Big Society's Big Mouth Powered by v

Over the last few months I’ve watched with interest the growing participation in Big Society’s Big Mouth but more importantly, the emerging themes and concerns of participants. The contributions have been magnificent, thought provoking and challenging. I hope to comment on some of the dominant issues as the project comes to its natural end. The first topic I want to reflect on is the high level of concern about education and employment. With one in five of the age group unemployed and the recent changes to education fees and maintenance allowances it is perhaps not surprising.

There are however a large number of young people who appear to have actively disengaged from education, employment and training and I’m truly interested to hear more from them or about them. At a recent meeting with the Director General of the CBI he said that employers are really concerned for those young people who appear not to be ready for or interested in work and employers say they are ready and willing to put solutions in place if only they knew what they were! He asked me the question ‘what do young people tell v about why they ‘drop out’ or just actively disengage? Well, why do you ‘drop out’? What is it that leads you to reject education and work? Or have they got it all wrong and you don’t ‘drop out’, they’ve misunderstood and you just can’t get in?

Of great importance too are the questions: ‘what could employers usefully do to make getting into work easier?’ and ‘what could schools and colleges do to make staying in education a more attractive option?’.

Feel free to voice your opinion in the true tradition (albeit a short one) of BSBM!

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What’s the connection between the Big Society and the government’s vision for higher education, school leavers and graduate skills? The answer is a “green gap year” for students.

Imagine the energy of teenage volunteers able to complete community service, help with projects to address climate change and contribute towards sustainability. This could be delivered through a voluntary period of National Service by school leavers (and older students) before they start university.

Cameron and the Con-Lib coalition have highlighted the two-month National Citizen Service initiative as “a programme for 16-year-olds to give them a chance to develop the skills needed to be active and responsible citizens”, and a green gap year would extend this idea.

The US has blazed a trail in terms of linking service to higher education via the Service Learning programme, which – according to the Corporation for National and Community Service – “enhances the community through the service provided, but also has powerful learning consequences for the students”.

Many US presidents have promoted forms of national service – from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps to Bill Clinton’s 300,000-strong AmeriCorps – and the approach has gained further momentum in the post-9/11 era. As President Obama comments: “Now is exactly the time when we need more volunteerism.”

As far back as 1938, the American educator John Dewey argued that “all genuine education comes about through experience”. He contended that interaction between individuals and their surroundings can foster valuable reflection.

Today in the UK, many school leavers face the prospect of A-level success that will not translate into university places. So what could a fulfilling green gap year do for them?

First, it could help teenagers become more independent before they make the move to university – a “safe” first step away from home and toward independence. Second, it could provide real-world experience: life and study skills such as working with others, personal organisation and meeting deadlines. There are countless projects – environmental improvements, regeneration initiatives and health and welfare schemes – that could benefit from an injection of young blood.

A green gap year could also extend and give serious meaning to secondary school citizenship classes; represent a means to address the democratic deficit by re-connecting young voters with society; and perhaps form the basis of reflection for academic credit. Other potential benefits include harnessing the idealism and enthusiasm of youth and fostering cross-generational work, such as young people helping elderly neighbours and gaining knowledge and skills from them.

Such a workforce could accelerate the attack on global warming while undertaking purposeful “employment” in a time of recession: something that should impress employers pre- or post-graduation. The work of volunteers could strengthen communities, improve participants’ lives while transforming the lives of others, and help to engender mutuality. As the Prime Minister has observed, there is a desperate need to “create communities with oomph” and this mechanism could help turn the Big Society rhetoric into reality.

Specifically in terms of higher education, National Service could extend existing volunteering – with Brownies, sports clubs, mentoring and so on. It could also constitute a bridge to independent learning at university and offer breathing space, allowing individuals the chance to reflect on whether they really want to go to university (or not!). Furthermore, the UK would be following in the footsteps of Germany, France and Italy, which all have national programmes for long-term voluntary service undertaken by young people.

Of course, there are dangers: poor communities must not be further stigmatised or exploited as a free resource for student education, and neither must those on National Service displace paid employees. Similarly the service must be meaningful and not chain someone to a photocopier. Additionally, there is the risk of patronising the “needy” and inducing dependence on charity.

So what’s in it for the students?

