Achieving social capital through dialogue – By Anita van Mil

This week’s news headlines about Amina Araf not being a lesbian Syrian blogger but a student from Edinburgh made me think about what Henrietta said in her blog last week. Effective dialogue is not only built on trust and transparency; it’s based on an investment in face-to-face human interaction as well.

Today’s face-to-face engagement

I’m currently on the train back from Hendon,North London, where I facilitated a focus group about service development with members of Barnet African Caribbean Association (BACA), a club and day care centre for elderly people from African and West Indian heritage.  Although I’ve become a Board member on a voluntary basis, my take on service development mirrors exactly how Henrietta and I work with other public services. 

I joined BACA in November last year at a time when it had just become clear that the London Borough of Barnet will need to cut budgets across the board by 30% from April 2012 onwards. BACA has been stagnant for quite a few years. Membership is dwindling with an increase in age of the target group and leadership hasn’t been as visionary as it could have been. Too few attempts have been made to keep up with the changing political and economic environment. What used to be a charity is now rapidly transformed into a Company Limited by Guarantee as we simply can’t continue serving beneficiaries. We need to start trading our services and establish partnerships for future service delivery. Quite scary stuff for users who are on average 75 years old…

Developing social capital

How can we make sure that we take them along in a process of inevitable change? BACA’s users need to be part of the journey. They need to know their voices are heard and taken into account in any decision making, which is exactly what we did in the Cuckmere over the last two years. Or to use policy speak: we need to develop social capital, create ownership of the process and ownership of the organisation and its future.

And move things on

The main benefit of a transparent dialogue process based on trust is that it enables organisations to move on. If I see, feel, smell that you are genuinely interested in my views I’m more likely to listen to yours. I may even consider changing my views because I understand that it is better for both of us to collaborate and seek a way forward. Ultimately, by engaging in dialogue, by listening and being listened to, I will start to take ownership of the process and its outcomes. And this is amazingly powerful as it enables processes to move on.

Masquerading as a lesbian blogger in Damascus Tom MacMaster from Edinburgh established dialogue but didn’t move things on. If anything his hoax may well have set back the Syrian liberation movement. The blogosphere that’s been so important in spreading the wave of up rising in the Middle East will now struggle to establish who can be trusted and who can’t. 

No room for avatars

In off-line, face-to-face community engagement there is no room for avatars. I can look 82 year old Zimbabwean Claudette in the eyes and tell her that I will communicate to the Board that she’s keen for BACA to open more days a week as she is increasingly isolated at home. I can add to the mix that it’s the culturally specific food that she appreciates most along with the companionship she experiences on Tuesdays and Fridays. I can show her that I’ve literally captured her words on a flipchart, which will be transcribed and made available to anyone involved in the decision making process.

There is no hiding and there is no hidden agenda. To me this touches on what makes community engagement work so rewarding:  having approached it in the Hopkins Van Mil way I know that Claudette will come along in other decisions we need to take. She’s a valuable part of our social capital and with that BACA will manage to move on, just like the Cuckmere community did.