Perspectives on regeneration: Pam Stewart

The second interview with Pam Stewart, community volunteer and director of Wave, took place in June 2007. This summary has been approved for publication.


Progress since January

Stephen and Julia have attended quite a few meetings with me, the borough wide community network meetings, all kinds of network meetings. I can tell you that I feel a very tangible difference. People are beginning to ask questions that two years ago I don’t think they would ask. They’re beginning to question what the role of the third sector is within the process.

I feel it’s almost like doing a jigsaw and you’ve lost a piece, and you’re frantically trying to find the bit that will complete the puzzle, and I feel as if Regenerate have created the opportunity to get that final piece in place. People are now coming together and saying we need a strong third sector, we do not have a voice, whatever we currently have is not working.

Questions are being asked that really weren’t asked, certainly two years ago but even 12 months ago. Where [previously] they quietly discussed it in another room, it’s now openly being discussed - we need to do this differently.

The day after I have attended meetings with Stephen my email box has gone mad, saying that’s brilliant, what a fantastic idea, wouldn’t it be great if we could do that. People are getting really excited about the possibility of it actually making sense.

It’s like emptying the Atlantic with a teaspoon, it’s too big a job and nobody ever thought it was going to be possible. You could attend loads and loads of meetings, and people round the table would agree that we needed to do something, they would see what it was we needed to do, and then everybody went away and nobody did it, because we all went back to our silos and got on with what was important to us.

Impact of Regenerate

They are working very closely with Wave as an organisation to go forward as a social enterprise, but also [with] clients of Wave, and the hope is through the listening process to give the girls the courage and confidence to go forward and create opportunities for themselves.

Unfortunately it hasn’t been as successful as we would like, but working with that client base, it’s a very, very hard group to reach. You’re dealing with people who have been victims, where there has possibly been sexual abuse in the past, you’ve got this long line of damaged people. To turn that around in a week or two weeks is impossible.

People have shown a real enthusiasm for it but when it actually comes to sitting down with people it’s proved too much. For the clients to actually commit to sit there for two hours has just proven to be too much.

But the value from it is that Wave as an organisation want to go forward as a social enterprise, through the listening process developing themselves as an organisation, which in itself has value. And if they work with other groups within Leigh we’re going to have people to champion it and carry it on and give it sustainability, which is what we want – something to continue.

With regard to the Wigan side the work has been centred around Sunshine House and the Scholes area. Talking to the people that are involved in it, they’re very excited about it.

My own personal opinion is I’m not quite sure yet if they have the capacity to undertake it. The enthusiasm isn’t enough. So I think some personal development needs to take place before they see this as something of value as opposed to something to do.

The area has gone through tremendous change in the past three or four years. I think if you have the recognition and the acknowledgement that we need to do some work, that in itself is a positive, that people actually recognise they need to do something to develop. So that’s really good.

I know that Regenerate are working closely with and have spoken to people at Groundwork Trust. I know they’re getting on board and they’re really enthusiastic about it. I know that Wigan Voluntary Youth Services, the gentleman that’s working on the ground in Abbey Lane, who’s looking at developing a gardening social enterprise for the estate, I know that he’s absolutely chomping at the bit to get this delivered.

I know that members of the borough wide network working committee are interested in getting the borough wide network involved in becoming champions of this. The facilitator for the borough wide community network, the employee at CVS, is interested in developing it as a piece of work for members of the borough wide network.

So I know there’s a lot going on in Wigan with Groundwork, with Scholes, with Sunshine House and I know that Stephen and Julia are attending lots and lots of meetings. They attended the third sector meeting yesterday. That in itself is a step forward for Wigan because there has been a recognition that the third sector needs to be stronger and a partner in the process.

My personal view is Regenerate are in place at the right time like a piece in a jigsaw that’s just going to complete. The awareness is there, the acknowledgement is there, the reflection upon what’s gone wrong has now taken place, and I think let’s get on and make it different – that’s about to take place. They’re not going to be the solution, but they’re going to be a driver in encouraging people to look for a solution.

