The necessity of re-inventing the wheel

I seem to be explaining this theory whenever I hear someone say

"well, there's no point in re-inventing the wheel" which is almost every week, and what they really mean is 'someone somewhere else has already worked on and found a solution to what we are trying to do, let's just use (nick) theirs'.

Now I know that can work for some things, some times, and I'm not one to exert excess energy but...but not if it is service user or community led work.

For 3 reasons; process, process process.

The wheel people build must work for those people in that place at that time,

The people who build the wheel must feel they own, understand and feel proud of and empowered by inventing and creating something that is theirs.

The people must know how to make another one when this one stops working.

It doesn't matter if they end up with something remarkably similar to every other community group.

It doesn't matter that some paid worker feels it was a waste of their time because it's exactly what has been done 100 times before and they could have told them how to do it on day 1

...and it doesn't matter if no-one thinks the first solution is perfect.

Only by people themselves working together and finding their own solutions can they ever feel that they have a part to play and are significant in their own solution.

Please, the next time you hear yourself thinking that there's no point, stop and wonder, will the process involved in re-inventing their own wheel be of benefit? Create a sense of ownership? Build trust? Put the power back into the hands of those who need it the most? If the answer is yes to any of these questions then please, put the 'off the shelf solution' back on the shelf where it belongs and let people do it for themselves.

It will take longer, and it may very well end up looking and functioning very much like everyone else's, but it will have been worth it, because you can't create that experience 'off the shelf', you have to actually do it.

Caring, Counselling or Citizenship

Three standard different models of working with someone around an issue. I personally think we pay far too much attention and pour too much money into the first two and nothing like enough into the third.

For a silly but seasonal example, let's say the person we're supporting has a real problem with potholes and has ended up unable to leave their house as there are 3 potholes on their street.

The 'care' model would pay for support for this person to either, get supported over the potholes, or if it was a person centred approach, find a different route in order to avoid them and all other potholes.

The 'Counselling' model would pay for someone to listen carefully and attentively to the history of their relationship with potholes, how their parents interacted with potholes, and allow them to fully understand the root cause of their problem.

The 'Citizenship' model would pay for someone to tell them to pick the phone up, ring the council and get the potholes filled in.

Simplistic I know, but really, outside of good advocacy, when does this actually happen?

Even in my world of community development, we tend to think that they have to find 5 other people with the same experience, form a group, and invite the local councillor round to listen to their issues.

Most people we work with still don't even know how, or who to phone, to get simple things done in their communities, nor do they seem aware of how they would find out. Surely less of the 'caring, sharing listening and really understanding' without actually achieving anything and more good solid '70's power to the people is called for!