Have you lost or found
FAITH IN THE BIG SOCIETY?
FAITH IN ACTION
John Devine
Churches’ Officer for the North West
North West Forum of Faiths
St Cuthbert’s Church, Preston
Friday 25th March.
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Reading the Zeitgeist
•Civil Society
•Social Capital
•Faith Dividend?
•Third Sector Delivery
•Big Society
•Cuts!!!!!
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Where do we locate Faith?
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Equality and Diversity
Faith as one of six strands
Faith as code for BME & Race
Any room for Christian Churches?
Blurred distinction between faith based
organisations and local worshipping
communities. Most of the social capital is
in the latter.
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Bias against faith?
In many cases faith groups... will be the
strongest around and yet their potential
may be overlooked by funders and others
engaged in programmes of community
development. There can be a tendency
not to see beyond the ‘faith’ label to the
community role of these groups. (Home
Office, Policy Action Team on Community
Self Help, 1999)
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‘Faith and Community: A good practice guide for
local authorities’ (LGA, February, 2002)
• Councils must work with all sections of their local
community, including the whole spectrum of the
voluntary and community sector. Faith groups
are an important part of that spectrum, although
this fact has not always been recognised by
public authorities, or indeed faith groups
themselves (1.1)
• Faith communities may sometimes be the best
means of reaching those in need within their
faith community and sometimes those in the
wider community. (3.2)
• It is therefore important to ensure that they are
properly consulted in the development of local
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strategies and services. (1.2)
‘Faith and Community: A good practice guide for
local authorities’ (LGA, February, 2002)
• Most local authorities have some experience in the
field of race relations and in dealing with equal
opportunities issues, but the focus of this present
publication is on religious identity rather than
ethnic identity (1.5)
• Guidance makes clear that faith communities have a
part to play in the relevant processes and structures,
such as local strategic partnerships and
Neighbourhood Management (4.7)
• If there is little or no religious diversity a relationship
with the main faith community – likely to be the
Christian church structure – will still be important. It
will key into a faith community that plays a valuable
role as a support and often a focal point for the life 6
of local people (3.9)
‘Faith and Community: A good practice guide for
local authorities’ (LGA, February, 2002)
• Among the typical resources which faith communities and
local inter-faith structures can offer as part of the voluntary
and community sector are local networks, leadership and
management capacity, buildings with potential community
use, and volunteers. (3.4)
• It should not be assumed, however, that the necessary skills,
knowledge and capacity are present in either all local faith
communities or in public agencies. (4.7)
• Both central government and many local authorities now
accept the validity and value of funding services and activities
run by faith groups. Some will argue that this is justified only if
the services and activities are open to all regardless of their
faith. Others will argue that a service or activity, even if
targeted at those within a faith community, can
nevertheless be assessed in terms of its public and
community benefit and a case for public funding can therefore
be made. (5.1)
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‘Working Together: Co-operation between
Government and Faith Communities’
Home Office, Faith Communities Unit, 2004
• “Conversations with faith groups will now become
a much more normal part of doing business in
Britain, just as normal as consultation with
business or trades unions. They will see that they
have influence, otherwise why should they bother
to put energy into doing it?” (Fiona Mactaggart,
Home Office Junior Minister)
• “Recognise that capacity is a key issue and
consider allocating resources to allow faith
community bodies, which may lack infrastructure
or resources, to participate fully in consultations.”
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A new role for faith
communities?
• Previous government may have appeared
ambivalent on faith at times but there have
always been opportunities to do business.
• Pockets of resistance to faith within some LA’s postcode lottery
• Positive rhetoric from Coalition Govt on faith.
• What’s new in the Big Society for faith
communities?
• As challenging to faith based organisations as to
the rest of the voluntary sector
• Where’s the bacon?
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‘If it can’t be measured it
doesn’t exist’
• stories v statistics
• what is the added value faith brings?
