Simon, Conflict & Change volunteer, set up a Community Conversation for unemployed people in partnership with Maeve McGoldrick at Community Links.
This was a dialogue for unemployed people to come and share their story with other people with similar experiences. Five unemployed men came along ranging from teenager to late 50s. Although they were from a range of cultural backgrounds (Black British, white British, Caribbean and Bengali) they were surprised and then fired up by the similarities in the problems and frustrations they faced.
Time was given for each person to share the impact of unemployment and the benefit system on them. Two men expressed that they had very clear aspirations for careers but that they could not get there because of the cost of the training. One man shared about the impact on his family when the short term work contracts ended and he was at home more and levels of family bickering increased. One man experienced hold-ups with his benefits through mistakes that were nothing to do with him and then the serious impact on his family.
One of the aims of this session from Community Links’ point of view was to recruit people to become part of the national “Need not Greed” campaign to bring more flexibility to the benefits system. At the end of the Conversation all 5 men were keen to meet again.
Here are some comments of the participants of what they valued about the meeting: ‘It was enjoyable meeting everybody and nice to talk to people’, ‘Got things of my chest’, ‘everyone has the same point of view and with Community Links we can go that extra step forward to change the job centre. We can do something about it.’
Simon then went on to design and facilitate the second session as a Community Links volunteer. Simon says: ’It was really good to focus on what drives people forward as it is this what will eventually make us succeed. I think that the group gained strength from each others focus on the positive forces in their lives. We did also look at what may be the restraining forces that were holding us back as well. I am really positive that the group can develop into a good source of support for people to get into work.'
This group is continuing to meet at Community Links and is open to anyone in the borough who is unemployed.
