North Shields has long been one of the left behind towns of the country. However, a new project is trying to turn the anger that people feel into something a lot more positive.
On Saturday 13 December, Tommy Robinson aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon held a carol service in London aimed at sowing seeds of division and hatred throughout our country. Meanwhile here in the North East a very different project featuring work from both Christians and non-Christians alike is showing the real spirit of Christmas, not just in December but throughout the year.
Guardian Charity Appeal
Every Christmas the Guardian holds a charity appeal, to raise money for good causes around the country. This year one of those causes is Citizens UK, one of five charities supported by this year’s Guardian charity appeal, under the theme of “hope”.
The Guardian states that the appeal “supports grassroots voluntary groups that nurture community pride and positive change, providing an antidote to division and hate. Citizens UK is all about bringing people and communities together, in order to build a better, fairer society.”.
Sam Woolaston from the Guardian went on a Walk of Hope around North Shields, with Citizens UK, accompanied by people involved in those wins:, teachers and children from two local schools, parishioners, mums, and Sara Bryson the community organiser.
Altogether there were about 25 of us in all. One of those on the walk commented that Saint Augustine had said that hope had two daughters, Anger and Courage: “That’s the two strands: anger in the community because things aren’t great, and how you respond to that anger. It can either be organised in a way which is destructive and hateful or in a productive, compassionate way.”
Meanwhile local Catholic priest Father Chris Hughes commented: “People are losing faith that democracy works. Unless we can reimagine democracy and have people in their community at the heart, it worries me where it will lead.”
Father Hughes went on to outline how there was anger in the area, but it was misdirected: “This is where one of my parishioners, a Ghanaian woman, got spat at by a white British woman,” It happened just after local elections in which Reform UK had done well. “It emboldens people”, Hughes added.
“It’s frightening. I get people’s anger, but this is classic scapegoating. Immigrants aren’t the problem, the problem is they haven’t been heard.“
Father Hughes is among those working hard in North Shields to turn the anger into something more positive. And that includes young people as well as adults.
Children and Adolescent Mental health Services Centre
Sam stopped at the local CAMHS (children and adolescent mental health services) centre, where three students from St Thomas More High School in North Shields, Brionna, Maggie and Lily explained how they got real change for their school.
They explained how a couple of things came up when they got together with Citizens UK to discuss what did and did not work for their mental health. The CAMHS building was not really appropriate as it had gloomy rooms and bars on the windows. They also said that they wanted a full-time school counsellor.
You might think that nobody would listen to a group of teenagers, but this was not the case. They ended up having productive meetings, with local MP Alan Campbell, Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, and with Jim Mackey, now the chief executive of NHS England.
It is noted that “they did not just get a counsellor for their school, they got a commitment for 8,500 mental health professionals in schools across England”. Lily commented: “Bridget Phillipson and Alan Campbell both said students at St Thomas More were affecting national policy”.
Tyne and Wear Citizens UK
Tyne and Wear Citizens UK is one of a number of chapters of Citizens spread across the country. It is made up of a number of organisations, including churches and faith groups, trade union branches and community groups.
Last year members of Tyne & Wear Citizens undertook thousands of conversations to discover what was putting pressure on communities in Tyne and Wear, and how some of the injustices people faced could be how solved through organising together.
As part of this work, Tyne and Wear Citizens have created a manifesto made up of the changes they are asking the mayor Kim McGuinness and the -North East Combined Authority to work with them on. These changes include tackling racial inequality in education, making the North East a Living Wage region and supporting mental health in schools as mentioned earlier.
Tyne and Wear Citizens UK manifesto can be read here.
Empowering people
This is the real spirit of Christmas being displayed both in the bleak mid-winter and all year round. By bringing groups together and finding out what they want and what they need, Citizens UK are able to empower people to help themselves.
And that is what I suspect a lot of those who are turning to division and hatred really want. Like Father Hughes, they want to see understandable anger directed at the real culprits and turned into positive action on behalf of everyone. Like Lily, Maggie and Brionna, they want to be heard and taken seriously, and they want to be able to make the changes in their lives that can make a real, positive difference, not just them but for many others as well.
Groups like Citizens UK and so many others doing positive work improving people’s lives and empowering people really should be given more support. Our problems are many and complicated, but it has been shown time and again that they can be solved through empowerment and listening and positive action.
