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Good Luck
But it is because I have been unemployed for so long that I am considering it as an alternative.
"if it is too good to be true it probably is"
I think this is what is concerning me. I know I have an excellent reputation within Southwark's TMOs. As well as having my work being used to show other TMOs as an idea of the direction they should be moving I know our own estate manager has been singing my praises, supportive, ability to understand, if one of us has something in mind by the time we raise it the other has been thinking along the same lines etc.
We are about to make a huge splash as an early adopter of participatory budgetting, subject to board approval, as we are trialling a scheme this year. This is ahead of many councils for which it is actually aimed at with their larger budgets, and again I am the driving force behind this.
I know TMOs have talked about buying into such services, but there is a big difference between talking about it and doing it - even if they need to. After all there are freelancers and consultants abundant out there that they could use, many with much better experience and credentials than I have and they are yet to use them. The only differences that I can see is I have recognised the need, and have a possible foot in the door as 'one of them'.
The problem doing it part time is it makes it difficult with jsa, housing benefit etc. And before someone suggests it, I don't like living on taxpayers as it is, without slapping them in the face by ripping them off as well. I had the opportunity handed to me on a plate to get an easy way back into work, all I had to do was sign three bits of paper and I would now have an NVQ 3 in administration and business.
Is the work sustainable? well it took me three years work to get us the Good Governance Kitemark, and we scraped through it. An independant audit of the TMOs by PWC we had the lowest number of issues raised, and by far the quickest to resolve them. It has taken us five years to even get to the stage where we can start considering resident participation as a serious and sustainable part of our core aims. We are in a much better position than many of our colleagues, and this has been largely down to me. So yes the work is certainly sustainable, but as mentioned it is wether or not the TMOs will recognise the value I have to offer.
There are between 230 and 240 TMOs, the highest concentration of which is in London.
Stuart Marler said:
I don't understand the ins and outs of the benfit schemes but would it not be possible to accept freelance work if it came up at a good rate and temporarily give up your benefits or would this create too many problems getting back on them at the same level?
If the "shared community worker" comes off this would be your best option. However keep pluging away and helping out where you can and you will soon be the 1st choice that people call upon for assistance.
Forgive me for "thinking out aloud" but couldn't you find a sponser to help you get set-up and offer all the services. I am sure that there must be a rich and willing CEO who would want to give something back to the community.
Believe in yourselve and follow your dreams.
One thing I should have probably included in the first post one of my main concerns is that I'm not realy a business type of person. Money is probably the worst type of motivator for me - ie it just doesn't do it. When we first discussed this idea the council officer mentioned a possible salary of £30,000 and this put me off straight away. It was only when I stopped and thought about it did I think it would be a reasonable wage. Five different employers, constitutions, communities, boards etc. multiple projects, funding applications, an extremely wide remit. Thats not to mention evening meetings, events and having to be with a different group the next day. The one time it did come up for discussion among the TMOs the wage being considered by them was between £18000 and £21,000. With renting out the service to others on a ad hoc basis as a way of subsidising this.
A big minus for me as an individual deciding to do it as a business is I would want to work with individuals and groups so that they didn't need me! Probably not a good trait in building up a thriving business.
The other alternative I've been thinking of is for my own organisation to look at setting it up as a service and employing me directly. As a community group we could look for funding to cover the wages and costs for a year or two, and then it would be part of my job to build it up and make it viable long term. All the trappings of self employment but swapping profit and risk for security. It would mean a change in our own policy about employing residents from our own estate, it would certainly mean stepping down as Chair, and probably from the Board itself. However as the TMO is the one who gave me the opportunity to build my skills and support me I like the idea that they will be the ones to benefit long term, and so as a family we would benefit directly and indirectly. It certainly fits my personality a lot better, but really don't know if the others would go for it.
At the moment I just want to consider the options so if the community worker things doesn't come off and I don't get a full time job I have other alternatives open to me to push things forward and possibly create opportunities rather than just waiting for them to come along.