My suggestion is that in exchange for, say, six months of community service, volunteers should receive an educational credit of £4,000 offset against their first-year university tuition fees. Such a payment could provide a welcome boost for individuals on low incomes, with funds provided by the proposed Big Society Bank (which is expected to be able to draw on at least £60 million garnered from dormant accounts). As Martin Luther King observed: “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.”

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Arguing against the motion, ‘Politics excludes young people; therefore young people are apathetic and unlikely to vote.’
On the fifth of May, I, like so many other young people who had just turned 18, eagerly wandered down to my local polling booth, excited to be voting for the first time. I already knew all the candidates, already knew who to vote for. And the AV referendum is something I had been debating with other young people for weeks.
Yes, a large proportion of my time had been taken up debating about AV with other young people.
In the 2001 general election, 18-24 year olds were by far the least likely to vote, with only 39% dragging themselves down to the polling booths compared with the average of 59%. On first glance, this is damning proof that young people are indeed apathetic to politics.
But I don’t actually think that’s the case. I think we’ve seen recently a huge surge in political interest. In the 2010 general election, 44% of young people voted. Admittedly, this number still isn’t huge, but it’s a lot closer to the national average and it represents a significant change in people’s views. When the British Youth Council asked young people between 10 and 25 about their views on AV, which is obviously the topic of a 2011 vote, only a tiny 2% of people said they didn’t know where they stood on the subject. In fact, 42% stressed a strong opinion one way or another, and if 42% of young people voted on this referendum, they would match the national average.
The reason for this surge in political interest is unclear, but if I had to guess I would suggest two reasons. Firstly, these days, politics is actually interesting. The coalition, a virtually assured referendum on Scottish independence and AV have made sure of that. Secondly, and more importantly, I think, young people may well be starting to realise just how important politics is to them. We’ve seen the sweeping waves of cuts brought in by Cameron et al., we’ve seen his reforms on the NHS and Clegg’s calls for electoral reform, and we’ve been forced as young people to respond to that, positively or negatively.
So are young people apathetic and unlikely to vote? My answer is no, or, to be more exact, not really. Certainly we need to go further to get more young people casting their ballots, we need to get that percentage way, way up, but we cannot pretend that all young people don’t care about politics. A large proportion of us really do.
The question is whether politics excludes young people. I personally don’t think it does, for three reasons.
Firstly, I think politicians are very eager to get the young person’s vote. That’s why they often campaign in universities. That’s why every major political party has a youth branch. There’s “Liberal Youth”, “Conservative Future”, “Young Labour”, even “Resistance”, the BNP youth organisation. Recently, a handful of year eights from my school were gifted with the chance to go meet Nick Clegg and interview him. I too have been offered similar opportunities. Politicians cannot be accused of not trying to reach out to young people, because in reality they really do.
Secondly, there are organisations out there trying to even further increase young people’s involvement with politics. In 2009, the UK Youth Parliament chose to focus on the aim of reducing the voting age to 16, for example. The government has frequently attempted to reform the educational system to include some form of political education. One 19-year-old female’s view on this was included in a British Youth Council report: “Educate them!! Too many young people (and people in general actually) say that they don't vote because they don't understand politics and can't make an informed decision. Make PSHE in schools compulsory and teach them politics!” Indeed, education on politics would be a real step forward in encouraging a wider youth vote. That’s not a criticism of the system, it’s merely a comment on an improvement that could be made, and an improvement people are calling for.
Thirdly, there is the UK Youth Parliament. This was a scheme brought in to really help young people, even those below 18, feel their political opinions were being heard. And I think it’s worked, to some degree. Over 500,000 young people vote in the elections each year, which are held in at least 90% of constituencies. Certainly, the system is not perfect, the MYPs not known about widely enough, but it at least shows the commitment the government has to its young people and their political views.
So politics cares about its young people, and young people are increasingly growing to care about politics. Yes, it’s not perfect. Yes, we could see improvements on both sides. But to say that politicians don’t care about us, that young people are apathetic about politics, is unfair and, ultimately, unjustified. Read less

Politics isn't interested in young people

There's a broad consensus that young people like me aren't interested in politics, which is flatly contradicted by recent protests. This week 130,000 students, sixth-formers and schoolchildren walked out of classes and lectures and took to the streets across the country. The government sought to portray those who took part in the recent protest at Millbank as a small faction of leftwing extremists and in turn undermine the entire day's protest. However, it's not so easy to write off thousands of schoolchildren worried about their future.

