CARESCO History - Theme One - PEOPLE Theme ONE PEOPLE Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are diversities of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. I Corinthians xii, v4. The recipe for a community resource like CARESCO requires many ingredients. First, the VISION itself, and the spark which lights it. Then the different Volunteers who must be RECRUITED to carry out the work. Binding the individuals into TEAMS which will SUPPORT each other adds value to the mix. TRAINING is essential if the volunteers' skills are not to be wasted. From all this comes an enormous growth in CONFIDENCE, which empowers the partners in the enterprise, through their experience of the various tasks they undertake. VISIONARIES. Over the years, people living in Sawtry and those who came to work there have brought with them ideas for the enhancement of the village amenities. Observing a need for a Drop-In Centre where people could share their anxieties, and realising that friends are made more easily when sharing a practical task, Joy Robinson the "Rural Domestic Economist" held occasional markets and coffee mornings at the Homecraft Centre and eventually invited one or two widowers whom she knew to attend a "Do It Yourself Lunch Club". Dr. Hackman and her District Nurse undertook the responsibility of providing "Hospital at Home" services to patients who would otherwise have had to be taken to hospital ten miles away. Roger Hemming, the Community Tutor, spurred the Parish Council into forming the "Major Emergency Committee" - to prepare not only for a possible nuclear attack, but for a nearer danger - that of a major accident on the nearby A1 trunk road. (Mothers of Junior School children attended First Aid courses and the WRVS ran Emergency Training sessions, including how to set up Rest Centres.) Responding to an appeal from the Manpower Services Commission to set up practical courses for young unemployed people, Peter Davies, (Roger's successor as Community Tutor,) joined with the Rural Community Council to open a Community Print Shop, using one end of the Homecraft Centre to design and produce magazines and leaflets for small rural groups, thereby training young people in printing and office skills. It was the vision of George Chaney, however, which led directly to the formation of CARESCO. It could be said that he was someone in the right place at the right time. ...George Chaney was appointed as Community Tutor at the Village College in 1968. He was no stranger to Huntingdon, having worked in the County Youth Service in its early days, before - 1 - CARESCO History - Theme One - PEOPLE working in Community Development in Africa. The fast-growing college, its community activities and the expanding village all gave George the chance to encourage, inspire and (yes) infuriate those around him. But it was all to good purpose, and it is no exaggeration to say that many of the things which today make Sawtry an exciting place owe a great deal to George's persistence and cunning. On retirement in 1976 George became Chairman of the Parish Council, serving until 1980. It was a time of great local growth, and he steered the Council into taking a somewhat broader view of their responsibilities than just looking after lamp posts and bus shelters. His passion for public participation and involvement led to the production of the first printed Annual Parish Report in 1977 and he strongly encouraged the public to come to the Annual Meeting and make themselves heard. The fullest use of recreational facilities was one of his themes, and much benefit to the community came from the cooperation engendered by dual-use. Later he encouraged the formation of a Parish Council Health Committee with positive encouragement given to many local concerns in health and welfare. Even when his own health and that of his wife, Doris, made full involvement difficult, one knew that George, (by lobbying his influential friends or by writing to the papers,) was pressing for improvements, unashamedly (and rightly) using his own personal setbacks as the trigger to prompt the statutory services into giving Sawtry its due. The first Council meeting without George was strangely quiet. Let us hope others will mount his charger. It would be Sawtry's best thanks to a great campaigner. (Swatry Parish Council Annual Report 1988/9) George's war-cry was "the creative use of conflict". He believed that when people reacted passionately to loss or deprivation, they were half way to generating the enthusiasm to replace what they had lost. Theme Three will tell how people in Sawtry reacted to threatened loss of two valuable services. Led by George Chaney, and supported by the Parish Council, they actively sought the means to run these services themselves. But George insisted that the "Sawtry Welfare Committee", which later became CARESCO, should look further than simply running a Day Centre and a Lunch Club. CARESCO's Constitution requires it to "seek to identify welfare needs of individuals and groups in Sawtry and its satellite