Community Organiser discussion in Cornwall

Hayle-based Disability Cornwall hosted a meeting yesterday to give people in the far South West a chance to hear about the Big Society and Community Organisers. No government person was available to deliver the official Community Organiser presentation, so having heard it from the horse’s mouth the day before, I did my best to give it straight. The reaction was much as it had been in Somerset – scepticism, generally speaking. Concerns were voiced about how this approach fits with principles of equality. How well will the quiet voices be taken into account, and young people, for example?
Maybe people find it difficult to associate such a radical approach with their view of what the Conservative party is likely to come up with. But it’s not the first idea for improving civil society that they have imported from the States - Community Foundations were the child of the last Conservative government. Jan Crawley (who organised the event in Hayle) pointed out to me that English Community Foundations are, thankfully, somewhat different creatures from their American parents. Over there, apparently, issues of equality and meeting need are often secondary to doing what the donors want. And English foundations have had a fair share of (very un-American) government support. So perhaps we’ll end up with community organising, too, in an English variant.