Young people are angry and this frustration is unquestionably political. However, it has no natural outlet in our politics. In the last general election, young people between the ages of 18 and 25 were more likely to become first-time abstainers than first-time voters. Only 37% of 18-24-year-olds voted in the 2005 general election. Most significant of all, 76% of young people didn't feel they could "influence government decisions".

It's not surprising that an overwhelming majority of us don't trust politicians. Many have chastised the Liberal Democrats for their U-turn on fees. But in the last few months, we have seen promises made and broken by all three major political parties. Nick Clegg's about-face is not an exception; it is par for the political course. With a national political debate like this, it's not surprising our disenchantment has become mistaken for apathy. It's not that young people are not interested in politics – politics isn't interested in us.

Recent research shows that the majority of young people have signed petitions or attended demonstrations in support of local campaigns to protect leisure facilities, prevent hospital closures or improve funding for further and higher education. However, they rarely recognised these actions as "political". What this shows is that for young people to become engaged with politics, it is politics that needs to change. But where to start?

First of all, lower the voting age to 16. At 16 you can join the army, get a job, pay taxes, get married, start a family. But you can't vote. Stopping 16- and 17-year-olds from voting sends a clear signal: "Your views aren't valid and you aren't real citizens." In order to make politics relevant we should be doing everything we can to encourage young people to engage.

Second, we need more imaginative and entertaining political education in schools and colleges – and I don't mean only introducing it as a pre-GCSE subject. Pupils should have an active role in decision making in schools through democratically elected representatives, as well as the opportunity to directly influence councils and local authorities through pupil-run campaigns. This would engender the importance of the democratic process and ensure that they understand they are stakeholders in both their education and their country. Whether it's a "core subject" or not, a concept of citizenship should be woven into the fabric of a pupils' education.

Third, politicians need to make more effort to consult young people and understand their concerns. Yes, this is a two-way street. If young people vote, politicians will listen. But any number of progressive politicians will heed the call of an energised youth vote. The average age for an MP in Britain is 50. If our political class reflects a wider cross-section of the population in terms of age, sex, ethnic origin and social class, then we will have made a start.

When it comes to youth issues, political will is shockingly sparse. Work on engaging young people in politics should be seen as an investment in the future of democracy – an investment in its legitimacy, relevance and engagement among the future adult population.

If no natural outlet is found in our politics for the frustration that is growing among the young, then politicians are at risk of disenfranchising an entire generation. They may never again have the opportunity persuade us that voting, democracy and the parliamentary process matter.
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Last week Rory Stewart, Member of Parliament for Penrith and The Border was quoted on the Conservative Home blog as saying,

“The big society is not a replacement for everything; it is not a silver bullet or a panacea… we need a state where there are issues of expertise. For example, brain surgery is best left to the state, not a community.”

I’ll wait for everyone to take a deep sigh of relief before highlighting a couple of points that this raises for me.

That Rory Stewart feels it necessary to say this emphasises why I think the government has made a mistake by leaving the concept of the Big Society so vague; it has made its job of explaining the Big Society more difficult and risks increasing ridicule. By not delineating boundaries of the concept more clearly, the government leaves itself open to the cheap shots that the quote above invites.

When focusing their questions about, or ridicule of, the Big Society, most people focus on service provision. However, I think there is a second boundary that the government would do well to clarify; the democratic boundary. I’m going to briefly explore both.

The Big Society and Services

As Rory Stewart highlights, there are clearly areas of public service where technical expertise is needed and the Big Society has no role. At the other end of the scale, David Cameron has explicitly stated that there are public services which the Big Society can aspire to take over:

“For example, if neighbours want to take over the running of a post office, park or playground, we will help them.”

It is a big continuum between running a park and opening up someone’s skull to deal with a complex neurological condition. This continuum includes keeping under-occupied youths of the streets and out of trouble, delivering meals to vulnerable adults, via acting asarmchair auditors holding local and national government to account, right through torunning schools and local GP surgeries and possibly beyond.

The blog of the Government’s Big Society advisor, Nat Wei, is full of inspirational examples demonstrating that citizens can come together to solve relatively complex problems and identify innovative ways of working together. Citizen action, without state aid, is possible and desirable; it is what delivered us hospitals and schools for the poorest in society, and our first public libraries after all.

