Topping up the social capital bank account
Topping up the Social Capital Bank Account
No civic unravelling here, thank you; we want mass volunteering for literacy to make a nation-sized deposit in the bank account of social capital.
Out of teaching, in a new existence as a freelance small business owner, gone are relationships with colleagues. Gone too is the common purpose of great outcomes for children and young people which we pursued together and gone - for a top up of the emotional bank account or an innovative way to embrace difficulty - is the ready pot of social capital from which I drew. Now, reality is the unfamiliar state of lone working and finding other ways to access relationships, with everything done at a distance.
If social capital defines relationships as a resource from which we gain ‘human capital’ such as knowledge, skills or further connections, then investing in the ‘bank account’ of social capital and being mindful of withdrawals is fundamental to start-ups like mine, although of course, all organizations benefit from regular tops ups, wherever and however, we work. At this stage, we should recognise social capital is not a single random act of kindness (not that we don’t enjoy those); social capital is more like your seaside stick of rock, with the word ‘relationship’ embedded throughout, and however much of that stick of rock we wear away, the word remains, reminding us, it’s always about the people.
Meaningfully building social capital requires specific conditions for success: careful planning and implementation support; monitoring actions for their impact, as well as a custodian of the process to hold everyone to account. Starting small, connecting with people by being open about your life (in a genuine way and not being afraid to show vulnerability) is an easy starting point; not sharing your private life but your day-to-day life experiences, which in turn creates a context for sharing theirs. Particularly important for men and boys, where vulnerability may be discouraged, share failures too. Training is a topic to which most can relate, so I am open about struggling to train a working breed dog. I relate my stories of extreme and comic failure, but I model optimism and resilience too; in the quest to be sexier than a pheasant, everyone is a resource and all ideas are welcome. Try this for recall practice someone said, so I did. https://www.facebook.com/share/r/YQHcvBMhcizmL6T4/
In the workplace, sharing professional experiences is a great starting point for building social capital. Bringing together and pairing off various parts of your workforce to explain the nitty gritty of their roles helps everyone understand how each part contributes to the whole. Such discussions develop active listening skills and encourage empathy, and making it a regular feature so that organisations hear and understand - and keep hearing and understanding - the challenges faced by all its parts, means that next time Catering is facing a crisis, the Finance team understand why and can offer a helpful perspective on solutions.
The presence of healthy amounts of social capital removes barriers, including those to education, health and employment, and for this reason, in levelling up with their peers, is a necessity for disadvantaged groups. Of course, building social capital is easy. Using your fine people skills, your ready empathy and active listening ears, your deep emotional literacy and unlimited confidence, it’s a piece of cake. But what if it isn’t easy; what if, to continue the food metaphor, it’s a very hard nut to crack because those skills have never been present in your environment? Further, what if connecting could expose you to shame and make you vulnerable? In those circumstances, how little likely are you to prioritise the building of social capital?
Recently, children’s author and academic Katherine Rundell read aloud on Radio 4 a series of essays entitled ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wonder’. Her essays are in praise of children’s books and remind us of the ‘intellectual freedom’ they offer and the ‘huge worlds’ portrayed within them. Never do I need reminding why reading, whether mastering the mechanics of it or the pleasure of doing it, is as necessary to human thriving as all other basic needs because books are a constant in my universe, but when we consider her message about the many functions of books, we look fully upon a dilemma.
If, according to the philosopher Alain de Botton, art has seven ‘functions’: remembering, hope, sorrow, rebalancing, growth, appreciation and self-understanding, then reading’s functions are infinite. I might list connection, empathy, self-awareness, confidence, resilience, optimism and knowledge; also, activism and provocation, and to borrow from art, hope. Having made my list, I might notice something important: the list highlights that every function of reading is a direct correlation to the skills for building social capital. Further, for groups who need social capital most, often they are those most affected by low reading attainment; for example, 62% of the prison population struggles with literacy and on average, looked after children have lower educational attainment than their non-looked after peers. Fortunately, that connection having been made a long time ago, many organisations exist to tackle poor literacy in children, young people and adults.
Books Unlocked, New Chapters, Inside Stories with Audible and Readconnect are all projects run in prisons and young offender institutions by the incredible National Literacy Trust and in my local area, the Book Trust has supported literacy outcomes in Portland and Weymouth through the Chesil Literacy project. Nationally, the charity Schoolreaders brings together volunteer readers and schools in a practical and proactive way. The goal of Schoolreaders is ‘for all children regardless of background, to leave primary school being able to read well so they can go on to access their secondary education fully and maximize their future life chances’. I would add that with the mechanics of reading secure, then comes the luxury of choosing what to read for yourself, that gateway to ‘huge worlds’, of which Katherine Rundell speaks so eloquently.
So, whether we read for pleasure, knowledge, or mastery, ‘books are door-shaped portals’ to other people and a way to learn about healthy connections, and healthy connections are what we need for social capital.
For charities and other organizations who support reading, volunteers and the time they give make significant deposits to the bank account of social capital. They support the learning, but they model the skills for productive relationships: the resilience, for digging in when it’s hard (like learning to read); the optimism, for believing success will come eventually, and the empathy to sit alongside and share the journey.
Whatever its many benefits, I want to advocate mass volunteering for literacy projects for a nation-sized deposit in the bank account of social capital. If all businesses include in their contracts of employment an agreement that every employee takes part in it, imagine the speed with which we could change outcomes.
Other charities for literacy support are available, but right now, there are volunteer opportunities with Schoolreaders, and with the Shannon Trust, which supports people in the criminal justice system to learn to read and improve other basic skills.
References
‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wonder’, essays by Katherine Rundell https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0023yd2
‘Art as Therapy’ by Alain de Botton and John Armstrong https://www.alaindebotton.com/art/
The Mutty Professor Dog Training at https://themuttyprofessor.co.uk/
School Readers – minimum time commitment of 1 hour a week for a year https://www.schoolreaders.org/volunteer
Tula [“Books are door-shaped”] by Margarita Engle
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/141835/tula-books-are-door-shaped
Shannon Trust – taking applications now https://www.shannontrust.org.uk/volunteer