villages, devising means to meet those needs..." Quite a broad task! But George's vision went further still. The obvious sources of help were "the statutory services and existing voluntary organisations." But George pointed out that we did not know what developments the future might bring, and insisted that the Constitution should make provision to use "any other medium" that might come along! RECRUITING At that time, and later when new projects have been started, CARESCO has usually found that the people whom it needs somehow appear. We may have to wait a while, as we did with the Special Playscheme. That was all set to start, led by a well- qualified leader, when she announced that she was leaving the district. Sometimes, when this happens, the project itself is modified for the better. (See p ) Attempts by CARESCO to set up a Carers' Support Group were made early on without success. But then a District-wide initiative from the Huntingdon Health Authority, led by a Health Promotion worker, Jill Navid, brought full support from the GPs. CARESCO's Organiser convened a group, which is now really strong.( See p ) - 2 - CARESCO History - Theme One - PEOPLE IDENTIFYING TASKS. The professional Community Workers have taught us the need to identify clearly the nature of the tasks that need doing, so that we can look round for volunteers to "match" them. In large communities there is often a Volunteer Bureau whose skilled staff encourage people to offer themselves as Volunteers. A Volunteer Bureau will keep in touch with existing local organisations and find out the opportunities to which these volunteers may be matched. Huntingdonshire has excellent Volunteer Bureaux based in each of its five towns. But Sawtry is ten miles from any of them and could not justify a specialist Volunteer Coordinator. The people who began and developed CARESCO were drawn into it not by an outside agency, but by an awareness of what their community lacked. They were not looking for jobs. In fact, many of them were already busy in other fields, and surprised to be asked to help. Approaching such people must, however, be done with care. Formal Job Descriptions may put off some volunteers, but there is no doubt that others, unaware of the value of their own skills, respond generously when they are ASKED to do a particular job. We set about recruiting volunteers for particular new tasks, learning the skills and using the networks available to community workers. We got help from the successive Community Tutors at Sawtry Village College:- George Chaney, Roger Hemming and Peter Davies. Sometimes the neighbouring Volunteer Bureaux send suitable volunteers to CARESCO, and we pass on anyone we cannot place appropriately. (For example, one Sawtry volunteer was sent to the Hospital Advocacy Scheme in Huntingdon.) All volunteer helpers are given a "Guideline to Volunteers in Day Centres" leaflet. Although most of the information is sound common sense, it is easy to overlook the obvious and therefore necessary to put pen to paper. Not only do volunteers now know how they are expected to act, but also what they should expect in return. But drawing in new people is never easy. THE "ONLY A HOUSEWIFE" HERESY Every Volunteer Bureau encounters women who, when asked about their skills and experience, denigrate themselves by responding - "Oh, I'm only a housewife!" ...They do not appreciate that this means they are ONLY experienced in Caring, Diplomacy, Machiavellian Politics, Juggling Priorities, Multiple Tasking and split-second Time-management!.... Many of CARESCO's workers are Housewives. Few of them started out with paper qualifications. They would go to major conferences and sit silenced by other members of discussion groups who reeled off the experiences which qualified them to pontificate on whatever was being discussed. One Day Centre Helper blurted out, "Well, all I do is take old ladies to the toilet!" Before too long they realised that their down-to-earth common sense was often more relevant, supported as it was by grass-roots experience. (They were like the child in the story of the Emperor's new Clothes.) They found themselves in positions of authority:- The Co-ordinator of the Voluntary Car Scheme was invited to be guest speaker at a Surgery meeting at the next town, St. Ives, telling GPs about how our Scheme was run. Representatives from CARESCO spoke at a meeting to lobby our MP on the need for Very Sheltered Housing. Councillors from neighbouring Parishes and officers from the Health and Social Services and the Education Authority listened rapt at a special Presentation about CARESCO's projects. Our - 3 - CARESCO History - Theme One - PEOPLE Project Leaders had never spoken in public before, but they cared passionately about their work. Exploding this "Housewife" heresy has global importance. In 1995 the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing produced a Declaration and Platform for Action, one of whose Key Principles states "Empowering women is not only an important end in itself; it is essential to