What I learned from WomenCentre

Dr Simon Duffy The Centre for Welfare Reform

• 20 years working with disabled people

• Mostly focused on issues of power, money and how to personalise solutions

• A typically thoughtless man, who didn’t think much about gender

• Noticed that the women I worked with were often (but not always) more competent than the men

–Simone Weil

“The Gospel makes no distinction between the love of our neighbour and justice. In the eyes of the Greeks also a respect for Zeus the suppliant was the first duty of justice. We have invented the distinction between justice and charity. It is easy to understand why. Our notion of justice dispenses him who possesses from the obligation of giving... !Only the absolute identification of justice and love makes the co-existence possible of compassion and gratitude on the one hand, and on the other, of respect for the dignity of affliction in the afflicted - a respect felt by the sufferer himself and the others.”

1. My sense of justice had been far too narrow, some women live in a kind of hell

2. When bad things happen to women our systems often responds with unmanageable complexity

3. People often need a partner to get them out of impossible situations and help them get back on track

4. Sustaining personal and organisation integrity in crazy systems demands the constant knitting of solutions

5. Gender, like all differences, makes a difference

• Worked with Clare Hyde, one of the founders of WomenCentre

• To try and capture its true essence

• Through research, analysis and story-telling

• And the exploration of the role of myth

Medea

The idea of ‘complex need’ is misleading. People’s needs and problems are ordinary; they become complex as one need is reinforced by another.

Living with some mental illness 91%Recent experience of domestic violence 85%Didn’t finish their education 76%Fractured family (for those with young families) 66%Worried by debt or lack of money 65%Managing a serious health condition 64%Children have experienced abuse (for those with children) 55%Living with a severe mental illness 55%History of drug or alcohol misuse 52%Living with childhood abuse 51%Victim of crime 41%Perpetrator of crimes 39%Finding a safer home to live 27%

Of 44 women working with WomenCentre

How do we respond to

complex need ?

with more and more

complexity

Service label n Urgent issue n Real need n

Victim of domestic violence 55 Debt 50 Self-esteem 64

Mentally Ill 39 Housing 48 Overcome past trauma 54

Criminal 35 Benefits 46 Manage current trauma 51

Poor Mother 33 Health 37 Stop being bullied 50

Misuses Alcohol 24 Rent 32 Guidance 50

Uses Drugs 22 Criminal Justice Advocate 24 Relationship

skills 45

Violent 19 Dentistry 8 Mothering skills 26

Chronic Health Condition 16 Others 3 Others 1

Ariadne

Penelope

Complex funding...• In 2009-10 turnover was just over £1,000,000 • 41 different funding streams • average size is £25,000 • 22 distinct projects • 33 reporting systems • with an average length of funding of 18

months • at best only 1 in 3 funding bids are

successful • 2011 saw a 41% cut in funding!

Aeschylus - The Chorus, from Agamemnon

Justice lives in poverty. She survives. She measures What is necessary. She honours what ought to be honoured. She seeks out clean hearts, clean hands. She knows what wealth and power Grind to dust between them. She knows Goodness and the laws of heaven.

1. Justice is a living thing and it demands we face up to the challenges that most frighten us.

2. It’s time to take poverty seriously - including, but not limited to - financial poverty.

3. We need to value and power of the kinds of flexible and trusting relationships that make WomenCentre work

4. We need to think beyond chasing for the next piece of funding, the next programme - and ask what kind of welfare state will support community-led innovation

5. We need to welcome difference, not seek uniform models or panaceas - diversity and innovation are essential.

–Hannah Arendt

“…the alternative between capitalism and socialism is false …because we have here twins, each

wearing a different hat.”

It’s time for fresh thinking