However, the brain surgery example suggests that there is a set of public services that only government can deliver, and that there is a separate set that the Big Society can take over. This fundamentally misunderstands the fact that different communities have very different capacities, knowledge and resources. It is one of the main reasons that there is so much suspicion about the Big Society; it is richer communities which will take advantage, while the poorest will see their services cut without being supported to build the capacity to take them over.

It seems to me that the government therefore needs to do two things in relation to delineating the boundaries of the Big Society. The first is to be much clearer about those public services it believes can only be delivered by government no matter what the circumstances. The second is to be much clearer about how it is going to take account of the capacities of different communities in order to judge whether or not support is required.

Democracy and the Big Society

One of the reasons that the government gives for its focus on the Big Society is that it will make public services more accountable. Their underlying assumption is that taking services out of the hands of national and local government will bring them closer to citizens. Having spent seven years developing ways of thinking about accountability, it isn’t at all self-evident to me that handing services over to communities automatically makes them more accountable; in some cases it will, and in others it won’t. Whether or not accountability is enhanced will be the result of the interaction of institutions, structures, and the representativeness of the group taking over the service, for example.

Accountability is only part of the picture though. Politics and the institutions of government exist to balance, within a clear democratic framework, the competing demands of different groups within society. There is nothing within the Big Society rubric that helps understand how communities might negotiate between competing demands. When does government step in over the boundary of the Big Society to sort out disagreements, and when does it not?

I’m not suggesting that we should be looking to government for permission to go where our energies take us. However, the government must take responsibility for ensuring that the minority don’t lose out to the majority, and that the powerful don’t gain at the expense of the weak.

For me the question of what the Big Society means and doesn’t mean gets more important as we head into the government’s second year. I recently asked what we could hold the Prime Minister accountable for as the Big Society develops. This question still stands; it would be a travesty if citizens were blamed not taking up the opportunities offered by the Big Society because government leaves the concept so vague that it can’t be held to account itself.

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What motivated you to become a Member of Parliament?

I got interested in politics when I was 13 - but then mostly in the United Nations and international affairs. There's something called Model UN which I used to do a lot - simulations of how the UN works, where pupils/students represent different countries. It was lots of fun!

Then when I got older I became more interested in local politics - because you can actually change things! I joined the Lib Dems when I was 17, having discovered that I agreed with a lot of what they said. I then campaigned for them as a student, and became a Councillor when I was 22. Then, when there was a vacancy in Cambridge, where I live and grew up, I went for it!

How can young people get the attention of their MP?

It's worth writing to the MP, by letter or email, but only really if you write your own words; form emails don't have much effect. Better, though, is to come along and talk! I and most MPs have regular surgeries - you can make an appointment and come along, to talk about whatever you want!

Marches can be ignored by government, how can young people better influence the political process?

See above - arguing your cases sensible, making time to go and talk to someone.

What is the best source of experience for young people aspiring to become Members of Parliament?

Life. No question. There are too many people who go straight into politics, and have less to offer. Do something - almost whatever it may be. At the same time, get involved with the local branch of whichever party you belong to. They should be very keen to have you around! You can learn a lot by helping out with campaigning, going to conferences and discussing policy issues.

Do you believe that young adults can become MPs without university degrees?

I hope so - but it's never an easy route for anyone. We need MPs from all different backgrounds and interests.

Is Parliament representative of society?

Sadly, no. It has too many people from Oxbridge, too many white men, too many private school pupils, and so forth (I plead guilty to all of those ...). We need to do a lot of work to attract people from all backgrounds to get involved, stand for parliament and get elected.

Which is more important; representing the needs of local constituents or following the party line?

It's not that simple. In order to actually achieve anything, you have to be able to work with other people, whether in your own party or cross-party. That must mean negotiating, and not just insisting on your own way. That's the basis of the parties. Having said that, on an issue of great principle, or local importance, it is important that you are prepared to stand firm, and not just take the easy route.

Do you believe that your amendment to phase out all student fees was rightfully rejected?

I proposed that amendment because I believe in it - I think higher education should be free, and paid for out of general taxation, rather than by the students directly. I've campaigned against tuition fees ever since Labour first introduced them - I was a student at the time. My amendment, sadly, wasn't selected for a debate or a vote, so there was no opportunity to see who else agreed with me. Still I tried! The best I could do was to vote against the latest rise, but we lost that vote.

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I caused a little stir with my last post 'Dear David', an open letter to the PM. Although I as yet haven't had a response from the man at number 10 [even though I posted it on his site too], I'm sure he'll be in touch soon!

