Pandemic heroes showed us what we were lacking

blackmorevaleOctober 14, 20210 Comment0

Our village awards a silver salver each year for the greatest contribution to the well-being of the community.

The winners this year were, of course, the covid support group: the people who volunteered to go get prescriptions, food, newspapers and more for those in isolation, those caring for the vulnerable or those simply too frightened to go out.

There were and still are many such groups across the Vale. What they uncovered and sought to service was a scale of need, isolation and vulnerability that I do not believe most of us knew was there. There does now seem to be renewed interest in coming together in local community groups and activities, perhaps just as an unconscious result of this understanding.

Another candidate for the salver might well have been the local farmer who, in recognition of the almost complete loss of wildflower habitat hereabouts, planted several acres with bee and bird-friendly plants for the sake of it. No apologies for making the point: caring for people and caring for the environment are not just big ticket, top-down policy matters.

Most of the real action is local, done by real people and real teams directly connected to their communities and places. I am excited to see another volunteer-based initiative bearing fruit across the county with the launch by Dorset Business Mentoring of their Dorset Business Advancement Programme which is looking to share best practice and to tap into the experts we have in our midst.

There are 52,000 businesses in Dorset of all shapes and sizes. More than 98% are small businesses and they are the life blood of our economic activity. These enterprises are formed by, led by, carried out by an army of individuals who work long hours, keep their teams fed and watered… and then have to do the paperwork. To back their skills, hard work, confidence and motivation beyond covid we should not wait for government-funded cavalry riding to the rescue, armed with consultants, health-checks, tick-lists and labyrinthine grant schemes.

Support and advice for small businesses delivered locally by harnessing expert knowledge and understanding and by fostering strong peer group networks is more likely both to be better value for money and to endure. Across the piece, the sum of our individual and community expertise and actions makes a real difference. If we do step up, lend a hand, pitch in – whatever – it is great to know we are not alone.

This is not to deny the benefits of scale in some areas or the proper operation of market economics but it is about challenging the besetting sin of a culture that says, “let the devil take the hindmost.”