In a previous post I mentioned getting the balance right between being too anti to be attractive (on the one hand) and being too compliant and getting rolled over by the Pillars. I will expand on that a little in this post.
We need to be very clear about our rationale and confident in the value of our model in supporting the Focus Group for the reasons 1 to 3 below. Our leadership skills will be tested in getting funders within State departments (Education, Health and Justice mainly) to believe and not be diverted into simpler, time-limited solutions that don’t work.
1. Considering the enormous cost of criminality to the State (almost too great to calculate) it still seems to be the belief among the Pillars that containment is the only option. Perhaps that is due to the belief that the problem is too great to solve as mentioned already. However it could also be down to age-old rivalry between Departments that have responsibilities in this area – that is, they are so accustomed to conflict that they find the practices that foster true cooperation and partnership difficult.
2. In theory it is tempting to believe that elements within the Pillars should be held accountable, and forced by legislation or other means to support initiatives that would include people who are very poor and disadvantaged. I know of no example where this has worked and it is almost impossible to do in practice. All sorts of reasons can be given (including financial, health and safety, etc.) to resist legislative pressure. Also, when budgets are tight, it is the poor and the most disadvantaged who always suffer.
This has been true as long as Governments exist, probably in every country in the world, and it is unrealistic to think that it might change.
So the thinking that no else will do this – we are going to have to do it for ourselves certainly holds true here.
3. Central to our sharing power model (and also central to saving money in the long term) is the person centred method of working. Despite the huge amount of research positing the benefits of this modality, including the impact of relationship on change, it can be difficult to get statutory funders to believe in it.
The Pillars seem to be determined to reduce problems to bite-size chunks. (This tendency towards reductionist thinking is discussed in many different parts of the website).
When focusing on our rationale, there are a number of other related matters worthy of inclusion.
Firstly, there are many families within the Travelling Community in the Focus Group, who have many if not all of the characteristics described. Getting people to believe that supporting Travellers is good for society, not to mention highlighting their rights is not very popular in Ireland. Travellers are not equally represented or included at any levels in our country. Funders that allocate money to Traveller populations are few and far between.
Martin Luther King’s book Why We Can’t Wait [1] is very relevant here!
Secondly, revisiting the Chapter on Research and Evaluation, it is important, if funding is sought for research, it is for what works and not the myriad of research topics that are commonplace among the Pillars. There has been so much research done on so many subjects concerned with exclusion, poverty, housing conditions, imprisonment, children in need, etc. that it could be argued that allocating money to further research on such topics is a waste of money that could be spent on alleviating distress that previous research has unearthed. (This does not, of course, apply to student theses, dissertations etc. necessary for their education).
Thirdly, we need to set (or at least negotiate) evaluation parameters in an honest and open way with funders. This is most important.
It is healthy and necessary to have outcomes, goals, outputs, performance measurements, but they must be realistic – and take cognisance of the needs of the Focus Group and the impact of the complex variables we discussed in the Chapter on Modalities, Section Two.
[1]. This book (which, as I mentioned in the Introduction, inspired me) is well worth reading by anyone who wishes to work in this field.