realising the full potential of society as a whole." Goldsmith - Challenging Perceptions, Changing Lives. p3. Some people in the community do not realise how useful they could be, and are amazed to be asked. Many carers for the members of CARESCO's clubs have found a new purpose in life, which lifted them out of despair when their loved one died and no longer needed them. The team of collaters and stitchers at the Print Shop form a caring support group for someone in this situation, as they join to do a job which benefits the whole community. Later, these former carers may find other roles for service, as well as new friends. RECRUITING LEADERS. Recruiting general helpers is one thing. Team leaders are much harder to find. They need enthusiasm, compassion, imagination, attention to detail, and above all the capacity to delegate work to other people in such a way that these others find it enjoyable and get some reward from what they do. The Print Shop Managers must enjoy constructing rotas, and then working cheerfully through a list of telephone numbers to find people to fill these rotas week by week. (There are some days when everybody seems to be away on an outing organised by the helpers themselves!) Not only this, but somehow they must make it FUN to collate and staple a long run of newsletters (with temperamental machinery) so that the members of their work-force are gossiping happily and go home unwillingly when it is time for lunch, thanking the Manager for "inviting" them! A surprising number of CARESCO's present leaders have first come simply to look at the second-hand clothes in Nearly New, going on to volunteer there or in the Print Shop, and then learning about opportunities elsewhere in the organisation, stepping into leading roles as someone else moved on. Sometimes finding the right person can happen by pure chance. The nearby village of Alconbury, a community of about 1,000 people, saw the need for a Day Centre and asked for CARESCO's support. (see p ) We wrote to the parents of the children at the Junior School, asking for volunteers to staff it. One mother at first threw the letter in the bin because she herself had no time to help. Then she suddenly thought of her own parents who had just moved to be near her. Her father was busy with his business, but her mother, Joyce Freeman, had already been responsible in Coventry, where she came from, for running a Day Centre for elderly and disabled people. Her daughter thought that Joyce might be glad to find some scope for her skills and experience, which would put her in touch with her new neighbours. Joyce rose to the challenge and became Organiser of the Alconbury Club. She only needed us to put her in touch with the statutory services which were available in Huntingdon. The - 4 - CARESCO History - Theme One - PEOPLE strong and stable team which she has since built up shows how very lucky the people of Alconbury were. SUPPORTING and TEAM BUILDING. Rural communities seldom qualify for specialist provision because they lack the economies of scale available in a town. Sawtry could not justify staffing a 30-bed Residential Home, a Citizens' Advice Bureau, a branch of Age Concern or Mind, or its own Volunteer Bureau. CARESCO has always sought to compensate for this lack in Sawtry by bringing all its workers together to support and learn from each other. Indeed, the members of our clubs themselves have been among our strongest sources of support. They phone each other up to see that they are all right, and arrange holidays together. Sometimes it has been hard to work out who is "helping" whom. It's never "them and us" but "us and us." The boundaries between helper and helped are blurred, and "reciprocity" becomes a reality. "It's like being a member of a family," they say. WIDER NETWORKS also give important support. The voluntary organisations in Huntingdonshire meet regularly in Hunts Forum, to share experiences and contribute jointly to planning the Community Care Services in the District. (see p Theme 5.) In several years the members of CARESCO have taken part with other groups in the Cambridgeshire Community Council (now Cambridgeshire ACRE,) to plan the County-wide Conferences "Partners in Care", several of which were held at Sawtry. These also taught us to place our work in a wider perspective. In 1992 CARESCO joined with twenty national organisations headed by the Rural Team of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations to mount a display at the Royal Agricultural Show at Stoneleigh. It was called "The Living Village - Local Groups at the heart of Rural Life." The centre-piece of CARESCO's stand was a montage of the faces of the people involved in the organisation, not just the organisers, but the members who are at the heart of its life. We called our stand "From the Grass Roots Upward.." Volunteers who went to Stoneleigh found it a most rewarding experience, and learned from representatives of groups from other parts of the country, (such as the Samaritans,) dealing with rural needs in different