Mental Health Friday by Farah Damji

Friday afternoon, I took a tour to easternmost (well almost)   Bow to the old Victorian Cemetary  to see one of our customers (they're tenants but they're so much more, tenant / landlord relationship has the connotations of modern day Rachmanism and I prefer the word customer or client to service user, blame our CEO Viv Ahmun,  for inducting me into this customer friendly language) fulfilling the volunteering requirement that we ask all of them to complete, as part of their residence in one of our properties. The minimum is five hours a week and we have racked up a few thousand hours, putting good will and hard graft back into the local communities where our customers live.

She is volunteering at the Providence Row  Housing Association  horticultural therapy project, Ecominds. Seen that amazing eco bar on the top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the South Bank Centre? That's the fruit of this talented lot's endeavours.

I didn't really know what to expect  but the walk through the peaceful but neglected cemetary allowed me some space away from the hustle and the bustle of my day-to-day. There, nestled away in a corner of the rambling plot with spectacular views of the Gherkin, Canary Wharf and the neighbouring crawling council estate, just over the ten foot high stone wall,  were a dozen or so people dressed in gardening gear and steel capped boots busily chopping down trees, planting wildflowers and moving logs of wood. On a portable gas stove there was a   vegetable curry  / spicy chilli bubbling over and some eager stirring  meant the scent rose up into the warm early spring air.  Here,  a real life diorama,  depicted the disparity which is Tower Hamlets Borough,  so much potential and so much wealth, yet such deprivation. Recent reports confirmed that 58% of Tower Hamlets young people lived below the poverty line, so on  10 pounds  or less a day, for an entire family, a world away from the glass cages and luxury penthouses along the river in Wapping.



Paul, one of the founders who was formerly homeless (picture below, third from right, standing)  started Ecotherapy Grounded, and looks like a weathered Jesus, skin worn and sundried with the healthy gleam of  hope in his sparkling blue eyes. Kelvin Barton (left), a former social worker joined Paul and together they run a project on Friday afternoons for people experiencing mental distress  who seek some company and to feel useful and the combination of camaraderie and physical labour  appears to have direct positive results. The project is now in its sixth year with some  volunteers attending consistently over a number of years and all had a good word to say about their experiences on the project, brimming over with a sense of pride and ownership.

I get lots of background noise from various agencies and my colleagues about insisting upon the volunteering aspect of the Kazuri model but this is what makes it different and (touch wood) successful. No other social lettings agency which  rehouses ex offenders, vulnerable women and people from supported housing embeds the community aspect in the offering. By being supported by and interconnected with the local community at the grassroots level, projects which work for the hardest to reach group are primed to succeed, they engage a sense of stakeholder-ship and stewardship at the micro level. This breaks away from the dependency  model  and stigma of social housing and empowers people to feel more confident, straight away.  

This part of the tenancy is made very clear before we offer any propective clients a tenancy and we help identify a local volunteering scheme, in which they are interested  and which doesn't feel like a burden. It looks great on their CV and doesn't affect their welfare benefits, as long as the unpaid work is declared.

Part of the process of desistance is a sense of belonging and being a contributing, participating member of society (a steady job and the love of a good woman), and we've watched our customers evolve and blossom as they reaffirm their social bond through this simple gesture of restorative justice. Volunteering work has lead to paid work and sustainable employment, through increased self confidence and self worth.

I was truly impressed by the team spirit, the real sense of equality and the obviously great sense of achievement which has manifested itself in the corner of that tumbledown graveyard. Trees are being cleared away so that butterflies and other insects will pollinate the area and the life cycle is restored by repairing broken links in the food chain. Many of the service users have been chronically homeless, have multiple needs and  can suffer from a dual diagnosis. Some have long histories of offending behaviour. Something about a good bit of hard graft and being around people who also want to move into an empowered, authentic self has more than ticked the statutory boxes of reducing depression and reoffending. I left feeling pleased that I had taken the time out to go and visit our customer on the project and we are actively looking at how we can refer more of our clients, particularly those in Tower Hamlets, into this patently effective way of boosting health, self esteem and well-being.

Rt Hon Mr Iain Duncan Smith, take note, this is not compulsory, it is volunteering into community projects in return for a clear, contractual benefit ( housing and supported tenancy). Dump the failing Work Fare  Program and try this instead!

For more information please contact Ecominds directly on kbarton@prha.net