The Community Development Podcast

In this episode, Russell is joined by President of the International Association of Community Development (IACD) Anna Clarke to discuss its mission, work and networks.

In particular, recorded while the COP26 climate emergency summit was being held in Glasgow, Anna discusses how the IACD is addressing climate change as an issue of social justice.

You can join IACD here.

The forthcoming IACD book International Community Development Practice is available in hardback, paperback, and e-book formats on Routledge to buy here.

You can support this podcast by becoming a patron at its Patreon page. Click on the logo below.

In November 2020 an online article found its way to me by Associate Editor at Peace, Land and Bread, Christian Noakes called ‘Displacement of the Dispossessed: Community Development Under Capitalism’.

The way it deconstructed gentrification and its lexicon, re-presenting it to be the pernicious and insidious process it is is remarkable. It’s a must read for anyone who looks around them, particularly in urban areas (though not confined to them), and is frustrated at the abundance of bland, unimaginative, speculative development they see, and in particular for anyone who feels they have a diminishing, what David Harvey calls, ‘right to the(ir) city’.

In this episode Russell is joined by Rob Ashelford, Head of Nesta Cymru, upon the release of a report into the extent of data poverty in Wales and Scotland published by Nesta and Y Lab based in Cardiff, Wales.

The report Data Poverty in Wales and Scotland reveals a stark picture for as many as 1 million people in Wales and Scotland – 1 in 7 of the adult population – who lack sufficient data to meet basic digital needs, that in turn can widen inequality, aggravate disadvantage and hinder people’s access to information to allow them to play a fuller part in society and their community.

The report cautions against merely ‘throwing’ data at people and instead taking a more nuanced look at what data needs people have. Community Development potentially plays a key role in uncovering the nuance required: by facilitating collective and communal responses (such as buying data in bulk); providing free access to those experiencing data poverty; and advocating on behalf of those experiencing data poverty.

You can follow Y Lab on Twitter at @ylabwales and on LinkedIn at @y-lab-wales , and Nesta at @Nesta_uk

Back in June for episode #25 Russell caught up with Helen Griffiths and David Clague from St Mellons in east Cardiff to explore how they we adapting to life under the lockdown and how they were adapting their community development activity to address challenges that had emerged.

Russell and Helen – who works with Hope St Mellons – kept in touch and caught up again to have a socially-distant chat in the garden of their community house to see what had happened in the intervening period.

Hendre Lake by Peter Manly, St Mellons

Back in February 2016 Joseph Rowntree Foundation published the report Breaking the Links Between Ethnicity and Poverty in Wales by Duncan Holtham (from the People and Work Unit), Anna Nicholl and Chris Johnes.

At the time Russell was developing podcasts for the Communities First workforce in Wales as learning resources and Duncan joined him to record a brief overview of the report’s findings to help inform the workforce of issues around ethnicity.

Complementing this, two Communities First workers outlined some of the practical ways in which they involve people from black and minority ethnic (BAME) communities:

* Allan Herbert, then working for South Riverside Community Development Centre in Riverside in Cardiff* Peter Beynon, then working for Swansea City Council in and around the city centre

Given the recent #BlackLivesMatter campaign, the economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic, and the disproportionate mortality rates to the virus experienced by BAME populations, the findings are a sober reminder of the work to do in Wales, and elsewhere, to tackle discrimination and inequality and the particularly corrosive impact they have where they intersect.

Each participant has given their consent for the episode to be made available again.

In the second part of a series looking at how Community Development is adapting to and tackling issues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Russell chats first with Chris Johnes from Building Communities Trust (BCT) in Wales about how they are helping to bring to government’s attention the stories from communities about how the pandemic is affecting people.

Russell then chats with two people involved with one of BCT’s 13 areas across Wales, St Mellons in the east of Cardiff: Helen Griffiths from Hope St Mellons and David Clague a local pastor. They talk about some of the things that they’ve been involved in locally to help ease the isolation, loneliness and poor mental health that the lockdown has caused including distributing activity packs to children, starting a community diary and, in partnership with The Message Trust, inviting Father Christmas to visit St Mellons on his sleigh! You can also follow Hope St Mellons on Twitter.