Anyway I have been contacted by the Big Society's Big Mouth and asked to write a guest post, to discuss young people in social enterprise and perhaps give some hints about how young people can make the Big Society Happen, so here it is.

I'm quite often asked what does a social entrepreneur look like? The answer is simple, just like you and me, but that's a bit of a cop-out so I thought I'd highlight a few young people who are driven by a social mission to give you some examples of what they are doing.

Young Social Entrepreneurs

Firstly I'm flying off to the USA [don't worry I'm being as carbon neutral as possible and flying virtually] where there is a young person making quite a name for herself, Rebecca Kantar. Rebecca is a founding member of an organisation called Minga and is passionate about stopping the child sex trade. Rebecca has been awarded the Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur award 2010 and is now a sought after speaker at conferences for example TEDxYSE. If you Google those you'll also find information on two other inspirational young social entrepreneurs Mohammed Lamarana Barry, tackling the taboo of Aids, Ben Lyon who's using technology to connect micro financiers with borrowers and Shiv Baskar who founded a youth journalism paper in India.

Closer to Home

Working as I do to support social entrepreneurs I meet the odd entrepreneur from time to time so I thought I'd mention a few that I've worked with here in Birmingham over the last few years. Mark Peters, runs a social enterprise called Start Again. Mark started his enterprise from his own personal experiences trying to support his brother whilst he suffered from a mental health illness. Mark became so frustrated with the health system after supporting his brother he knew he could make life better for others too, and so set up Start Again which uses sport to engage young people.
Justice Williams MBE, Justice is the youngest person I personally know to have achieved an MBE for her work for the local community, if you check out her story [published in the Birmingham Post] you'll see she didn't have an easy start, truly inspiring!

So, as you can see a social entrepreneur looks like You, Me, Rebecca, Mohammed, Ben, Mark or Justice. They have an issue that they're passionate about and work hard to change it for the better.

Some tips for would be social entrepreneurs:

Be prepared to work hard

Be prepared to hear others tell you your idea isn't going to work or you're wasting your time, I bet every one of the people I've mentioned here has a story to tell about when they thought they wouldn't get there!

Get friends, family and others to support your cause

Don't stray from your cause [mission] this should be at the centre of everything you do.

Get advice when you need to from other social entrepreneurs, most will want to help and tell you what they did wrong this can save you time and money.

Getting funds

Remember that social enterprises need to earn [sales] their income as soon as possible, but most will need support to get started so here's a few useful sources:

Unltd provide social entrepreneurs with start-up funding to get the idea going up to £5000, but usually £2500.

The Princes Trust run an enterprise programme for young people and sometimes give grants.

Changemakers leadership support for young people

Community Development Finance Institution [CDFI's]

Local Trust's quite often want to provide 'seed' funds

Search Funding central

And of course if you're unemployed you may now be entitled to the enterprise allowance.

So a final word or two

If you have a passion and want to make a change then do it! Let's make the government [national and local] turn Big Society into something real while we have the chance. Local decisions, local money and local services, it's in your hands!

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Fortune favours the bold

With the current economic downturn and graduate unemployment at its highest in over a decade, entrepreneurship holds the key for the UK to recover out of the recession. Whereas in the past, the 'corporate career' may have been the norm for many bright graduates, with less graduate jobs in blue-chip firms and growing disillusionment with ‘the City’ now is the perfect time to start your own business. Starting a venture whilst you are young and have fewer commitments is ideal; you probably don’t have a family to support, a mortgage to pay and can adjust to the often frugal life of an entrepreneur – with little or no money when you’re starting up.

When I refer to entrepreneurship I do so in its broadest sense and include the burgeoning field of social enterprise. We are facing some deep routed social issues in our world such as poverty, environmental degradation, social and political unrest and entrepreneurs are often left to find the solution to many of these problems.
Why not team up with the people around you and start thinking about how you can create the next Facebook or Virgin? Sir Richard Branson started Virgin in his early 20s - proof that you are never too young to start a business.

Here are some of my top tips for those of you who are considering striking out on your own:

5 top tips:

1) Network network network: remember the saying ‘it’s not what you know, it’s who you know?’ Well this very true, especially in the world of business. The earlier you start getting out there, meeting people, attending events, talking about your idea / business the better. You never know who you will come across and who in turn they may know so keep an open mind when meeting people. Whilst synergies may not be immediately obvious, you would be surprised how random connections can arise from the most unexpected circumstances.

