Making a Difference is a book which aims to help bring about positive change within communities in England and Wales. It is distinctive in being a practical ‘How To’ guide rather than a ‘Why Should’ argument. It provides a practical step-by-step guide for anyone who wants to setup a project or introduce a service that would benefit a significant number of vulnerable or excluded people, at any age, within their local communities, and which is sustainable for a long period of time.
The author draws on many years of experience within the charity sector to guide the reader through the process, explaining each stage clearly and precisely. The reader will be able to identify and develop key information about their project-why it’s necessary, what it will involve and how to approach it, what challenges might be encountered and how to avoid and overcome them. An example of a project, which runs through the whole book, enables the reader to see how each stage might apply to a real-life scenario. Packed with reassurance and useful insights into the workings of the Third Sector, this is an indispensable guide to making the world a better place.
Interview With Author Pamela Walker
In short, what is Making a Difference about?
It is a step-by-step guide to sustainably developing any project or service, benefiting any group of vulnerable or excluded people - a practical toolkit. Project development is a straightforward process, with a logical order of stages to work through, but it could seem quite daunting to the uninitiated. This book gives guidance on every aspect of each stage of setting up a sustainable project – from the first realisation that something needed doing within the Community, and of how readers could help to make that happen, through to looking around at the useful and productive Project that readers will have begun, alongside their Committee and their Volunteers. There are many people in our society who want to make a positive difference, sustainably, to the lives of others, but don’t know where to start, lack confidence in their own ability, or don’t feel they have the necessary skills or experience to set up a project or service. This book provides everything anyone might need to be successful in developing a long-lasting resource that would benefit their community.
What inspired you to write the book?
A TV programme in the early 1980s called ‘Breadline Britain’ led me to 40 years of trying to make a difference as a volunteer and later a professional within the Third Sector, one vulnerable or excluded person at a time. Forty years after that programme was aired, it feels as though we’ve returned to those terrible times on a vast scale, with more people than ever experiencing the quiet desperation of seemingly unsurmountable problems, every day, in isolation. But this time around I can provide all the skills and experience honed during my 40 years in the Third Sector as a resource to enable the readers of this book to provide help to people who are struggling within their own neighbourhoods and communities across England and Wales – between us all we can help people on a massive scale!
Why do you feel that there is a need for this book?
Before I wrote this book there were just lots of ‘Why should’ books, but no practical ‘How to’ guides. I felt that it was time to write it, because it is needed now more than ever. Many people feel helpless and frustrated at their seeming inability to instigate change in their lives or the lives of others that they know are struggling. This book will equip everyone to make a positive difference, explaining how to set up sustainable projects and services that are shaped and guided by the community that the readers live in and the people that they’ll be helping. It will enable people to anticipate, side-step or overcome problems of any size, both while their project is being developed and when it’s established and running.
Who will the book appeal to, and who will it help?
This book will help absolutely anyone to set up any project or service supporting any group of vulnerable or excluded people. It’s written in a straightforward, jargon-free style, explaining the practical workings of the Third Sector, and packed with reassurance and encouragement. It is focused on England and Wales – I am not familiar with Scotland’s legal structure, or the terminology utilised by the country’s Third Sector – but the development process itself can be utilised anywhere.
What do you hope to achieve by writing this book?
I want to give people the tools to be able to effectively make a difference in a constructive and long-lasting way - not to fall by the wayside, disheartened and frustrated at their inability to provide their much-needed project, or to set up something that ends within months just because they didn’t have the tools needed for longevity. (And it might attract people into Community Development as a career – there’s no better job!)
What will be the most challenging aspects of the process for anyone following your step-by-step guide?
That depends to an extent on the strengths of the reader themselves. Some people may have more confidence than others in speaking up at meetings for example or setting up and chairing a committee. Some might find the prospect of speaking with potential funders daunting, or wonder how they could support and manage volunteers etc. But there’s guidance here to help the reader prepare for every step of each stage, whatever their initial skills base – so all will be well. People will need patience though in setting up their project – it’s not a quick process, if done well – it’s a marathon (or perhaps a series of half-marathons!) not a sprint. And it can be challenging to keep focused on the aims of the envisaged project, and not to allow those aims to be compromised. And it can be difficult to resist the temptation to be too ambitious straight away – but small is beautiful, and more importantly manageable while the project becomes established. And while readers will be prepared throughout the book for any potential setbacks that they may encounter – these are ‘business as usual’ – it can sometimes require some inner reserves of strength to keep ploughing on. Or just stubborn determination – whatever works!
Could people use this book to create their own unique Project? Is it really one size fits all?
