I asked Ana Vale, the event coordinator and Head of EQUAL Managing Authority, Portugal how she feels now that everything’s finished.
She looked as happy and tired as she said she was. “I’m very happy. It went well. I’m relieved it’s over. it was very intense, full of stress, very gratifying. The atmosphere between people was very interesting; it was creative and there was a lot of happiness… it’s something not to forget.
“And now I’m going to rest.”
I caught Peter Ramsden, a Commission Expert, as he was leaving and the building was being closed down. He talked about what he took away from this event.
He said that he comes away feeling that although EQUAL has finished, at the same time some of its ideas are living on. The idea of social innovation has taken root. We desperately need to make some of our services work for people
Another feeling he has is that we have to do it ourselves. The next step is to see how people who were passionate in EQUAL can do it systematically, at scale, again and again and again.
Maria Emília Arroz faz parte do Gabinete da Equal Portugal. Perguntei-lhe o que achou do evento. Ao que ela respondeu: foi um evento para celebrar os nossos sucessos dos últimos 8 anos. O evento também era para abrir espaços para conversa. Os próximos passos? Um desafio grande vai ser como segurar “a inovação social” nas futuras actividades.
David Marshall spoke to Richard Tyrie, both of whom are co-founders of Jobsgopublic. Richard, a social entrepreneur himself, was talking in the session about mainstreaming and scaling up social innovation.
David started by asking what he thought of the event…
“It was good to see people with so much passion, people who are genuinely motivated to see the labour market working more effectively.”
What struck you most by what you’ve seen and heard ?
“There were a lot of parallels between the different projects. One of key themes to emerge is the need for innovative solutions, to be creative from the bottom up rather than top-down. It’s an iterative design process. There is no plan, it’s something that has to be co-created. There’s been a fair bit around risk and how to change the attitude to risk and see that failure is a helathy thing…
“What’s been notably absent is the matter of knowledge around talent and the need to understand what talent is required to identify the need for innovation, to create innovation, to deliver innovation and to sustain it over a long term. There seems to be a bit of a blind spot for working in collaborations with various other organisations. Unless someone is responsibile for making sure that that partnership has the right talents, then they are at a disadvantage before they start. There might be several organisations contributing complementary skills.”
Washington told me about Afroreggae in Brasil. I asked him what he was doing here…
“I’m here in the name of the cultural gorup Afroreggae. Afroreggae is a group of social inclusion of art for culture. It started fifteen years ago after one of the biggest police killings. The police were taking revenge on the comunity of a narcotics groups, killing innocent people in the process. We’ve got 14 cultural groups, doing workshops of dance, percussion, circus, working in 4 favelas in Rio de Janeiro. They are areas completely run-down through violence and from being abandoned.”
What do you do in Afroreggae?
“I’m mediator of conflicts in Afroregae. Afroreggae specialises in mediating conflicts, operating in areas of drug traffiking. We live in a daily war between narcotics dealers and between them and the police. We work in this area so that the social spaces and work can continue.”
How did you enter the group of Afroreggae?
“I was in the narcotics trade. I started at the age of thirteen and at nineteen became the head of one of the factions that dominates in Rio de Janeiro. I was put in prison and when I left had no future, almost returning to trafikkking in narcotics. I was introduced to someone in Afroreggae by a vicar who we both knew. He invited me to work with them. At the begining I didn’t think I could. As far as I knew they were about percussion music. But he spent the whole afternoon explaining the concept of Afroreggae, this thing of mediation of taking young people away from narcotics, of giving them opportunities through culture. And me, with my life experience could be a strong weapon for taking young people away from trafikking or stopping them from entering that world. My management of narcotics was, unfortunately, part of my youth. He said that using this experience for good would be a strong weapon for Afroreggae to take children away from trafiiking. Having understood that I actually have a higher education in something I wanted to enter and work, where I’ve been for two years. Just this month we’ve been involved in a project of employability and got 30 young people working in private companies, sensitising them to the work of Afroreggae and who are partners in this project.”
Afroreggae transformed your life?
“Yes, they projected my life and the lives of other people like me who didn’t have any opportunity.”
Paula Vicente talks about people’s dissatisfaction with the lack of information in prison services. They started “Espaço I” (iSpace) where anyone could go for information about what is happening in their prison. going online has been crucial for sharing information between prisons. They started fifteen communities of practice with people working in prisons meeting up face-to-face every fortnight.
Ben Metz, the UK director of Ashoka, talked about the emerging ecology of support for social change and innovation in the UK, providing finance ranging from a few thousands pounds for individuals with a simple innovative idea, through to more substantial investments for more mature, larger organisations.
Ben described the work of Unltd, the Princes Trust, the School for Social Entrepreneurs, Social Innovation Camp, and his own organisation Ashoka. In each case, Ben said:
Success is realised through these organisations by placing the individual, the innovator, the entrpeneur, at the centre of the system and designing things around them.
Ben said the people working in the organisations, had strong personal links, and this was leading to development of a UK community of social innovation.
Earlier: Ben on More passion, less paper for social innovation
Tom Wolff talked about partnerships and collaborative solutions as sparks and catalysts for social change and innovation. He said he understood collaboration to be “doing together that which you cannot do apart”. A more formal definition is:
A collaboration is a group of individuals and organisations with a common interest who agree to work together to a common goal.
The advantage of collaboration is that agencies can provide a rounded solution to problems - but in order to achieve that we need to bring to the table everyone who has a part to play, including those who would benefit. Tom offered six principles of collaboration
Overall, research shows that successful collaborations require a clear vision; actions to get to your goals; broad leadership within the group, not just one leader; technical assistance; resources and also being prepared to work with conflict, not avoid it.
The group SDM BQG has been entertaining us with rap singing. Their lyrics are in Portuguese and talk about the cruel world and cold hearts. But it all turns more positive towards the end. The chorus is an advise to all of us: I can’t change the world but …. I can change one person…
Estes jovens do grupo SDM BQG têm estado a animar os visitantes do evento com as suas canções rap. Os textos falam de uma mudança na maneira de pensar.
Escrevo com sentimento, e abro o coração, e faço ver a todos que tudo tem uma solução.
Vive cada dia e cada dia a aprender.
O mundo é cruel não te deixes perder. Caminhos sem brilho, consciências pesadas julgam tudo e todos. E o mundo de pernas viradas.
Caso não saibas, só tu podes mudar e teu coração frio e a maneira de pensar. … de pensar… de uma forma diferente. De pensar… e agir como gente. Se alguém do bem dá o teu primeiro passo. Ser igual ser diferente, bro -não é esse o caso. Nada muda e um só não faz diferença. Eu falo ao mundo inteiro e mudei a minha cabeça.
O fim é uma lembrança a todos nós: Posso não mudar o mundo… mas mudo uma pessoa…
Allen Mercer, the Commission’s thematic expert for employability, talks about the conclusions of a session with Ana Martins of GPS in Portugal, the UWV Social Security Agency of the Netherlands and Washington Rimas of Afroreggae in Brasil. He reinforced the slogan of many EQUAL beneficiaries:
“Nothing for us without us” or, or in other words, “Don’t do it for us, do it with us.”
He also stressed the importance of involving experts through experience so that people are then seen as part of the solution rather than being regarded as part of the problem.
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