What should we offer?

Recently I met with Julia Hayes, Director of Inclusion Creativa. Julia is an educational psychologist and has worked around the world. She is passionate about finding creative ways to include marginalised children and adults in their local services and community, and supporting the staff and parents/carers who make this challenging task possible. The discussion turned around to the subject of what our beloved services and institutions should really be all about, and examples they had seen of those at their best.

What are Universities for? What is the NHS all about? What should schools provide for children? 

Our usual answers to these questions can be easily guessed. 'Universities are there to provide higher education and degrees as a step to a career.' 'The NHS is a service to care for and help the sick.' 'Schools are about children learning a good education.' There is truth in these answers - but is there something else? Is there a vital and vitalizing energy and mission these noble bodies could hold and transmit? And could this power enhance and support the day to day work of the services? We think so.

Most people, be they parents, professionals or customers, have had the experience of walking into a service and you know, straightaway, that they care about the people they work for. You might not be able to say why you know, but you just feel it. In the same way, one of us went to visit a school and as they sat there waiting for the teacher they were struck by the positive atmosphere and real kindness pervading the atmosphere. When this was noted in conversation with the Headteacher, she smiled and said 'Well here we focus on confidence and positive affirmation. That's how we work with the young people and prepare them for life.' This raises for us again the question of what is our core work. This school and many other services have it right. Services that focus on the person, their dreams and hopes and their personal path are the ones that make a difference. 

We started to wonder how all our services and organisations could promote two of the most needed values - hope and peace.  Institutions, such as schools and universities, are well placed to promote and nurture these sister values, despite what may be going on in the wider society. Helping people to see that despite all the bad things are have happened or are happening right now, keeping hope within themselves will help them survive those times. Hope is all about life. It is the centre and light that keeps us going in the worst of times. The American novelist Barbara Kingsolver  in one of her books says, 'The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.'

Peace is about people and also ourselves. Peace is not just the absence of conflict and trouble. Jewish people have the great word 'Shalom' to describe peace. Shalom means completeness, welfare, health and wholeness. It is obviously referring to a state of being - a way of being to oneself and one's neighbour. It is also used as a greeting and a way to say good bye. This understanding of peace is very rich. It embodies the highest aspirations and yet is earthed in everyday expressions of greeting. This is a wonderful picture of what true peace is. It has its heart in the highest and its feet firmly on the ground. 

Years ago I worked with a client who had a long and serious criminal record who had spent considerable time in prison. Today and for several years he has lived a normal respectable life in a normal respectable house. There are a number of reasons for this transformation. One is that he found some peace in himself and that spread out into all the aspects of his life. Just like a stone thrown into a pond the ripple effects are still going on. Peace changed this man and it can change us too. We accept that each of us has to find our own hope and peace. This is a part of our own journey of self discovery and worth. We started with questions and we will end with one. How can we make ourselves and our services real centres where hope and peace can flourish and shine? In our answer lies tomorrow's future.

Julia Hayes, Director of Inclusion Creativa 

John Walsh, York Street Health Practice