New Government New Honours

Cumbria Life

I’d like to open this blog with some good news and congratulations. Cumbria benefitted from a host of awards in the Queens Birthday Honours and three of them were to people for their contribution to the local community and charities.

One was Captain John Green. I’ve had the pleasure of working with John for many years. John to me epitomises a good citizen, he has a wide range of skills and contacts which he uses to good effect, however he is always modest, humorous and generous in his approach. The second was Norman Stoller for his philanthropic work through the Norman Stoller Charitable Trust. The third person is Juliet Westoll who has been a central figure in the Cumbria Woman of the Year Award for many years. The new Government has great expectations for charities in fixing our problems. One of the things they identify is the role of ‘community organisers’. Well the Cumbria Woman of the Year award has been shining a light on and celebrating the myriad work of wonderful women ‘community organisers’.

With a new government comes some new language. The ‘Big Society’ is one term. In many of Cumbria’s communities I think we already have a ‘big society’ with over 3,500 charities. Another new phrase to become accustomed to is ‘civil society organisation’. I think that’s charities and community and voluntary groups to you and me.

I’ve mentioned ‘community organisers’ and I think this means those fabulous people that have an idea, get off their behinds and make things happen. The Government wants to train a ‘whole new generation’ of ‘community organiser’s’. I’m not sure people can be trained to have the essential fizz that makes them want to do things, but we can encourage those people who stand up and have a go.

People are now beginning to consider the likely effect of major cuts in welfare spending. There’s a strong link between poverty and health, educational attainment and other issues. Cumbria is very diverse and many of our most disadvantaged residents are not readily seen because they either exist in small numbers in rural locations or are found in peripheral communities in Barrow, West Cumbria and Carlisle. Sadly these communities rank alongside the most deprived in the country. How our charities are able to respond to these challenges will be fundamental in the lives of the unemployed, young people, the elderly and disabled.

I’d like to make a plug for a new initiative. The Cumbria Advice Network is a new collaboration with the Citizens Advice Bureau, Carlisle Law Centre and Shelter Cumbria at its heart. The aim of the network is simple, to improve access to information for people in need. In an internet age it’s easy to assume all you need to do is log on and read whatever you need, however complex problems require the ability to sit down with someone and be taken step by step through their issues. It has taken a lot of energy, time and commitment on the part of many people to get this far. To find out more visit www.cumbriaadvicenetwork.org.uk/can/.