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Previous Research – Faith in
England’s Northwest, 2003
• 100% survey of places of worship of 9
major world faiths
• 2001 census records religious identity of
individuals
• 54% resp - 68.9% Sikh, 53% Jewish, 50%
Baha’i, 43% Moslem, 39% Hindu
• No extrapolation!
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Faith as Social Capital
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presence matches population density
strongest in areas of highest social need
activities other than worship***
resource rich but cash poor
strength in volunteers and buildings
ready made network for service delivery
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Economic Impact Assessment,
2005
• £90.7m - £94.9m per annum
• Not including faith based organisations
• Nor schools (46% primary, 28% secondary
in the NW)
• Nor procurement and employment (NHS?)
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Faith in England’s Northwest: how
faith communities contribute to
social and economic well being
(NWDA 2009)
• Based on research undertaken by the
Change Institute for the Churches’ Officer
for the North West
• Supported by the Northwest Regional
Development Agency, the lead RDA on
faith issues nationally
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Purpose of this Research
To examine in further detail:
• Why faith groups become involved in social action
• How their activity fits with wider public policy agendas
• Whether they bring anything distinctive
• How faith groups operate and their diversity of
organisational structures
• The high levels of social capital that they generate
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To draw out key messages on the relationship between
public bodies and faith groups
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Twelve Case Studies
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Different faith backgrounds
Different types of activity
Different locations
Large and small
Research conducted by the Change Institute
between December 2008 and February 2009
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Individual Projects I
Building Bridges Burnley:
• Inter-faith
• Better understanding between different faiths;
celebrating diversity; promotion of social
cohesion
Catholic Children’s Society, Halton:
• Christian – mental health needs of children &
young people
• In partnership with Halton Emotional Health &
Wellbeing Partnership
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Individual Projects II
Cumbria Reducing Offending Partnership Trust
(CROPT):
• Ecumenical Christian - Support for offenders in
the community
• Reduce re-offending; employment skills
ExChange Blackburn:
• Anglican/Muslim - Cathedral based
• Community cohesion through public dialogue,
exhibitions, workshops & outreach activity
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Individual Projects III
Faiths4Change:
• Anglican/Multi-faith; Liverpool/Regional
• neighbourhood environmental projects; climate
change & skills development
Gujurat Hindu Society, Preston:
• Hindu; 2nd largest in the UK
• Religious, cultural and social activity – facilities
widely used by wider community & public
agencies
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Individual Projects IV
Manchester Jewish Museum:
• Former Synagogue - Educational project
• Young people & adults learning about
Jewish culture & social history
Al-Hilal Community Project:
• Khizra Mosque, Cheetham Hill, M/C
• Needs of Muslim community; building
bridges across faith communities
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Individual Projects V
Oaks House, Skelmersdale:
• Christian: new Anglican church in a deprived
community
• Engagement with Surestart, schools and
Skelmersdale Food Initiative
Rainbow Haven, Manchester:
• Christian (URC) & East Manchester Community
Association
• Working with individuals and communities at risk
of social exclusion
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Individual Projects VI
Sikh Community Centre, Liverpool:
• Religious and social needs of Sikh community
• Partnership with statutory services & community
outreach
St Luke’s: The Art Project, Manchester:
• Christian (CofE)
• Artist in residence working with people with
emotional & mental health needs
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Organisational Characteristics I
• Volunteers ‘We are always wearing two hats, we all
muck in with the day to day work of the centre’
• Wider Institutional Structures: ability to call on
contacts for information & expertise at a city-wide,
regional or even national level
• Lack of hierarchy: ‘a big heart and an awful lot of
passion, you can hear it, you can feel it’ – high levels of
commitment & collective ownership enable greater
responsiveness to emerging needs
• Charismatic Individuals: ‘I have so much respect for
her...she will go down as a legend in Runcorn’
• Management Boards: bring crucial knowledge of public
structures and professional experience; reflect diversity
but can perpetuate generation gap and be predominantly
male led
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Organisational Characteristics II
• Community Leadership: ‘If an issue is affecting
the community then we will hold meetings with
all sorts of personal networks and extended
networks to other organisations too’ - well
positioned to take on issues that raise
apprehensions in wider society
• High trust levels from beneficiaries: ‘It’s a
dream service and [I] wish everyone had a
service like this’
• Enduring commitment: their longstanding local
presence gives credibility
• Sharing Public Policy Priorities: ‘We have
effectively been doing Every Child Matters for
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years’
Developing Social Capital?