Absolutely. Project development is invariably the same process, irrespective of beneficiaries. I have used it to develop services for vulnerable and isolated older people, pregnant teens, the nursery-age children of Travelers and Gypsy families, medically qualified refugees, Looked After children etc., and now utilise this process as the Development Manager for the national charity FoodCycle, which provides free, hearty communal meals for absolutely anyone experiencing food poverty or social isolation.
If you were to give one piece of advice to people setting up projects and services, what would it be?
Be realistic: set an achievable timescale, based on the time that you have to devote to this; and make sure that the initial aims of your project are achievable on a small scale (initially at least) with what will be limited resources - it is better to expand your service from a solid and well-tried foundation.
How long did the book take you to write?
I started writing it in mid-Feb 2022, and it took me about a year to finish – working on it for a couple of hours each weekday morning before work, and at weekends. I thought I’d finished it after about 15,000 words (3 months in), but my husband Stephen kept asking me the questions that readers would no doubt want to know the answer to (because I know the step-by-step process so well, sometimes I just assumed wrongly that ‘everyone knows that’). So eventually – another 35,000 words later! - each chapter shows all the working out.
You began your career as a frontline worker, could you tell us more about this?
I have spent almost 40 years within the Third Sector, after seeing a TV programme in the early 1980s called ‘Breadline Britain’ which changed my career plans from physiotherapist to ‘knight on white charger’ – I was very young! I began as a volunteer and subsequently as a paid staff member supporting rough sleepers at an emergency access night shelter, and went on to support the vulnerably housed, people with substance misuse issues, those with severe mental health challenges, women and children who’ve experienced domestic violence, and ex-offenders. It was when I was asked to help to set up a new Women’s Refuge that I caught the Development bug!
You are now the Development Manager for FoodCycle, could you tell us more about the company charity and what you do in your role?
FoodCycle is a national charity which offers a free communal meals’ service in almost 70 Projects across England and Wales, and absolutely everyone is warmly welcomed to enjoy our hearty vegetarian meals in good company. Typically, our guests include low-income families, isolated older people, the vulnerably housed and people struggling to ‘make ends meet’. We also run a free ‘phoned-based ‘Check in and Chat’ service, further alleviating social isolation and enabling us to signpost people to services that could benefit them. FoodCycle’s services are needed now more than ever, and in my role as FoodCycle’s Development Manager, I work alongside my regionally based colleagues in the development of new FoodCycle Projects across England and Wales.
What was the most challenging aspect of writing the book?
I kept thinking that it was finished, when it really wasn’t: My husband Stephen read every ‘completed’ draft – I think there were about fifteen! - and every time his comments and questions enabled me to break each section down further into nitty-gritty practicalities – e.g. ‘What information do you include in initial emails? How do you research unmet need? What the heck’s ‘unmet need’?! What does CIC stand for?’ Every re-drafted answer to Stephen’s many questions made the book easier for readers to use as a development tool, enabling me to explain or expand upon statements that had seemed obvious to me (but weren’t). He also ensured that I didn’t go off on a tangent or pursue any particular hobby horse. In the end I re-read, edited and expanded on the text until I knew that if I tweaked it one more time, I’d throw it across the room and break out the emergency chocolate. I suppose in the end, the first draft (15,000 words) provided the bare bones of the stages of project development, and the subsequent extra 35,000 words explained how that would work in practise.
And what were some of the highlights?
In the end the main highlight was probably finishing the last re-write! And when Ortus Press said that they’d be interested in publishing it I was embarrassingly and unreasonably chuffed with myself. But the real highlight will come when, across our society, people that I’ll never meet will help other people I’ll never know – changing the world one act of kindness at a time.
How is the book structured?
It’s a practical ‘how to’ workbook, so the book’s twelve chapters are in the correct order of the stages of project development, with each chapter building upon the one before: Guidance on what to include in the initial (150 words) project outline, why, and the limits of acceptable flexibility with changes; Initial information-gathering (which is all research is); Setting up and Chairing a committee; Choosing the status of the group – with the pros and cons of the 5 most popular options, from an Unincorporated Charitable Association to a Community Interest Company; Communication; Working with Groups and Organisations; Fundraising; Gaining the support of the local Community; Policies & Insurance; Recruiting and Retaining Volunteers; Attracting Service Users; and Ensuring Sustainability. And readers can follow ‘Jo’s story’ throughout the book – an example that illustrates the progress and challenges for Jo and her committee in setting up a project to help local families struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
And finally, what do you hope that readers will take away from the book?
I want readers to know that they can personally achieve something that they might have long wanted to do but thought they couldn’t - creating a practical and sustainable project or service that will help their community in the long term. I think my hopes for readers is summed up by the quote that I end the book with: ‘Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can’. (Arthur Ashe on volunteering).