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.