• ‘We felt honoured that people came to the mosque and
so they felt a responsibility to come to the Cathedral in
return. Imams encouraged people at Friday prayers to
go to the Cathedral. This would have been a big no-no in
the past.’
• ‘We trust people at this centre because we have been
coming here for a long time. You get ‘himat’
(strength/confidence) from knowing there is a safe place
to get help from. But not just any organisation, this is the
one we have come to trust, not all temples are the
same.’
• ‘All social barriers are coming down whilst we are here.
You wouldn’t normally see a little old lady talking to a
Goth.’
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• ‘We’re not church goers but it didn’t really matter.’
Is ‘faith’ a problem?
Partners in local authorities or other public
bodies clearly judged faith based projects on the
service they give irrespective of their faith
identity:
‘The way I look at it, they are a third sector
organisation like any other group. It is a level
playing field; faith doesn’t come into it. They
never bring it into it and it is not mentioned in the
contract. They are just there to achieve
outcomes’
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What challenges are identified?
• As well as the challenges of capacity, resources,
governance and management of volunteers
common to all VCS organisations, faith groups
face additional challenges.
• While the value of faith groups has been
recognised by a number of government
departments and agencies, this is not universally
the case.
• Public bodies may be concerned about the
motivations and values of faith groups; about
potential proselytising or views that are out of 29
line with public policy.
Challenges contd.
• Even where public bodies are linking with faith
groups it may be in a very limited way, confined
to particular topics instead of recognising the full
breadth of their activities.
• Faith groups may fear either collusion with
agendas they do not fully support or being
overwhelmed or forced to compromise their
standards if they enter into partnership or
contractual relationships.
• The lack of ability on both sides to communicate
with one another properly; they may use
different vocabularies to express their aims and
objectives; they may value different sorts of
skills; they may have different ways of
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measuring success.
Conclusions
• Faith organisations represent a powerful community
resource with a deep reach into communities,
particularly to the most marginalised groups
• In order for their contribution to social and economic
well being to move forward, public bodies need to
recognise the contribution they make to a wide
range of public policy outcomes and acknowledge
them as legitimate partners
• Faith communities need to ensure they have
effective representation within inter-faith groups in
order to influence statutory bodies effectively and
adopt a “service delivery” approach to working
• Where faith groups are working successfully with
public bodies, the groups are seen as credible and
valued partners who can develop constructive and 31
long lasting working relationships
Why work with faith
communities?
• Volunteers and Buildings
• Sustainability – motivation & stickability
• ‘ready made’ infrastructure for delivery to
hard to reach
• Value for money
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Challenges for faith
communities?
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End of grant mentality
Understanding partnership working
Transparency, accountability & equality
Capacity?
Just getting used to this way of working when
funding stops.
Do we want to follow the funding? (Any willing
provider?)
Big Society = We are on our own?
He who pays the piper calls the tune....
New models for survival?
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New Ways of Working?
‘Local Lend a Hand’ –First Time Buyers
• Councils put 20% of price in bank account
• Funds will not go to the buyer
• Councils risk losing money if a buyer defaults but get a
generous interest rate themselves
‘The Faiths in Social Finance Bonds’
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500 London faith community congregations give or
commit a one off investment of £500 pa
Lump sum, fundraising event, monthly s/o, Gift Aid etc
Small grants to community bodies for projects onmental
health, older people, vulnerable young adults
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devinej@hope.ac.uk
www.faithnorthwest.org.uk
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