The Future Starts With Us

I heard some of what Gordon Brown said. He does talk a lot of sense. I’m not sure what the problem is and why things have changed. I think social media is somewhat to blame as it consumes so much of people’s time. Nobody is ever bored or looking for something to do anymore. It’s not just that of course. It’s just one factor.

I think Covid and multiple lockdowns changed the younger generations mindset.

They lived their lives online they learnt online They only saw friends and family members on FaceTime or Teams.

They were isolated from society, many have remained that way by choice.

I think it’s time for a lot of younger people. Most women work outside the home, hours of work and commutes have meant that people are time poor. There’s also mental load. There was an interesting article on the BBC News page about that yesterday. Women take the brunt of responsibility for everything - life is a lot less straightforward than it was fifty years ago, and people are tired.

I have just started to listen to the book. Not far enough in to comment but recognise the issue you raise.

I could not agree more. I encountered the same problem co-running a club which had 200 members and was also open to non-members. People were more than happy to enjoy what we worked hard voluntarily to put on to entertain. Persuading anyone to step up to take on even small tasks to help out when someone else needed to step down was another matter.

In the end, we closed for other reasons but it was becoming very hard for those of us left doing the work that far more of us used to do. What used to take me a few hours a week doing one role was becoming almost a full time job for me doing four. I still volunteer, I always have done. Even when I was working full time I volunteered at weekends, hospital radio for many years and leading walks for Ramblers. Now I do other things but it’s still one full day and two half days for three different organisation plus a bit of work from home.

Community spirit is a state of mind. Few people don’t have some time to spare.

Those new houses would bring in new blood, people who might keep those community activities going; families with children who will join Brownies and Scouts and would have joined the youth club. Active children often means parents willing to help out with club organisation.

People might be interested in the government stats on volunteering for 2024/25.

www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-life-survey-202425-annual-publication/community-life-survey-202425-volunteering-and-charitable-giving

17% of adults had participated in formal volunteering at least once a month in the last 12 months, no significant change from 2023/24 (16%).

Rates of formal volunteering at least once a month have declined from a high of 27% in 2013/14, when push-to-web data collection commenced on the Community Life Survey, to a low of 16% in 2023/24. This includes a particular decrease in rates between between 2019/20 (23%) and 2020/21 (17%), when rates may have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the associated restrictions and guidance introduced in the UK.

Age

Compared with the average for adults in England (17%), adults aged 65 to 74 (23%) and aged 75 and over (20%) were more likely to participate in formal volunteering at least once a month. In contrast, adults aged 25 to 34 (11%) and aged 35 to 49 (16%) were less likely to participate in formal volunteering at least once a month compared with the average for adults in England (17%).

Gin For a minutes I thought we lived in the same village

Nearly 1500 new homes have been built in our village over the last five years or so. It's made no difference to the number of people who want to volunteer for anything. The Scouts and Girl Guides are always looking for helpers. The same 12 people have been in the village gardening group for nearly twenty years. Someone new is heading the Village Society, which is nice. The same 8 people have been litter picking for nearly 10 years - all people originally from the village.

They built a children's play park and skate board park. The skate board park had to be closed because the teenagers were leaving drug paraphanalia there. The slide in the children's park was dismantled and left in bits.

The gardening club over the last ten years has planted thousands of bulbs around the village in all the green spaces. They look amazing for a few months. Local people are picking them and selling them and the gardeners club has to keep putting notices in the local Facebook page asking them not to.

The two local WI clubs have amalgamated because they have so few members. A response on Facebook to their advert for members was 'We're modern women. We don't have to work around the house. We have cleaners and if we want to eat at home we can order in.'

Our children get the world we deserve.

Perhaps people have become fed up with being taken for granted.

Sadly.

technology, mostly so called smart phones have made a huge contribution to present day life styles.. just think about it...

I think there are a number of things causing the drop in volunteering. No group wants to include teenagers for regular volunteering any more as there is too much health and safety regulation now (same for teenage jobs) so the habit is not formed early. Volunteers once included stay at home parents/mothers once children were at school, but now most couples need to work to pay a mortgage/buy a property. 2 working parents means more retired grandparents are heavily involved with childcare (or care of their own parents as people live longer but in poorer health). These pressures coupled with a society that spends more time these days thinking about individual wants and needs means the focus is less on society as a whole. A direction of “more me and less us” I fear. Fewer and fewer people will regularly put to one side what they want in favour of what others want or need.

I heard it too - so much real sense and genuine thought gone into it!!!

I really like Gordon Brown, haven’t read his book yet so cannot comment on that but from what the OP says I get some of the gist. I agree that we do need to work together in our own communities to try to change things, I think we are all guilty of waiting for politics both locally and nationally to just happen without any input from us except on the day we vote.
Gordon has always struck me as a sincere and caring individual, someone much more worth listening to than Blair.

Nothing like nimbyism to unite a community, every village and town has got banners up Not In My Back Yard in this area,
so where do they expect houses to be built.