ways. We have found various ways of TEAM-BUILDING. One of the earliest was when we used some of the monies given us for "Training" by Opportunities for Volunteering to take our Day Centre, Lunch Club and Car Share staff to London for the Annual Meeting and Conference of the Volunteer Centre. It was a wonderful day. Even the hour-long train journey was fun, and we all found inspiration in the plenary talks about Volunteering nation-wide, and interest in the workshop sessions, the films and the various displays. (One was about the Peterborough Information Group - PIG. Fancy having to come to London to learn about that!) The Day Centre Leaders have organised regular trips to the the National NAIDEX exhibitions to see new Disability aids. In subsequent years National Volunteers' Week has been celebrated in various ways:- In November 1988 the Fourth Year pupils of Sawtry Village - 5 - CARESCO History - Theme One - PEOPLE College prepared a buffet lunch for over 70 volunteers from CARESCO and engraved glasses were given as a token of thanks to four volunteers, including Marjorie Payne, Bill Hales and Nancy Kelly who had all served the community of Sawtry for many years. Since then there have been regular outings to National Trust and other properties, Christmas shopping trips, our 10th Anniversary, (attended by 150 volunteers and users of our services,) and parties to celebrate VJ and VE Day Anniversaries. Sad times have drawn us together too. In 1997 we held memorial services to celebrate the lives of both Marjorie Payne and Bill Hales. Both played leading parts in starting CARESCO, and in later years both had graduated from being very active helpers to being "helped" in the various clubs which they attended - not an easy role for such "givers" to accept! The growth of CARESCO has been influenced by ALL its members. In 1989 the organisation was at a watershed. Should we seek the considerable funds which would be needed to employ a paid Organiser? All the Staff and Committee Members were invited to spend a Day in the peaceful surroundings of the nearby Community of Little Gidding. (see p ) The important decision that CARESCO should become an employer was made with the full agreement of everyone. TRAINING Formal Training has also been very important. From the early days our volunteers benefitted from monthly courses organised by the Health and Social Services for groups throughout Huntingdon District. There have been courses in Lifting and Handling, Disability Awareness, Listening Skills, First Aid, Health and Safety for catering, Food and Hygiene Certificate, Working with Adults, Working with people with disabilities, Confidentiality and Elder Abuse Seminars. CARESCO arranged to hold some of these in Sawtry itself since it costs so much to transport people over ten miles away to Huntingdon or St. Ives. Individuals have organised their own training courses; one went on a 30-week counselling course, another entered a correspondence course on Inter-Personal Skills with Loughborough University. It is no accident that several of CARESCO's staff have been motivated to study successfully for Open University degrees. CARESCO has added a new dimension to the Adult Education role of Sawtry Village College, (now Community College,) which has begun to offer National Vocational Qualification courses in "Caring at Home" and "Caring for Everyone" as well as advertising "Access Courses" at Peterborough Regional College (on "Professional Social Care", "Professional Health Studies" and "Women's Studies";) and Huntingdon Regional College (in "Nursing and Health Care Studies".) In 1997, encouraged by CARESCO, the Deputy Organiser of the Sawtry Day Centre moved on to follow one of these to help her prepare for a career in Nursing. In the early days, a grant from the Opportunities for Volunteering Fund brought with it, (unasked,) an extra #200 to be used for "Training". This enabled us to bring together a group - 6 - CARESCO History - Theme One - PEOPLE to study the Open University's Short Course P650 on "CARING FOR OLDER PEOPLE." Those who took part still comment on the formative influence this course had, both in bonding CARESCO's team, and on their personal maturity. The Tutor, Muriel Humphrey, wrote this for our Annual Report. "Parting is such sweet sorrow." One of the fourteen members of the O.U. Course quoted aptly from 'Romeo and Juliet' as we said our farewells on March 12th 1985. We first met at Sawtry Village College on September 25th 1984 - CARESCO and Age Concern volunteers and organisers from Sawtry and Peterborough, ex-administrators, teachers and nurses, a businesswoman, a radiographer from Papworth Hospital, two care assistants and a student from two different County Council Homes for the Elderly, the Warden of Mellors Court (the District Council's Sheltered Housing unit in Sawtry,) and individual caring relatives Daughters, nieces, mothers, grandmothers and granddaughters became students again! As "tutor" of this multi- disciplinary group I was responsible for helping its members to extend their