In which I enter the Twittersphere

Yesterday I sent my first tweet and entered the twittersphere, or the twitiverse, or is it the tworld? Is this now a modern rite of passage? Baby’s first smile, word, step, email, tweet. But if you are interested you could follow me on @david_ellis  

Blogged previously about the visit from students from Switzerland, great to get some feedback from them today including this little gem, which I think is worth sharing...

“It was inspiring to see how people believing in their work can make a huge difference even in times of budget cuts and limited resources. A wonderful example of what can be done in the field of social services! Thank you for showing us part of what Local Solutions has set up in Liverpool. The entire week was filled with cordially welcoming people always ready to make the next joke! Switzerland could sometimes use a bit of the outgoing Liverpudlian mindset!”

An organisation that says 'yes'

Pleased to welcome a group of students from Lucerne and Zurich, Switzerland around Local Solutions. The Master students are in Liverpool for five days and are with us to see how charities are meeting the needs of people. The group are wonderful guests, polite, interested and seem very interested in our work.

Local Solutions tends to be an organisation that says ‘yes’ to such opportunities for a cross-cultural exchange. In the last two years we have welcomed groups from the USA, Japan, Belgium, Malawi and now Switzerland. The Swiss visit creates some serious reflection; their country is, by our standards, pretty rich, and scores beats the UK in all the measures of wealth, standards of living and has seemingly very low unemployment and social deprivation.

As we tour around our programmes to support young homeless people and services for those affected by domestic abuse, the questions flow both ways. The students inform us that they have similar social issues such as homelessness and degrees of state intervention and welfare to alleviate those who are struggling, but it is evident that those requiring help form a very small minority of the general population. It is difficult to put into a few words why we seem to face so many issues and the words ‘inter-generational’ keep coming to mind. So we go on, trying to break those cycles.

Technology & Time

Occasionally my role takes me overnight to some exotic locations – yesterday it was Birmingham, jewel of the West Midlands. Stayed in a recently opened hotel, which had decided to go as high-tech as possible. The first obstacle to overcome is check-in, I must of appeared bemused in search of a reception desk, when I was kindly and gently informed by a member of staff that, basically, that front desks are practically luddite and they had a new system of self-generated check-in. The impeccable staff member took me through the simplified process that promptly failed to work – twice. It became quickly apparent that all the hotel team must had been on a recent and comprehensive ‘customer service’ course and over-attentiveness was the name of the game. After finally overcoming check-in I asked where the lift was, instead of directing me I am accompanied to the lift which was about 30 feet away, I then receive more help when the staff member pressed the button to call the lift. I was glad that I was left alone to move myself into the lift and managed to negotiate pressing Button 4 all on my own, which filled me with some sense of pride and achievement.

Following a meeting with one of our funders, there was a half an hour to explore Birmingham’s premier shopping arcade – the Bullring – a building that is significantly more impressive on the outside than in. Popping into Selfridges I saw two concessions of note, firstly Primark proudly stood in the midst of its designer competitors and secondly a body piercing / tattoo studio – all very convenient for the busy man and woman about town.

The meeting time allowed us to have a chance to chat through plans we have at Local Solutions for a consultation event in September to consider our work in Intense Mentoring. This project supports young people who are hardest to engage and have been within the temporary homeless system for a significant amount of time. Intense mentoring supports these individuals and is having a transformational effect. Our consultation will hopefully be bringing together workers, academics and funders to assess the work we have done so far and see whether this model could be replicated elsewhere.

On the train back, a guy from one of the big banks, sits adjacent. He spends the 81 minutes yapping on his phone to, from what I can gather, anyone in any office within the company to ‘touch base’ and discuss vague future plans. The art of sitting and just staring out of the window is dying, nearly dead.