I guess it all started at a ladies conference, long story but here’s the initial conversation with my wife. “Are you free on the 30th April?” “Why?”, “I need your help with music at a ladies conference”. So there I was with a couple of other blokes at an all ladies conference and after playing drums settled down in the balcony to read my book until the free coffee and cake turned up at the interval.
Debra (Green) stepped onto the stage and started recounting her experiences with Redeeming Our Communities, and I remember thinking, “Wow that’s what Glasgow needs!” At the time the City of Glasgow was and still is having issues with sectarianism, football hooliganism and unfortunately there had been a number of serious criminal incidents reported in the media, which had been widely publicised which were not truly reflective of the wonderful city I had grown up in.
Let me tell you a little about Glaswegians - they are friendly, have hearts of gold and love their city and the city itself has a wonderful cultural heritage, beautiful architecture, and sadly, its fair share of problems. For those of us who have grown up and lived our lives in the city it breaks our hearts to see the problems of social deprivation, hardship, unemployment and many of the other issues the city faces.
I heard on that day in April 2011 a way of being involved in part of the solution. Much is made of the current Governments “Big Society” and I tend to agree with it. We are all to varying degrees part of the problem but much more importantly part of the solution. That’s why I want to be involved in change in my community because it is my problem and I do care about it.
I spoke to Debra on that day at the ladies conference and said, “where do men fit into all this?” and she was quite clear that we and I did. Heart pounding I realised that I had to get involved and asked what I could do and over the next couple of weeks exchanged email messages with Debra and Jennie at the ROC office in Manchester.
Since then I have started to form a network of links in the area, become a ROC Ambassador, ideas and projects are emerging. A number of community police officers have gotten involved and Debra came again to Glasgow to help lead a ROC Conversations at the end of October as well as to meet with some key stakeholders in Strathclyde Police. Not all of this is my doing but it is a real encouragement that when communities and people act together change can happen.
If I could say one thing about ROC it is this, If you love your community and what you see around you is breaking your heart, get involved, do something about it and you will not regret it.
For more information on how YOU can become a ROC Ambassador, click here.