individual study skills at home and in group discussion. As the course progressed, our knowledge of the circumstances and problems regularly facing older people grew. Our own attitudes and pre- conceptions in regard to the elderly were well tested. It was helpful to gain a clearer view of our own place in the network of services (statutory and voluntary,) available to the older person we most cared for. An end-of-course questionnaire, (anonymous,) revealed the individual learning benefits gained from the course. Several members had learned to value their own abilities and study skills more highly as a result of participating. Many learned to know themselves better due to the support and social stimulation so freely shared in what proved ultimately to be a counselling situation. Others, because of the unique confidentiality and trust within the group, gained enough confidence to break down, and as a result, break through.... I hope that the genuine affection and commitment felt by the group for their pensionable seniors can in some small way be passed on to others, so that in turn more and more people can be better prepared to help with the increasing care needed for the growing numbers of elderly in our community within the next decade. CARESCO Annual Report 1984/5 CONFIDENCE - BUILDING "Empowerment remains merely a word, unless the processes of development provide for more equal relationships between the relatively powerless and the power holders." (Scott et al "Hidden Deprivation in the Countryside " quoted in 'Rural Action' - Henderson & Francis p.168) Research by Konrad Elsdon and others suggests that membership of voluntary organisations (large and small, formal and informal,) brings about a significant amount of learning and personal change in the people involved, especially in those who are extensively committed. "The factors which were most important in causing constructive change were firstly a supportive and nurturing group ethos based on co-operation and mutual caring, as opposed to competition. This was responsible for the almost universal growth in personal confidence. The second of these pre-eminent factors was the maximum demands made by an organisation upon the individual's active and responsible participation. " Elsdon - Adult learning in Voluntary Organisations - 7 - CARESCO History - Theme One - PEOPLE CARESCO has become a "supportive and nurturing group" which makes extensive demands on those individuals who are willing to participate in its activities. The "constructive changes" are demonstrated in the experience of all the workers in CARESCO. Every one of them has gained in confidence and knowledge of themselves. Some have been encouraged to rejoin society after a period of withdrawal; some have moved on to regular employment; some have represented their communities on Parish Councils, Community Health Council, Joint Consultative Committee, and on Task Groups working with County and Health Authorities on the provision of services for the disabled and the needs of Rural Transport. INDIVIDUALS. Three people in particular will illustrate the changes that have taken place in individual lives. Before her marriage, KATHY JONES had been an Administrative Officer with the National Health Service for 11 years. While her children were small, she studied for an Open University Degree. When she came to Sawtry with two small daughters, she got involved with the Brownies and became their Treasurer because she was not afraid of figures. When CARESCO started she did the same job for us, but then we found out that she had a City and Guilds qualification in Cooking, so we asked her to run the Lunch Club. (Her little girls were great favourites with the members.) Like all the CARESCO workers she went regularly to Huntingdon for the Training Courses run by Social Services for Day Centre helpers, and got to know people from organisations in other parts of the District. She still didn't say very much in public. "When I was a child I was agonizingly shy!" But she had an amazing network of friends acquired waiting outside the school gates, so she seemed an obvious person to start a Good Neighbours' Scheme to offer support to the elderly and their carers. We visited a similar scheme run by Age Concern in Cambridge. In 1988 while the CARESCO Organiser visited her daughters in New Zealand for two months, Kathy agreed to act as Deputy Organiser. In 1989, when it was decided that we needed a salaried Organiser (see p ) she was appointed to the post. Now she had to speak up, for the Group's sake! Kathy is full of good ideas for recognising the worth of the Volunteers, regarding them as THE VITAL LINK. This was the slogan for National Volunteers' Week, which gave the opportunity for a party, when Kathy organised the presentation of engraved glasses to long- serving volunteers. Another day, when National Trust Houses were open free, she arranged a trip to Wimpole Hall - the first of many outings. It was Kathy who organised the parties for CARESCO's 10th Birthday and VE and VJ Anniversaries. By