Bethania Church FB: Bethania-Church-819245558136000Rumney Coronavirus Support Group FB: https://www.volunteercardiff.co.uk/rumney-coronavirus-support-group/

To learn more about why Russell has started The Community Development Podcast read this blog.

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If you would like to support The Community Development Podcast you can become a patron at its Patreon site.

Nick Andrews from the Wales School for Social Care Research at Swansea University, joins the podcast for the first time to discuss his work to bring research and practice together in social care systems.

Nick’s training and background is as a community social worker and is a disciple of the Most Significant Change methodology that emphasises the value of storytelling and importance of giving people voice about what matters to them in social care settings. It’s a methodology that is just as applicable, I believe, to community development, and I can point to two community organisations near to where I’m based in south Wales that use it.

Nick also convenes the Small Is Beautiful network of small grassroots ‘disruptors’ and organisations in Wales that includes Action In Caerau and Ely (who joined for podcast #14), Solva Care and Kim Inspire.

During lockdown Russell reached out to the Community Development fraternity across the world to invite it to share its experiences of supporting communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Part 1 of this Community Development and Covid-19 series visits Bangor in north Wales and Winnipeg in Canada and reveals community development responses to the pandemic from contrasting scales: the local and the strategic.

In Maesgeirchen, Bangor, grassroots community-led action has been focusing on meeting people’s essential needs. We hear from the local elected member, Dylan, and the co-ordinator from a local substance abuse charity, James, who are providing additional capacity to the tremendous community effort.

Finally, we hear how Jess Silvester from MaesNi, the local steering group for the Invest Local initiative in Maesgeirchen (often known colloquially as “MaesG”), has been co-ordinating efforts, despite enforced isolation.

In Winnipeg, Manitoba Michael Barkman from The Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet), provides examples of community and social enterprise responses to the pandemic in his province. Michael’s work in Manitoba is shaped and driven by a desire and need to de-colonise Canadian society, and from this perspective he provides a sober reminder that though Covid-19 might be indiscriminate in who it infects, its impact is experienced unequally along quite stark racial, gender, age, class and socio-economic lines.

He talks about how, despite the (hyper)local responses happening on the ground, his strategic role as a policy co-ordinator is requiring him to capture these stories of grassroots capacity, inequality, and resilience; continue to advocate for communities; and to push back against some of the dis-enabling provincial government responses to the pandemic in Manitoba.

Russell is joined by Sharon Sweeney, from the University of Dundee’s student finance team who has recently finished a Masters degree, as part of which Sharon completed a dissertation on the role of social prescribing in patient primary care in Scotland.

Sharon provides a simple ‘primer’ of what socisal prescribing is and what sort of activities it undertakes, with a particular focus on how it is being deployed in Scotland and her home city of Dundee. They also discuss the extent to which social prescribing can, and needs to, move beyond supporting individual needs and aspirations and can draw on community development to take collective forms of action to tackle health inequalities.

Recorded during Covid-19 lockdown in the UK, they consider what might social prescribers’ experiential learning and reflection be seeking to capture during the pandemic.

Sharon suggests following the CLD Standards Council Scotland on Twitter and this further reading should people wish to know more:

Braddeley, B, Somalingham, S, Cooper, M (2015) Social Prescribing in general practice InnovAit, 06, 1-3.

Cawston, P, Social Prescribing in very deprived areas, British Journal of General Practice, May 2011, p.350.

NHS Tayside Connect to Local Support, https://www.nhstayside.scot.nhs.uk/OurServicesA-Z/ALISS/index.htm.

Whitelaw, S et al (2016) Developing and implementing a social prescribing initiative in primary care, Primary Health Care Research and Development, 201; 19:112-121.

In this podcast Russell chats via skype to Mark McFeeters, Lecturer on Ulster University’s Community Youth Work degree, and Lauren McAreavey, a third year undergraduate on the course.

Among other things they discuss:

* how youth work is distinct from other forms of work/contact with young people* the importance of reflection in youth work* the value external placements bring to the academic training and learning for trainee youth workers

Mark also explains the motive behind setting up the excellent Critical Voice NI website (@criticalvoiceni) which is a relatively new virtual space promoting and developing youth work research, writing and thinking for Northern Ireland. The community and youth work sectors in the UK and Ireland need more sites like it.