Steve begins his talk with the 3 key manifestations of the Big Society.
(1) The Big Society is a political message, therefore it is contested.
Steve says that whilst he is happy to discuss this in more detail with anyone, today is about getting practical.
(2) The Big Society is influencing Government policies - from welfare reform, education reform, to government reform. There is an element of ‘power to the people’ - which some people find hard to believe… Policies are emerging from it; policies that we are not used to. Removing barriers is an overarching theme behind the Big Society. There are lots of initiatives emerging on the back of it too (for example the National Citizen Service)
(3) The Big Society Network. This is a start up business, created by a small group of people. It does not rely on Government funding, it stands alone from the Government. The BSN is focused on looking at how we can create conditions that help people join together, to make civil society better.
Steve provides the group with an update on the BSN: ‘We are developing a formal business plan. We are currently fundraising - seeking funding from individuals, organisations, and groups of people who believe in it and want to help’.
Another aspect is the service that is being developed as part of it - ‘Your Square Mile’ (YSM). ’We are consulting widely on a range of services that this might include but the idea is that it will aggregate simple tools that will help people to come together in communities ‘for good’. We don’t yet know what they will be - we do not wish to be prescriptive as that would compromise the idea. We see YSM as a convenor of ideas that will come… from anyone. From you in this room’.
‘My question to you is, what are the services we could develop? can you help identify that today over the next few hours?’
6 Comments
Additional ideas welcome…
We’re a development organisation, a social enterprise active over the past decade in Eastern Europe to leverage investment for disenfranchised communities. We began by sourcing a microfinance initiative in Russia and have since been active in Ukraine where work has influenced changes in childcare policy and deployment off affordable broadband by making the case for both social and economic returns.
As you may see from our work we’re an organisation entirely focussed on joining people together to make society better with a decade of practical international experience.
We fund our profit-for-purpose business as a software developer from revenue earned in both private and public sector.
Rather tha creating a start up company for the BSN why doesn’t BS engage with social enterprise like ours who need work to continue what they’re already doing?
Hi Jeff - as someone working with BSN (thought not speaking on behalf of) my understanding is the the network is keen to work with other enteprises and organisations, but does have to “own” its core business. The ultimate aim of the Your Square Mile element of BSN is to create a mutual with millions of members (I’ve blogged lots on socialreporter). Great to have your enthusiastic interest, and there may well be opportunities, but a bit further down the line. Hope that helps.
Hi David, Naturally it’s our own core business that concerns me too and the business plan which it owns.
In this context I noticed you’d picked up on a village broadband solution today and thought you might be interested to know that one of my aims is similar. In this case local wimax as a social enterprise with surplus revenue funding a skills development and business incubator location. That function I discover from the ongoing Unltd survey I read today is regarded as most needed by social enterprises who’ve participated.
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/news/Jeff-s-community-centre-vision-village-eyesore/article-1482123-detail/article.html
You asked in your tweet whether it could be replicated. I can answer most definitely having produced a business plan to replicate across Europe in 2004 and for surplus revenue to be invested in CDFIs and other microeconomic development activity against poverty.
Based on technology available at the time, while BT were still prevaricating over rural exchanges, it could do with some updating.
http://www.box.net/shared/y3tpik8eg6
The community investment business model on which this is based was conceived by P-CED in 1996, nearly a decade before the arrival of the CIC.
We were perhaps ahead of our time, finding no interest at all from social funders, such as ICOF and Triodos.
We’ve persevered however, transferring mssion activities to Ukraine where 4 years ago we delivered a microeconomic strategy paper to government which included national scale rollout of affordable broadband and social enterprise.
From Stanford University I’m given an opportunity that has not existed over the last 6 years in the UK, to describe the impact of our efforts in the context of leveraging liberation technologies. This is ‘soft power’ advocacy, with the aim of encouraging support from the US on the same scale as then being spent weekly in Iraq.
https://www.stanford.edu/group/sdg/cgi-bin/dev/liber/?q=node/239
This for us in the final analysis is about changing the lives of those most disenfranchised and what we do in our area of operation requires some tenacity, not least when we are threatened and libelled for our efforts.
We’ve made a clear case for placing children in the protection of a family to break the vicious cycle of poverty and that’s now endorsed by major childcare organisations.
It is why we now turn around on Big Society and ask for a demonstration of commitment . Being marginalised as a pioneering social enterprise has taken a toll on income, family and health but that pales into irrelevance when measured against our cause.
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/the_abandoned_children_of_ukraine
I want to know more about BSN - is it a bunch of blokes - huddling around the possibility of money to do what they want - or genuine people wanting change?
Hi EO - I can only speak for myself. Yes I’m a bloke (can’t change that), and as a freelance have to put bread on the table … but my main motivation is change using social media. More on me here socialreporter. Hope you don’t mind me asking … but what lies behind “EO”?