Powering a new future

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.”

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.”

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.

Ben Metz, UK director of Ashoka, which support social entreprenuers, dropped by the social reporting newsdesk before his session. We invited him to give us a preview - and he explained how he and others aim to promote the idea of social innovation and entrepreneurship during the next few years of European funding programmes.

Ben wants to more of the grassroots people-centred approaches prevalant in the UK, and light-touch funding support with less paperwork. More passion, less paper, Ben hopes.

Catharina, of Alpkvist AB, talked to me about her work on gender issues in Sweden, where she worked with the government on gender mainstreaming. She talks about the challenges of making sure that the governor took ownership of the problems and of challenging middle management about these issues.

Catharina also inspired me with the story of some work with the elderly, where the government came to see that the work of women (cooking and tidying up) is subsidized by local authorities, whereas work like paying bills and fixing the electricity is not subsidized. This means that men are getting help for an absent woman, but women are not helped for an absent man. And the answer is a political one.

You can see a slideshow of her mentoring programme on leadership here.

Susana Neto was impressed with Videoboo - and other online communication tools - when I recorded an interview about more interactive communication for the Urban Knowledge Network, so I invited Susana to record a message to her colleagues in the project about how it might be used.

More here about using Videoboo for social reporting

Susana Neto explains the work of the Urban Knowledge Network, and says that she feels the time has come for more collaborative and interactive methods of communication.
In Portugal the network is piloting a community of practice, with help from Bev Trayner.

Both Olwen Lyner and Hugh Cassidy are working on projects to help people get back into employment - Olwen with ex-prisoners and Hugh with people with disabilities. They found some differences in the barriers, but alo many similarities.