All clubs struggle to get active organizers even participant's , they socialize on line not face to face

I think it goes further back, remember Mrs Thatcher saying ‘there’s no such thing as society’?

Casdon

I think it’s time for a lot of younger people. Most women work outside the home, hours of work and commutes have meant that people are time poor. There’s also mental load. There was an interesting article on the BBC News page about that yesterday. Women take the brunt of responsibility for everything - life is a lot less straightforward than it was fifty years ago, and people are tired.

Yes this.
They barely get an hour to themselves before bedtime.

Some also do long commutes.

A reason they also do not watch much TV, do not have a TV licence, and a host of other things.

[Didnt notice Casdon also mentioned commutes].

I do think part of is just “people”

I worked full time when all my children were “children”.

I was also a volunteer in two capacities in their primary school, I was a School Governor and sat on the PTA and I also sat on another Governing Body within our unitary council, which oversaw all the schools governing bodies (before the times of “academies”.

I really enjoyed what I’d did, it was a lot of work and strangely all the same people haha.

My dear school friend didn’t work, and volunteered at her children’s school and for the NSPCC, raising funds. An endless stream of organising raffles, fetes, balls, outings etc etc. When her children progressed to Secondary schools she then also volunteered for the local Stroke Group, where she’d commander me to help out on trips like 10 pin bowling l, coach trips and karaoke, it was both hysterical and hilarious!

It takes “people” to want to get involved and lots of people just don’t want to for a myriad of reasons.

You cant do any of that[except weekends maybe when you catch up with "life admin" etc], if you are out of the house at 7.15am, and not back until 6pm, type thing.
Unless you are Superwoman or Superman.

Gordon’s debate was not particularly about volunteering but that civic pride has greatly diminished and more and more people have little regard for their community and how it is administered.

Not many people get local ñewspapers these days relying on the internet to provide local knowledge but this tends to cover what is not working and inefficiencies. I feel that there is so much negativity with little enthusiasm to make things better,

The British news is very negative these days.So is ours but they take it to another level in the UK. Very depressing. I don’t think it was like that in the past, I remember the 1960 s, swinging London, very positive. Everyone went round being happy and hugging each other !

It was a gorgeous morning here & I walked to local"beauty spot" with the dog. Honestly, everyone said hello, people I normally just acknowledge stopped to chat, I don't think I saw one sad or pensive face - mainly the weather but isn't there a saying "smiling is contagious?" I think we were spreading feel-good vibes around.

So talking positive doesn't change anything but as long as it doesn't involve a lot of spin & self-promotion, think it does a lot of good.
Realistically now nearly everyone goes back to work within 18 months of having a baby, & then is likely to be full-time by the time they're in secondary school, there's less exposure to community & also less time, then when they retire they won't have the local network we had & also may well feel they deserve a rest! & men are retiring 2 years later & women 7 years later, so that has to be a reason for less volunteers too.

midgey

I think it goes further back, remember Mrs Thatcher saying ‘there’s no such thing as society’?

I think she fostered a real shift towards individualism.

However, the broader context of her comment also included a nod towards communal duty.

She wasn't entirely rejecting the notion of 'society', rather one that was based on socialist principles, and 'State dependency'.

It's an interesting debate. I don't think there's any one reason why people don't volunteer or become active in their communities as they used to do, but a mixture of causes which others have pointed out.

I definitely think we are all, to some degree, more 'time-poor' though. In our demographic we can find ourselves looking after grandchildren or becoming carers for family members - or both at the same time and, as the services that once helped support these situations have been either withdrawn or are underfunded and thus reduced (think day-care centres for example), then time becomes a precious commodity - especially if one is also still working.

Then there is the "paradox of convenience" re digital systems that are supposedly making our lives easier.

According to ChatGPT - I once had a long 'conversation' with this bot and its circuits regarding this paradox... digital systems do make things easier overall, but they also steal your time by bundling multiple functions together; expose you to 'background' processes you were not previously aware of but now have to be involved in - and continually add layers of verification and confirmation... so that posting a cheque on your way to the shops felt a lot more simpler and was less time-consuming.

From my own perspective - back in the day, my entire admin load could be kept in one cupboard drawer... now I have a small office with a desk, computer, printer, tiny filing cabinet, and loads of 'admin clutter'. And I spend a lot more time in there than I did with the cupboard drawer...

Right through my 20s and 30s I lived in housing co-operatives and was on the committee and lately the chair in both. It was interesting work and I enjoyed it. I was also on the committee of a housing society here in Manchester for a couple of years. Apart from doing "ring and chat" during the first lockdown I have not volunteered since because I am no longer mobile and i do have some side hustles to occupy my time.

nanna8

The British news is very negative these days.So is ours but they take it to another level in the UK. Very depressing. I don’t think it was like that in the past, I remember the 1960 s, swinging London, very positive. Everyone went round being happy and hugging each other !

I dont take a daily paper but today in the local cafe I picked up the Torygraph, all doom and gloom no wonder so many are depressed.
I really don't need that kind of of so called news.