Our organisation, works in grass roots community development, involving constant engagement with local people. We aim to enable local women to actively participate in the regeneration of their local communities. Benefit dependency has always been a problem. Working in any poor, deprived estates or communities you have a high concentration of people on low incomes, benefits or casual work etc. There are housewives, single parents, older people & long term unemployed. Most have no post-16 qualifications & certainly no confidence outside their own local worlds. To go from status of factory worker to high-skilled employment is a huge leap.
We offer support and advice, and, as we generate opportunities for local involvement, more people come forward wanting to do something. We offer local training, confidence building, develop self-esteem and a skills base. We encourage women to undertake part time sessional work (a few hours a week) on local projects, so they develop at their own pace. However, this often screws up their benefits, as they aren't allowed to earn any money – no more than £5 per week in some cases. People often say to us 'I'd really like to do this, but it's more trouble than it's worth'. They would lose income support, housing benefit and council tax benefit.
This is a critical barrier - yet stimulating this local activism is a key route to local involvement and eventual full time employment. This is sustainable development, a slow transition that can take three or four years; vital if a woman has not worked for twenty years and has been on benefits. It is a 'ladder' process - you build up confidence over a period of time. Yet the opportunity is currently denied them by the benefits system that does not recognise the value of grass roots community development. This scenario is replicated across the country.
