Whose group is it anyway?
Dear
Aunt Agony
Our group has become involved with a development worker from a major regeneration initiative who is trying to dominate things and take us in a direction most of the members disagree with. Unfortunately we need the money. What can we do?
Agitated of Allestree
Dear Agitated,
| "Government
of the group by the group, for the group…" From the Charnwood Street Address by Abe Lincoln's lesser-known brother, Sid. |
Beware of development workers bearing agendas! Often a national charity, local authority, health authority or government scheme arrives in an area and their paid development workers start setting up new groups or trying to steer existing ones in a direction. This may suit their objectives but not necessarily those of the groups.
If your group already exists and a development worker suddenly starts taking it in a different direction, the members of your group are quite entitled to question this. The group was set up with specific aims and objectives, so why change them? If you're a registered charity, you have to be extremely careful about making significant changes to the way you operate as there's a danger of stepping outside your stated charitable purpose...and this will bring problems with the Charity Commission. Remember, it's your group - you run it, not some outside development worker.
Sometimes development workers set up a new group to meet some target of their project. The problem with this is that unless it has arisen from a definite need, the members won't feel as if they own it. Groups should be run by their members for the benefit of the target client group.
What so often happens is that the development officer drives the group along, doing everything for it and then moves on. The group then collapses because it never really had the support of its members. A good development worker encourages members to do things for themselves, so when they leave, the group continues to function effectively.
This isn't to say that development workers are necessarily a bad thing. Often they come as part of a funding package which brings much needed revenue to the group. But you should still ask yourself the question "why are we getting involved with this?" If it's just for the money and that involves working in a way you're not happy about, ask yourself just whose agenda are you following? If it's not the one your group agreed when it started, should you really be doing it?
(from Network News, May/June 2003)
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