What is an empowered city?

Recently Tom Riordan, Chief Executive of Leeds City Council, quoted the following words: "The 19th Century was a century of empires. The 20th Century was nation states. The 21st Century will be a century of cities." This is both a fascinating insight and a clarion call. It reflects the discussion in the city of what Leeds can be and should be. In everything from theatres to places to eat, Leeds has so much to offer.

Pria and myself recently met and part of our conversation was on the theme of empowerment. Empowerment is a word that gets used a great deal. But what is empowerment? And is it really possible? Empowerment in our view is where a person discovers their own power and possibility. It is that paradigm shift where a person sees their gifts and starts to own and release them. This certainly happens. The problem we see with empowerment is not that it doesn't exist ( it does! ) but that we get the picture of how it happens all wrong. We have certainly heard good colleagues talking about 'empowering people' or 'We need to empower him or her' The problem with this is that it portrays us as the ones with the power and the others as not having power. Our task is then seen as somehow giving of our power to the other. We would suggest the real picture is that we cannot empower anybody as empowerment is not a magical power we can give to another. Each person has to discover their own power and potency. What we can do and this is really significant is provide the space, relationships, approach and support for this to occur. I (John) have worked with homeless people for 20 years on the streets of Leeds and have seen people empowered in incredible healing ways as they found their identity, skills and options. It was the clients who did the work and made and lived the changes. Hopefully I supported that process and didn't act too much as an obstacle. The great strength of this understanding is that we recognise that all of us already have great gifts and power but there is a need for this to come alive and flow.

This theme led to a discussion of how Leeds is and can be an empowered city. Where the culture, programmes and partnerships tap into potential of people and support its activation. One example of where this occurs is MAP. MAP is the the Migrant Access Project. It is chaired by Mick Ward, Head of Commissioning at Adult Social Care. A number of leading agencies in the city are part of the board including LASSN, Touchstone, York Street Health Practice and Leeds Refugee Forum.  The project trains people from different communities ( such as the Eritrean, Sudanese, South Asian and East European communities ) to act as networkers. A networker is a bridge  builder between communities and services. These networkers receive training in how benefit, housing, health and other systems work and act as a conduit for accurate and clear information for communities to access services. The Migrant Access Project has completed a fifth round of training to networkers which ended in May of this year. Since then a weekly drop in has been set up to support the networkers. This is proving successful in gaining an insight into community issues and how best to resolve these. The emphasis here is on creating awareness, improving access to services and involving partners to meet with communities. One example is a networker who has a desk at a One Stop Centre and offers support, advice and signposting to members of different communities. She does not take people to services but supports them access them.

There is in this work important themes that can be seen in terms of empowerment. The first is that the networkers are given support, training and ongoing assistance. This allows this work of finding confidence, knowledge and networks to occur. This inner work of growing and becoming a networker is not only for oneself but for service to the wider community. The networker is constantly going out to create conversations and connections. They are continually creating bridges everywhere they go. This tremendously supports services to understand and deliver services in the most understanding and effective way. It also supports communities understand and access services. These links make a real difference as people access the housing, health and social care they need. This model also helps people make that transition to become great citizens of a city. By this we mean people who make the commitment to invest in and contribute to the city.

This is empowerment in practice. People seeing and offering their gifts so our city can be the best for health and wellbeing where the poorest improve their healthcare the fastest. This vision of statutory, third sector, networkers and communities working together for the city and each other offers a picture of what we are doing and can be. It is a present reality and a future promise. The good news is MAP is not alone. Across the city agencies, people and communities are working together for the future. These projects - from St George's Crypt to Genesis to Pafras - all show what we can do together. An empowered city is a city of hope which values people, shares skills, celebrates gifts and serves communities. It's a wonderful thing, that with so much bad news in the world, this work is going on in Leeds.

John Walsh, Support Manager, York Street Health Practice

Pria Bhabra, Migration Partnership, Adult Social Care, Leeds City Council