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March 2013 |
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Workshop sessions
Francis also underlined the importance of mutual support and inspiration, and
urged delegates to make the most of sharing ideas and networking. To illustrate this he
quoted George Bernard Shaw: ‘If you have an apple and I have an apple and we
exchange apples then you and I will still have one apple. But if you have an idea and I
have an idea and we exchange ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.’
Robert Hickson of the London User Forum commented on the progression of service
user involvement. ‘In London we now have weekend services provided by the service
user organisations,’ he said. ‘Do you not think it’s about time the service user groups
took the next logical step, turning into service user providers?’
Agreeing with the need for activism, Francis stressed the value of fresh ideas and
individuality: ‘Is what you want to do new? Will it make a difference? If not, what’s
the point?’
For Yarwood and many of the delegates present, the overriding message was of
optimism and self-belief, which in turn would become valuable to the group: ‘You can
get better, you can recover and you can become an asset,’ he said.
*****
‘USE YOUR PASSIONS’
Apply your skills to overcome barriers was the advice offered to
attendees of the employment and enterprise workshop
Turn your experiences – both good and bad – into something you can use to overcome
barriers to employment or starting your own business, said Amar Lodhia of The Small
Business Consultancy (TSBC), in a workshop chaired by Danny Morris.
By outlining his journey, from a troubled teen with substance misuse issues through
to his successful business career, Lodhia explained how his social enterprise aimed to give
service users the practical tools they needed to start up their own business.
Stabilise your environment before trying to progress any further, he advised. ‘Can
you imagine being homeless, battling a drug addiction, and then trying to set up a
business? It’s pretty much nigh on impossible because you’ve got day-to-day survival
needs.’ Working from a stable foundation, using positive role models and incentives
and mapping out the whole journey gave the ingredients to ‘reduce the gap between
aspiration and opportunity’ and create a recipe for success.
Danny Morris raised the issue of stigma, highlighting that it was one of the biggest
obstacles for service users to overcome when trying to get back into employment.
‘When you are labelled, there is stigma – they put you in a box,’ said Lodhia. Service
users looking to get back into employment or set up their own business needed to
‘think outside the box’ to get ahead of other candidates. By using the skills that they
already possessed, such as innovation and creativity, those who were passionate
enough could edge out the competition by offering a different perspective to
potential employers.
Just as importantly, a big part of getting people back into work was about ‘bringing
the three forces together – business, government and entrepreneurs,’ he said. Smaller
businesses were not constrained by the same rules as larger businesses and were much
more likely to handpick employees and spot talent in unlikely places, so TSBC worked
with them to help them think differently about employing service users.
For service users and employers alike, the task was to find a way around the
processes standing in the way of progress, said Lodhia. One delegate pointed out the
importance of taking risks in this process: ‘I’ve worked nearly all of my life in the
public sector, and I’m incredibly risk averse – but risk can be a really positive thing if
treated in the right way.’
The barrier of illiteracy was also discussed and Lodhia suggested that, rather than
seeing a roadblock, the important thing was to learn new skills and link them together.
Finding routes around obstacles was essential problem-solving – for instance TSBC had
devised a phone app to create a CV without the need for PC access, and there were tools
on their website to help with creating business plans. ‘Not being able to read or write is
not a huge barrier in business,’ he said. ‘There are always ways around things like that.’
Viewing the whole process as a journey was key to success, said Lodhia. ‘Map things
out – start with a simple business plan, which is the first thing the Jobcentre will ask for
when using their enterprise facilities.’ The plan should be simple, he said, using seven
steps to success that showed what the idea was, the reason behind it, where it would
start, who would be involved, when it would begin and what research you had done.
‘Crucially, don’t just sit around and plan – get up and do it, he said. ‘If you’re
passionate about it, that’s half the battle won.’
DDN
‘Crucially, don’t just sit around and
plan – get up and do it... If you’re
passionate about it, that’s half the
battle won.’
AMAR LODHIA,
employment and enterprise workshop