Globalnet21

The Price of Love - Interview With Paige Ballmi

In this podcast Paige Ballmi explains why she is campaigning to change the government’s spouse visa laws

In December 2017 I was stood on a bridge over the A10 attempting to end my life.

Two days previous to this I had received the devastating news from the Home Office that my now husband’s fiancé visa had been refused. The refusal stated that my earnings were not enough for us to live together in our home in Enfield, despite me earning over the required amount.

Despite many efforts to communicate their errors to them, the Home Office refused to listen and take me seriously, knowing that I was a vulnerable young woman who just wanted my right to a family life. I was essentially punished for falling in love with a foreigner.

The Art Of Community Building

Community building is a craft not an exact science and those taking it forward are artists. Many of the skills required for sustainable community building cannot be learned, they come naturally to people and it is those individuals who make the best Community Builders.

Nurture Development together with their ABCD Network has the mission to help establish a Community Builder in every neighbourhood and so we hope that this Webinar will help you to identify the individuals with the natural gifts around you.

During this Podcast we will explore:

• What is community building?

• Who can 'do' community building and what are the core characteristics of a Community Builder?

• What are the building blocks of community?

How do you identify them, strengthen or build them, and mobilise them?

Cormac Russell will present this podcast. Cormac set up Nurture Development in 1996 and is the organisation’s Managing Director.  He has trained directly under Professor John McKnight, the co-founder of the ABCD approach. As well as being a faculty member of the ABCD Institute at Northwestern University in the United States, he is a Co-Director of ABCD Europe.

The Rise & Fall & Rise Again Of Community

Social change and community building is about understanding complexity Cormac Russell told us in a Webinar he did with us on Community Resilience. Cormac runs Nurture Development and is a part of the Asset Based Community Development Network (ABCD) worldwide. We have reproduced Cormac's presentation in the Webinar here as a podcast. It is well worth listening too as it covers a wide area and is an inspiring presentation.

Engaging Communities & Local Government

The relationship of local government to local communities is vital to both local democracy and community building. In the last decade there has been some major shifts in thinking about this relationship. This meeting is about the nature of that shift. At this meeting we would like to create awareness about some of the major issues facing local government at a time of austerity and financial retrenchment. We would like to spark this off by looking at two models of future development in local government - one the co-operative model where users are involved as citizens and the “Barnet” model where users are viewed more as consumers and services are contracted out. Both models recognise we are in an environment where we need to get more from less but they come out with different solutions and these are worth discussion and scrutiny. Leading us in this discussion will be Heather Wheeler is Member of Parliament for South Derbyshire. She was brought up in Wandsworth and elected Councillor there at the age of 22. In 1995 Heather was elected onto South Derbyshire’s District Council, becoming Leader of the Council in 2007 and remained Leader until her successful election victory. In Parliament Heather is a member of the Standards and Privileges Select Committee, which oversees the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and recommends any changes to the Code of Conduct or to the rules and punishment relating to the conduct of MPs and Steve Reed who became the MP for Croydon North after winning the by-election held in that constituency in November 2012. Previously Steve was Leader of Lambeth Council and was named one of the three most influential council leaders in the country by the Local Government Chronicle in 2011 and was the highest-ranked Labour politician in the 2010 Pink List compiled by The Independent on Sunday. Professor Mike Hardy is the Executive Director of the Institute of Community Cohesion in Coventry. Mike is an established leader in intercultural dialogue with a wealth of international experience including a specific interest in diversity and cultural exchange. He began his career as an applied economist and was Head of Economics and Public Policy at Leeds Metropolitan before moving to a Chair in International Business at the University of Central Lancashire. In 1995, following work with FCO, British Council and European Commission in the transition states of East Europe, Mike moved full time to British Council to continue international work in private sector development.

Mental Health & Well Being - Paul Farmer, Chief Execuitive of MIND

In the 21st century we are beginning to change our attitudes towards mental wellbeing. We know that one in four of us will face mental health problems in our lifetime and we also know that the pressures of modern life can adversely affect the wellbeing of us all. And yet we are often cautious over discussing mental wellbeing openly in the way we do our physical state of health. In this meetup we want to open up the discussion so we understand mental wellbeing better and to see what we can do to make it more prominent on the Government’s agenda

Paul Farmer, Chief Executive Officer MIND - the leading mental health charity working in England and Wales since May 2006. Paul is Chair of the Disabilities Charities Consortium, Vice-Chair of the Department of Health Talking Therapies Programme Board and Chair of the Equalities and Diversity Forum panel on human rights.  Paul is a trustee at the Mental Health Providers Forum, an umbrella body for voluntary organisations supporting people with mental distress. He was a trustee for the Directory of Social Change, a campaigning voluntary organisation that provides the sector with training and publications. Before becoming Chief Executive of Mind, Paul was Director of Public Affairs for Rethink and was Chair of the Mental Health Alliance from 2001-2006.

Well Being In The 21st Century - Kevin Jones MP Speaks Out

In the 21st century we are beginning to change our attitudes towards mental wellbeing. We know that one in four of us will face mental health problems in our lifetime and we also know that the pressures of modern life can adversely affect the wellbeing of us all. And yet we are often cautious over discussing mental wellbeing openly in the way we do our physical state of health. In this meetup we want to open up the discussion so we understand mental wellbeing better and to see what we can do to make it more prominent on the Government’s agenda

Kevan Jones is the MP for North Durham and was a Minister in the Ministry of Defence in the last Government. He spoke out about his mental health problems in the House of Commons. He is one of the first MPs to come out openly about his own battle against depression and the difficulty of speaking out

Below The Radar

Matt Scott is the Director of the Community Sector Coalition. Between 1996 and 2008 he worked in a community development role in South East London, including management of the Lewisham Community Empowerment Network. Prior to this he has worked in the North East and Midlands in a number of roles including as an advice worker, volunteer co-ordinator and manager in several workers co-operatives. He is also a Director of the National Coalition for Independent Action, a founder member of the Community Development Network London and an occasional lecturer at Goldsmiths College where he is completing a PhD on the role of communities in the modernising local government agenda. Here he discusses the importance of the hundreds of community groups that exist are are often not visible and below the radar but are often the heartbeat of democracy and civil society.

Diversity & Inclusion

The battle for inclusion in the areas of race and gender has had many successes and most organisations have policies in place to ensure inclusion in these areas. However in the area of Disability there is still a battle to be fought. Many organisations still are not inclusive in the area of disability and a significant proportion of people are denied their basic human rights. This podcast hears from three people active in the field of social inclusion and what they have done to ensure there is inclusion for all.