Blog

It would have been easy to ignore the quiet festival of politics amid the loud hubbub of the Fringe. I am glad I didn’t.

Listening to the hopes and dreams of young carers was by far the most inspiring event at the Parliament. Three youngsters talked about what it was like to care for someone in their family. The audience was clearly amazed by what young carers deal with every day. I was completely humbled by these young people; their sense of pride and total commitment to helping their families.

It was soon time for the wake up call. According to latest figures we know there are at least 100,000 young carers in Scotland. That is one in every ten. And they save the public purse 7.6 billion a year. But research shows only 3% currently get any support. According to the latest figures from The Princess Royal Trust for Carers, over 90% said they got no support from their schools or GPs. It’s a shocking indictment.

And with the threat of cuts to services looming, it’s absolutely critical that local authorities sit up and take notice; support is vital to these youngsters. Cuts would have a devastating impact on young carers and the families who depend on them. Improving the care of the family members would have a positive impact on their lives and alleviate their responsibilities. But with services pushed to the brink amid fierce budget cuts and many families living with undiagnosed conditions, the best hope for the families is to give young carers regular breaks, one to one support and a chance to come together and forget about their responsibilities.

Let’s hope the recent Young Carers strategy doesn’t turn out to be a pointless list of targets. Get in touch with Princess Royal Trust for Carers to find out more about young carers.

Unlike my 13 year old brother, I am looking forward to the start of the new school term. I will carry on doing paired reading with an S3 pupil from a high school, as part of a group of business volunteers who give time and encouragement to young people in North Edinburgh.

My mentee goes to a school that is working hard to help pupils aspire to the future they deserve, in one of the poorest areas of the city where many of the parents don't work. So far, paired reading has proved to be one of the hardest things – and one of the best – that I have ever done with an hour of my week.

As term starts, the news that Scots pupils have passed a record number of highers has been welcomed. But it's overshadowed by the unemployment figures out this week that show rising numbers of young people joining the dole queue. In some areas it has more than doubled.

So it's a good time to ask, what can we do to motivate young people into work and how can schools get the message across about the benefits of a job?

Curriculum reform opens doors to the possibilities. And the business community are well placed to step in here to show the value of problem solving, working with others and what it means to make the most of opportunities. We can’t teach a young person how to be enterprising but we can nurture and encourage curiosity about different jobs and the value of independence. No teenager will argue that it's a good thing to have money in your pocket.

Other volunteers in the North Edinburgh business group are from catering, financial services, fitness and leisure and a range of backgrounds. We get involved in mentoring, shadowing, or leading a workshop in job preparation skills.

The North Edinburgh group was the first in the city set up and delivered by the charity Scottish Business in the Community who now have funding from the council to roll the employability skills programme out to every school, including special schools.

Regardless of what you think about businesses getting involved with schools, the feedback is that the experience is extremely valuable for pupils and staff. Teachers say young people respond differently to adults from the ‘real world’ outside the school walls who bother to take time out to talk to them.

Now, SBC are looking for more businesses to set up groups for every school in the city to get more young people switched onto the opportunities and realities of the range of jobs in different sectors.

It's one positive way to open young people up to possibilities out there; a glimpse of what their future might look like. I remember one mock interview I did with a bright fourth year pupil who was extremely enthusiastic about being a hairdresser. I asked her would she like to work for an existing salon, or set up her own business. Her eyes widened and she said, “Do you think I would be able to?”

I volunteer at local schools because it’s fun, rewarding and because young people need to be able to draw on every resource available to them. If you would like to be one of them you can contact Scottish Business in the Community.

It’s blindingly obvious that we need a new way of doing business. I for one am sick to the back teeth hearing about bankers and bosses bonuses for average performances. Capitalism and the relentless pursuit of profit at the expense of people and the environment is failing us.
 
Social business models on the other hand prove time and again that businesses can succeed and do 'good'. Microcredit is emering from the social business movement as one of the ways we can bring change, from the bottom up. The news that the Grameen bank could be coming to Glasgow is a breath of fresh air.
 
Grameen started with $27 back in 1983 by Nobel Prize winning economist Muhammad Yunus. He took a radical idea and made history with it. The bank gives small loans to people at reasonable cost to help them start or expand businesses and ultimately get them out of the poverty trap.
 
Grameen, meaning 'village', started as a tiny homegrown project. Today it gives loans to over seven million people, across 78,000 villages in Bangladesh. The majority are women, typically the most powerless group in Bangladesh. And the repayment rate is over 96% which is better than many high street banks can report.
 
It could be because no borrower is left to just get on with it. Each is responsible for their loan. But everyone belongs to a group and every member has to approve all loans. They give each other encouragement and practical help. So it creates a community dynamic, a kind of social pressure. People don’t want to let the others in their group down.
 
These microcredit programmes have expanded into Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and the US. But will it work in Glasgow?
 
Pockets of poverty in Glasgow and across Scotland are different. The poverty is not about a lack of resources. It’s welfare state poverty, a kind of poverty of spirit. Handouts take away people’s dignity, initiative and sense of responsibility. But as Yunus points out, the ability to spot opportunities is universal. And Grameen have shown that genuinely innovative thinking can solve seemingly intractable social problems.
 
Microcredit could create the conditions to turn things around as part of a wider effort. To be free of poverty, all aspects of life need to be addressed from better housing to health, support services and schools. Let’s hope we can embrace this truly innovative opportunity and grab it with both hands.