this time she was serving as a Parent Governor for Sawtry Village College. (Since her children left, she has been asked to continue serving.) Not surprisingly the burden of preparing two complex bids for Lottery Funding has been undertaken by Kathy, with characteristic thoroughness. She has been rather surprised, however, to find herself entering into the realms of Publishing! Kathy's partner in this entrepreneurial role has been JEAN MIDDLETON. Together they now edit the Village magazine - Sawtry Eye, and their shrewd business enterprise has - 8 - CARESCO History - Theme One - PEOPLE extended to the production and marketing of a booklet called "A Glimpse into Sawtry's Past", which they see not only as a useful fund-raiser, but as giving people "a sense of belonging and pride in their community." Jean started by dropping in to the Nearly New, where she could help because they had a creche for her young son. She helped a bit in the Printshop, and brought her teenage daughters to help in the holidays. She was a trained Lifesaver, so we pulled her in for Swimming Therapy. We hoped to enable her to take a further qualification for working with the disabled, but the courses were not convenient. She rallied support from her colleagues in the Swimming Club and others in the community to raise the magnificent total of #1,500 for a hoist to help the disabled into the pool. (One gentleman, who used it to get out of the pool, had only one leg, and dived in straight from his wheelchair!) By this time Jean was a Parish Councillor, helping to negotiate the purchase of a new Sports Field from a farmer on the other side of the A1 dual-carriageway road. Before long Jean took over the management of the Printshop. She started to study for an Open University degree. Then we bought a second- hand fast photocopier from the Village College, and she learned to print some of the short-run magazines. In 1997, with the advance of modern technology, Jean has been able to dispense altogether with the cumbersome offset litho machine, (and its two volunteer printers,) and all the big work is produced on a new laser machine. Jean has developed the art of beating down competing suppliers of equipment, matching them against each other to get the best deal. These two see CARESCO as effectively a "Care Co-operative". "Everyone's talents are joined together. We look to each other for ideas, and say 'Shall we do this, and will it work?' Then when people have taken on an idea, it's 'Good! Get on with it!'" says Kathy. CHRIS KEMPTON would not disagree with that. She came to CARESCO as a driver for the Car Share Scheme. (See p ) She had great fun doing the "Post Office Run" in her little Midget. Soon, however, she was asked to take over as Coordinator and found many challenges, providing back-up when volunteer drivers did not turn up, or finding an answer when passengers insisted that they had a RIGHT to a free ride (because they thought we were Social Services.) Chris was a capable organiser, producing a complex pantomime for the local Drama Group, and she was an inventive member of the group who ran the Nearly New Clothing shop. (See p ) She never hesitated to speak her mind, so someone suggested that she should stand for election as a Parish Councillor. It was not long before she found herself Chairman of its Health Committee, inviting our GP, Doctor Hackman, to comment on Generic prescribing, and visiting another Cambridgeshire village which had started a Village Warden Scheme. (See p ) But she still lacked confidence in herself. Lobbying John Major about provision of "Very Sheltered Housing " in the village, she said shyly, "I've never done this before." All this voluntary work was very well, but as a lone parent, Chris needed a paid job. Whenever she applied for something, she felt she started at a disadvantage because she had no qualifications. After a short spell as Deputy Organiser for the Sawtry Day Centre, she was helped to apply for a Care Assistant's post at a Residential Home and learned how to draw on her real experience to demonstrate that she could do it. . "CARESCO set me on the right lines," she says, "and I was off like a steam train." Now Chris is the Warden of a model complex of Sheltered Accommodation in Peterborough, with a fistful of Certificates proving - 9 - CARESCO History - Theme One - PEOPLE her competence in Deaf/Blind signing, Housing Management and Holistic Health, among other topics! She confidently overspends her budget:- "No-one could use the special bathroom for the disabled because the controls were out of reach! I had to do something!" She aims to help her 25 residents to attain Independent Living. "They look after me now! I can stand back. I don't have to be in control. The universe can take over!" CARESCO has been fortunate in the people who have served it, but this chapter has shown how the lives of those people themselves have been changed by what they were led to do for their community. The next goes back to show how we built upon what was already there in that community. - 10 -