When attending meetings and events always carry business cards with you and when taking business cards from other people – jot down a few notes on the back i.e. where and when you met them and any action points you discussed. This will help jog your memory in months/years to come and make follow-ups easier. Do not wait too long to follow up with people; try to follow up with people you’ve met within a week (to ensure they remember who you are and what you talked about!)

In business it is all about developing long term relationships with your contacts. Just meeting someone, taking their business cards and filing it away is not a good idea. Keep your network active by making introductions between people you know and keeping people informed of what you are up to. Remember though that it is not just a one-way relationship; just as you are looking for help, always think to yourself when you meet someone, ‘how can I help this person?’ Just a simple introduction to someone you know could help the other person immensely and your kindness will not be forgotten.

2) It’s all in the execution: lots of people come up with ideas, but very few go on to execute on them in a successful way. A common downfall for entrepreneurs is being over protective about their idea and failing to discuss it with others for fear of it being ‘stolen’. Whilst this may be a legitimate concern (and you can seek professional advice about this from an Intellectual Property lawyer), I find more often than not, the process of talking to others about your idea helps you to refine and improve it further. Moreover it enables those around you to offer their advice and support which most people are willing to do.

3) “Bootstrapping”: accessing external finance is likely to become more difficult in the current economic climate. It is therefore essential that you are self-sufficient by keeping costs to a minimum. This means cutting back on unnecessary expenses – live more frugally, which in the entrepreneurship world is known as ‘bootstrapping’! Starting a company is far cheaper than it used to be, especially if your business is an online venture.

When putting together a team to work with you, consider offering them equity in your business rather than a salary (or a mixture of the two) – that way they are sharing the risk with you and have a greater incentive to work hard and see this venture succeed (as ultimately the value of their share options will depend on the success of the business as a whole).

There is no need to spend lots of money on expensive advertising / PR; be creative about how you get the word out about your business – use social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn, create a viral marketing video on YouTube; promote yourself and your company using Twitter – there are so many tools out there which you can use for free – make the most of them!

4) Seek advice: you’d be surprised by how helpful people can be. There are many successful entrepreneurs and business people who are willing to offer young upstarts advice and mentoring. One organisation worth looking into is TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). They have a fantastic mentoring programme where they match you to an experienced entrepreneur from your industry; developing a strong rapport with a mentor who has “been there, done that” will be invaluable to you and help you to grow your business whilst avoiding some of the pitfalls your mentor may have faced.

5) Get started, but be willing to adapt: too often I hear people saying, “I’ll start my business after I’ve worked for a few years”; “after I’ve turned 30”; “after I’ve done my 500 page business plan” etc. These are often just stalling tactics which to be honest are not going to get you anywhere. I admit, starting a new business can be daunting and you may not have a clue what you are doing at first, but do you know what – most people don’t! I am a firm believer in learning by doing, and the quicker you start the better your chances are of success. That being said don’t forget the tip about seeking advice; you should be agile enough to adapt your proposition and re-invent yourself based on feedback you receive and the changing nature of the market. If you have created a business plan for yourself then great – it’s a good exercise in getting some focus on your idea and the market you are serving but do not be fixated on following your plan to every minute detail.

If you don’t think you’re ready to start up just yet but want to learn more about business first hand then check out my new venture: www.enternships.com We connect students and graduates to start-ups and “SMEs” (small and medium enterprises) to provide you an entrepreneurial internship – which we call an ‘enternship’. With less jobs available in corporates, now is the perfect chance to augment your CV with experience in alternative work environments. Often these can be far more rewarding and interesting, offering you the chance to take on significant responsibility and make a real difference in the company. It is also the perfect training ground for people who want to start their own business, as by being in a start-up you can learn from those around you and by shadowing the entrepreneurs themselves. This can be the perfect opportunity to experience the excitement (and challenges) first hand of a start-up.

It is important to remember that the recession brings with it opportunity; it is the time to take a step back and see what is broken in the world we live and what we can do to fix it. I expect that in 10 years we will look back at this time to find that some of our very best and bravest entrepreneurs started their ventures in the midst of this recession - and as the Latin phrase "Fortes fortuna adiuvat" says - fortune favours the bold.

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Building the Big Society

Community based projects and local social enterprises have been run for many years. However, a malaise in local activism and increasing centralisation under the previous Government has led to the development of the Big Society approach. This has the potential to improve local services and take citizen power to the next level.

