Allder Project Manager

My first Community Development job was with The Children’s Society as Allder Project Manager. As I had no previous experience I think I got it on the back of my teaching qualification and the fact that I was an approved foster parent. Basically I was told I was to work with women and families, plonked down in an upstairs room of a church building and left to get on with it. I had absolutely no idea where to start. These days I would start with door knocking. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it then. I probably did not have the aplomb, would have been dumbfounded what to say and too shy. It would have felt intrusive.

Instead I started with a market stall and helium balloons. The freebie helium balloons were the child magnet and through that I got talking to the parents. I then had a contact list and we had a discussion event. ‘I’ had migrated to ‘we’ by then as we had recruited a part-time project worker.   Viv was a brilliant artist. She used to say she could run an arts workshop from the boot of her car.

I sometimes find it hard to pinpoint why some things become a runaway success and others flounder. The women we had in that initial group were good at recycling and making do and mend. We started a Bring and Buy in the foyer of the local Library and offered teas and coffees. It escalated to two days and within a couple of years had moved in to a shop premises with a launderette and café.

The whole thing caused an absolute furore. The priest at the church did not like it because we were competition to his market day tea and coffee making. The Children’s Society fund raising team did not like it because they had a charity shop about a mile away and felt we were taking income from them. The women involved loved it because the money they gained selling their cast offs was enough to pay for a loaf of bread or a pint of milk when maybe they had nothing.

These women, to my eternal shame, knew the exact price of every basic food stuff. I always remember a lovely young woman saying to me, ‘I can give Johnny an extra bag of crisps because I can afford that, but not an xyz’. Perhaps the obesity epidemic has its roots in this.

We just rocked AND we had fun. I would never have held this up as an extremely innovative project. It seemed obvious to me. Instead of offering poor people cheap things through a charity shop, let them control it themselves. Some great people came and helped. I am still friends with Jill who came in as a housewife and ended up running parenting classes and training to be a social worker. She painted the shop sign in her garage. Rags & Roses we called it. It won a Barclays Community Action Award.

There were management issues that make me laugh when I think about them now. We worked with women with mental health issues and while they did have food hygiene training there was the odd moment (in front of customers as it was all open plan) when food would be picked up off the floor and slapped on the plate. Selection of goods put up for sale left something to be desired. We were a collective decision making body so standards were not necessarily mine.

What in hindsight did I do wrong? I didn’t do enough to take people of influence with me. I have made this mistake several times. Possibly I could not have taken some of these people with me because I had had the idea and not them or they just thought it was a stupid idea and wanted it stopped.

I didn’t exploit the publicity I had. I had a lot of interest and I didn’t realise the power of the media then. I thought if I worked beneath the radar my detractors would not be so angry, but in hindsight, positive publicity would have protected me.

It needed a better exit strategy when I left. I was only funded for 5 years. We did a brilliant job of closure with the participant residents, but not for the business, but in reality, looking back, I did not have the decision making power to do that.

I have seen many well run charity shops since then, but nothing that matched its chaotic uniqueness.   A couple of months ago I went to my local walk-in Health Centre. On hearing my name, the receptionist, who I did not recognise immediately and obviously did not recognise me, said, ‘oh, I used to know a Hazel Durbridge at the Allder project’ and then proceeded to tell me what a great time they had all had at the project, getting invites to the Houses of Parliament etc. It made me feel good inside.