Reasons for success

First of all you’ve got to say the charisma and personality of Regenerate as an organisation, the confidence, the sheer presence of some people who actually know what they’re talking about – that is very, very positive and people take on board the enthusiasm, the confidence and the commitment.

Reasons for resistance

As I said in the first interview they’re very unforgiving in this area and they’re very suspicious of outsiders. With a process like Regenerate coming into a place like Wigan once you have a first success or what is perceived as a success … you’re going to get all these people jumping on the bandwagon. I think the process is longer than that and I don’t think people are used to it. You’re not going to get a quick result, it’s going to be in two years, five years, ten years’ time when you’ve got a stronger sector.

Prospects for social enterprises

I think there will be social enterprises as a result of this. Whether there will be 25 social enterprises I don’t know, but there will definitely be social enterprises as a result. And I think the foundations will be in place to provide 25-plus social enterprises. But to create a social enterprise like any business with longevity, it can’t be done in the blink of an eye. You could create 25 social enterprises to tick a box - I’ve no doubt they could do it, but the week they leave they will collapse through lack of support, through lack of knowledge, through lack of development.

I’ve no doubt it will create tensions, but in my opinion the actual work of getting people to sit down and talk and listen and develop themselves personally to be in a place where they can take it forward, I think that is of more value than creating something that will be gone in six months’ time and that doesn’t have a value.

There is a tangible buzz. People are talking and looking forward and saying things that I’ve never heard round here before. They’re asking questions that I’d never have imagined they would have asked, and I’m quite shocked.

Hopes and expectations for the next 4-6 months

I went to the third sector meeting yesterday. At the end of the workshop and all the feedback it became very obvious to me and to a lot of people in the room that our CVS are not providing a lead. There came from the feedback at that meeting an obvious need for a driver of the third sector so they can become a partner on a level playing field.

I’m going to arrange a meeting at the beginning of July to get the great and the good … to coordinate the third sector within Wigan because it currently isn’t being done. This needs to be driven and driven forward quickly or Wigan will lose out. The possibility of funding, external funding that will come into Wigan through the third sector is huge in the future.

I think Regenerate have created an atmosphere in which that could happen. They haven’t created it, they haven’t made it happen, but they’ve given us permission to think it can happen.

I think it’s not just Regenerate – with a jigsaw we have all these pieces floating about and you need the final one to complete it. Government white papers are saying work with communities. Government white papers are saying make it local. Government white papers are telling local governance bodies to do it; LSPs are being told get to grass roots, work with people. Regenerate have created an atmosphere in which we can actually say this is how.

How will we know the project is working?

It’s the buzz, the enthusiasm, the empowerment of people, individuals within the sector, and for me that’s the difference.

The venue’s already been booked for the summer school. I think we’ve got a quarter of the people we need to talk to, but I think the summer school will provide much more than double, certainly more than double, the opportunities to reach all those people and get this process in place. And to have people walking out of the investment centre with a belief that we can do it, that’s what’s powerful about Regenerate – it’s people having the belief.

I want people at the end of the summer school walking out of that building with an enthusiasm and an empowerment – yes we can do this. I want people within the third sector, be they volunteers, be they paid staff for voluntary organisations – I want them to leave and realise that they are very, very valuable within the economics of Wigan. They are a major player and they don’t recognise they are a major player.

Everybody I’ve spoken to, I’ve got people saying I want to champion it, I want to be part of it, I want to know when it is. There was concern that it’s in August which is major summer holiday time, and some people are not going to make it, but if the summer school does the job that I think it’s going to do, when those people come back off holiday, they’re going to be banging our door down and asking us, can we do it again? And that will show you whether the summer school was successful or not.

If people are leaving with an enthusiasm and saying to their colleagues, ‘Pity you were on holiday, you should have come to this event, it were brilliant, spoke to such a body, did such a thing, it’s enabled us to do such a thing,’ we will get people saying whoa, hang on, I want to be part of this. And that’s your success, isn’t it?