Much has been said over the last 18 months about the Big Society and what it means for the UK. Earlier this year, The Prime Minister described the Big Society as “giving people more power and control to improve their lives and communities”. This is a mantra which is difficult to argue against, regardless of your political standpoint.

However, rather than posturing, the Coalition is taking radical steps to make this a reality. This is being achieved by a multitude of new mechanisms and approaches.

To fund new projects, a Big Society Bank is being set up, with £400m worth of capital. This is being funded from a combination of money in dormant bank accounts and from financial institutions themselves. The Government described the Bank as “a cornerstone of the social investment market”, and it will be able to co-invest in projects and underwrite and guarantee investments.

Local people themselves will now have the tools to take over local assets and services which they believe can be run or utilised more effectively. Contained within the Localism Bill are two key elements to this.

The Community Right to Challenge allows social enterprises and not-for-profit organisations to approach local authorities to request to run a service they provide. If they can show that their bid will “promote or improve the social, economic or environmental well being of the authority’s area”, then the local authority must consider putting the service out to tender.

This will allow services to be provided by local businesses and charities, helping to encourage local innovation and leading to improvements in their quality and more dynamic local economies.

Similarly, local authorities must now keep a list of ‘community assets’. Nominations for the list can be made by members of the local community and these must be considered properly. Certain conditions will then apply to assets included on the list before they can be sold by the owners, including informing the local authority and providing a moratorium period during which interested groups can seek to prepare bids.

This will result in local communities having greater involvement in the way in which local assets, such as land and buildings, can be utilised for the benefit of the local area.

However, the key element to the success of the Big Society is engaging people now and for years to come in this approach. To do so, we need to encourage a greater sense of philanthropy and volunteering in our society.

A recent Cabinet Office Green Paper on Giving, contains a number of recommendations on the former, and the Chancellor confirmed in the Budget that the Gift Aid process will be simplified, helping charities across the country.

To encouraging volunteering, a National Citizen Service is being introduced initially for 10,000 young people aged 16. It is due to begin this summer and its aim is to give “teenagers the chance to learn new skills that will help them to make a positive contribution to their community”.

This is where organisations such as V Inspired come in. Their new Big Society’s Big Mouth campaign is an opportunity for young people to express views on the issues they care about and what areas of volunteering they would like to become involved with.

Young people are the future and I hope to see many of them make a positive contribution to the debate and to building a stronger, bigger society in the years to come.
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It’s time to say Yes to fairer votes

The decisions made by politicians affect all of our lives, from where the cuts to our public services fall to the stability of the job market. Currently under First-Past-the-Post, MPs can get elected with less than 30% of our votes and at present two out three MPs in the UK don't have the majority of voters on their side. Quite simply this means most of us have an MP that we and most of our neighbours voted against. This is completely undemocratic.

One of the many problems with First-Past-the-Post, is that votes for any marginal party are affectively wasted, as if your preferred candidate comes last you then have no say over who actually gets in. This means millions of us feel forced into tactical voting come election time, voting to keep someone out rather than to get the person we really want in.

The Alternative Vote (AV) means all candidates have to aim to get 50% of the vote. You can rank your preferences in order and if your first choice can't win you can still have a say. This simple change to the system will give voters a lot more control and will force politicians to work harder to earn and keep our support. They will have to speak to all of us and make sure that their policies reach out to every corner of their constituency, rather than being able to relax in a safe seat and rely on their core vote to stay in power. After all, why should our MPs have a job for life when the rest of us don’t?

First past the post has allowed our MPs to become out-of-touch with voters, as the expenses scandal showed. It has resulted in a culture of negative campaigning where MPs criticise each other rather than actually saying what they plan to do. It has forced us into tactical voting and has seen millions of us ignored come election time because we do not live in a marginal seat so our vote simply does not count.

On May 6 we get a once in a lifetime opportunity to change all of this. By voting Yes! to the Alternative Vote (AV) in the referendum in may we finally have a real opportunity to change things for the better.

Voting for AV means:
• Voters have a stronger voice
• MPs will have to work harder to get and stay elected
• Less chance of MPs having jobs for life
• And end to negative campaigning and tactical voting.

It’s time to say Yes! to fairer votes. Join us at www.yestofairervotes.org follow us @YesInMay or friend us at YES to Fairer Votes.
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