An interesting issue comes up both in Britain and Cambodia.
In Britain, Lord Nat Wei, was appointed to be the government 'big society tsar' to help promote community voluntary activity. The aim of 'big society' policy is to get communty activists to replace government activity which the new Conservative government is trying to reduce. However, the new 'tsar' is cutting back on the time he gives to this activity so that he can earn some money and see more of his family.
In Cambodia, the Phnom Penh Post interviews its 'young person of the week' (a nice idea that, which it would be good to see in British newspapers), Choun Sovanary, aged 18, who has been doing massive amounts of voluntary work encouraging youth participation. Although she is 'superbusy' she always takes time to get her parents' involvement in what she is doing, so that she has their support and consent. And she argues that at her age, it is important to put her own educational and relationship needs first, not allows her voluntary work-life balance to get out of kilter.
These reports suggest that making it government policy that members of the public have got to take over and run the big society for us has flaws. Is big society policy accepting that activists, particularly young and inexperienced activists, need to balance the whole of their lives quite carefully? This is an integral part of professional training in social and health care. And it also needs to be part of policy and part of the management of community activism not to drive your volunteers into the ground.
See the reports on the internet: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/feb/01/big-society-lord-wei-volunteering
No comments:
Post a Comment