Community Disengagement

To Dearne Valley again today after meeting yesterday with so e of the civic partners in the regeneration work that is going on there. They were a splendid bunch of people but had the usual allergic reaction when I mentioned whether any of the churches had got involved. Someone in the group that I was in mentioned the considerable land and facilities still held through the miners’ welfare organisations but it was noticeable that they were left out of any plenary discussions. This was a strategic meeting of key partners and I guess that’s the role of government to represent the community at this kind of a thing.
I have a niggling worry with it, that somehow it disempowers people that they are only included in delivery not in strategy. On my travels I have marvelled at the way in which communities and in particular faith groups in other parts of the world have taken on responsibility for anything form feeding the poor to running welfare to work schemes but the one nettle I have not taken on board yet is the fact that in order for this to happen, government has to get smaller.
We’ve seen this work in schools where successive governments in recent years have left more and more to governors; although it’s interesting that in recent times they appear to be rolling some of that back. It has also led to tensions as to who exactly a school is run for… of course the children are the immediate beneficiaries but other significant stakeholders are parents, businesses and the local community.
I can’t help it, but I can’t help falling back into this word partnerships. I have seen that it is possible to create community partnerships of great sophistication in Adelaide, could we not do that here, so that we have a partnership again between governments and the communities they serve… to help develop the very people we serve as we work alongside each other.