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Dashing through the snow with Father Chris … It does not get any more seasonal, even if it feels like there might be a final syllable missing. To be honest we are not really dashing, it’s more a leisurely walk-and-talk, around North Shields. And the snow, the remnants of an early Tyneside flurry, is patchy and dirty rather than deep and crisp and even.
Father Chris is real though – Father Chris Hughes, Catholic priest; the diocese is a strategic partner for the local chapter of Citizens UK, one of five charities supported by this year’s Guardian charity appeal, under the theme of “hope”. The appeal supports grassroots voluntary groups that nurture community pride and positive change, providing an antidote to division and hate.
Citizens UK is all about bringing people and communities together, in order to build a better, fairer society. I’m getting a little tour around the sites of some of its “wins”.
We are accompanied by people involved in those wins: children from two local schools, teachers, mums, parishioners and Sara Bryson the community organiser. There are about 25 of us in all and we are calling it a Walk of Hope. Bryson, an atheist (Citizens is not affiliated with any religion) reminds us that Saint Augustine said hope had two beautiful daughters, Anger and Courage. “That’s the two strands: anger in the community because things aren’t great, and how you respond to that anger. It can either be organised in a way which is destructive and hateful or in a productive, compassionate way.”
First stop, the local Camhs (children and adolescent mental health services) centre. Three students from St Thomas More high school – Lily, Maggie and Brionna – explain that when they got together with Citizens UK to discuss what did and did not work for their mental health, a couple of things came up. First, they wanted a full-time school counsellor, and second, this Camhs building was not really doing it for them. They did not like gloomy rooms, or the bars on the windows.
Who would listen to a few teenagers though? A lot, as it happens. They had meetings, with local MP Alan Campbell, with another local, the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, and with Jim Mackey, now the chief executive of NHS England.
They did not just get a counsellor for their school, they got a commitment for 8,500 mental health professionals in schools across England. “Bridget Phillipson and Alan Campbell both said students at St Thomas More were affecting national policy,” says Lily.
And the Camhs centre? The window bars were removed and the doors painted. Bright orange.
Brionna is wearing a Show Racism the Red Card badge, a campaign started on Tyneside in the 1990s when the Newcastle goalkeeper Shaka Hislop was racially abused by some children, who then recognised him and asked for his autograph. North Shields has a sizeable immigrant community, particularly workers in the NHS and carers.
Hughes’s congregation has been boosted by families from Nigeria, India and the Philippines, but it has led to tensions. “This is where one of my parishioners, a Ghanaian woman, got spat at by a white British woman,” he says as we pass a pub. It happened soon after recent local elections in which Reform UK did well. “It emboldens people.”
Walking through the Meadow Well estate, St George’s flags hang from many of the lamp-posts, and graffiti reads RULE BRITTANIA (sic). “It’s frightening,” says Hughes. “I get people’s anger, but this is classic scapegoating. Immigrants aren’t the problem, the problem is they haven’t been heard. People are losing faith that democracy works. Unless we can reimagine democracy and have people in their community at the heart, it worries me where it will lead. That’s where you get confrontation and violence on the street.”
At the bus station, Mish Sony relates another win. When she was at St Thomas More she and a lot of other sixth formers were struggling to pay full-price bus fares after turning 16. Some were skipping classes or getting off the bus early because they could not afford the whole journey. Sony emailed the bus company Arriva but did not get a reply. “Through our relationship with Citizens we managed to get a seat at the table with the mayor, explained our situation. He emailed Arriva and lo and behold got an answer within an hour.”
Sony and her friends arranged a meeting with Arriva top brass and went along wearing their parents’ work clothes to emphasise they were not adults. “My mum’s a nurse so I wore her scrubs,” she says. And they sang parody nursery rhymes: “The wheels on the bus don’t go round and round …”
The result of this boldness: the Get Around for a Pound scheme across the north-east, offering single fares for a pound on the bus and metro up to the age of 21. It can feel hopeless at the moment, especially as a young person, says Sony, who is now studying pharmacy at Newcastle University. “On your own it’s like there’s no point in talking about or sharing this, who’s going to listen? But having been involved with Citizens UK it’s clear you can make a change, people will listen to you.”
Alexander Scott park used to be a no-go place, strewn with bottles, needles and dog poo. The swings had no seats because they were being eaten by dogs, according to the council. Wendy McConnell, who runs a group called MumsSpace, which is part of Citizens UK, organised a litter pick and arranged a meeting with the council in the park. One of the mums, Penny, addressed them. “I’m not used to public speaking, it was nerve-racking,” she says. “But I’ve got two kids and I thought I’ve got to do this not just for my lot, but so others can enjoy it too.”
And they do. It is clean, the grass is mown, the swings have seats, there is even a zip wire, out of canine reach.
More dog poo issues, I’m afraid, outside St Cuthbert’s primary school, when a bin was taken away so the poo was left on the street. And then started to come into the school, via shoes, bike and pram wheels. “Yuk!” says Ava, whose school this is, summarising the situation succinctly.
Of course Ava and her classmates (Lukas, Freddie and Bella are also here) did not stand for it – they got together, told the council what they wanted and where they wanted it. And this is the site of a double win, because they also got a zebra crossing, with a lollipop lady, after the council initially said it was impossible.
Nothing is impossible, it seems, when you get together and make it happen. Now it is getting cold, so it is time to get together inside and make tea and biscuits happen.
