facebook page, pinning it to featured items so that people can easily find it if they need it. There was a bit of blurb accompanying the Facebook post, offering a friendly ear if anyone wanted to chat about anything, and, reminding people of the social spaces in the community. I was puzzled about the do not share directive. Perhaps I should ask?  Maybe services are frightened of overwhelm? Maybe support services are measured by signposting to other services and need to keep a tab?

Anyway, what I’m really interested in, is the stories I’m hearing from women in the community who are telling me that men in the community have been looking at it and acting on it by ringing some of the numbers on there. There’s a range of numbers from gambling, feeling mentally well, drugs and alcohol and debt.

That made me think about power over and agency. I’m definitely glad we posted it in the group. Imagine the possible ripple effect if people have good experiences of asking for help themselves.