#SupportingLocal

Earlier this year as always in our household the children where deciding what to give up for Lent. I must make an admission that I am not the most religious type however Lent has always been good period to teach the children the values of what they have, take for granted and to really get them thinking and talking about certain aspects of their own lives.

Every year without fail I get the ‘Daaaaaddddd (always in an elongated way I hasten to add) what are you giving up?’ and as the saying goes I never ask my kids to ‘do something I am not prepared to do myself’.

Every year does get harder and harder to find something to do though and this year was no exception – abstinence on alcohol (I don’t drink that much honest!), give up smoking (I have never smoked), give up chocolate (I’m no chocoholic), give up TV (never been a Telly Addict).

So what to do, well we were if you remember this year at the height of the Horse Meat scandal and during this period via Twitter I had connected with Charlotte Farringdon (@charliegeorge1) who was the co-founder of the campaign @Local4Lent.

Now in my business and my own life values I am a huge advocate for #supportinglocal #shoplocal and this campaign, which was to give up supermarkets and buy all food, produce and services from local retailers, really looking to inspire local communities to look locally at supporting themselves, was indeed positive and hit a chord with me. 

‘Eureka!’ I said in an almost Archimedean way ‘That’s what I am going to do’

So that’s what I did, but that would be a very boring blog post now wouldn't it so why have I felt the need to speak to the masses well this #Local4Lent continued long after the period of Lent and has almost become a way of our family life now.

Several things have happened as a direct result of our change to shopping local:

• We now know our local butcher, fruit and veg shop, local coffee shop/restaurant owners by name and often talk about various things happening in our community. Indeed as part of my business support I have connected a local residential home with several of these local businesses and developed better service provisions for them as a result – #communitybuilding
• We have saved money!!!! Yes I know it maybe does not seem possible to many “Oh using local shops you have to pay more” I hear often. Yes that might be the case sometimes but we don’t throw half our food away now – ONLY BUY 1 APPLE IF YOU WANT/NEED 1 APPLE for example. And on more than one occasion as regular customers we have been asked to try different things or have additional things put in for us (but best not say where this is just in case everyone starts going there J)
• Whilst visiting anywhere with the children now they will always be on the lookout for local shops, coffee shops, restaurants and the such like and will often say we can’t go in there it’s not a local shop (I fear a positive brainwashing has occurred)
• I have always been a keen cook and baker of many cakes and breads however all meals within our house are now made freshly made with local shop bought ingredients and again my children do take a keen interest on where the food has come from and what is in the meals prepared.
• Finally we even, as a family, took it one step further and as a mini-experiment and a great game for the kids whilst on a holiday break here in Lincoln we set ourselves the task of just going to shops, cafes, restaurants, activities that where both local and recommended via local people on twitter or in the local establishments we went into (a future blog will appear on this, watch this space). Some amazing businesses and people we met too!

After doing some research and due to my love for all things Twitter related I know that each area of the country indeed the world has different campaigns, movements, organisations set up to encourage people to #shoplocal or #buybritish or #supportlocal my challenge to you dear readers is this call to arms:

Think about what you can do!

Think about what you can change!

and go and find out about things, talk to people and above all

Engage in your local community!

you never know you might just find something you never knew existed

Thank you for reading and remember,

“With hope and belief there are no limitations”

Stephen

Pirates and Care Homes

So where to start my first blog post … well with PIRATES and CARE HOMES seemed as good a place as any.

I was recently listening to a radio programme which was discussing children’s literary characters and film figures that are pirates and what this evoked as an image – Hook (Peter Pan), Long John Silver (Treasure Island) and Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of Caribbean)  to name but a few.

So if I was to ask 100 people, just like in a Family Fortunes style, I am pretty sure that I would get a response somewhere along the lines of: Eye patch; Wooden leg; Polly the parrot; Jolly Roger; Sailing Ships; Sea shanties; “Argh Jim Lad”; certainly for me it all ends in a likeable rogue who can always bring a smile to your face when you speak like a pirate.

But this brings me onto what this set me thinking about.

This perception of the pirate characteristics above has been developed through childhood and adulthood with literature, films etc. however this perception is not how a pirate is in the here and now, is it? These are all images from a long time ago that we still hold as good today but you ask anybody who has been approached or has unfortunately been kidnapped by todays pirates, please ask Captain Phillips or Colin Darch (or the WI), these jovial characteristics are not an accurate portrayal of a pirate in the present.

So why did I say this first blog is on pirates and care homes, well this again got my thought processes continuing on perception and how that plays a huge part in how we feel, speak or even make informed decisions on what we perceive as true reflections.

So let’s do our Family Fortunes pitch again this time the question for our 100 people (with no direct link to the care industry) is What is the first thing that you think of when I say ‘Care Home’?  Again please afford me my views here, I would say a high majority would be – ‘Old people’, ‘Sitting around in winged chairs’, ‘Smelly’ (I actually had this said to me a couple of weeks ago) or ‘Abuse’ (due to recent press coverage).

As before with our wonderful pirates, this perception is not how Care Homes are in the here and now, is it?

I can’t say that it isn't still, in some small part, however there are amazing provisions within Care Homes that are not hitting the headlines or being held up for all to see for these perceptions or images for people to change.

This has to change!!!!! A hard process I know as we don’t do positive stories unless there is a huge back story (please reference X-Factor culture for this) however greater awareness and positive values can change perceptions. Even if this is just to break down some of those misconceived images and gets people to start thinking about care in a more positive way then this can only be a good thing right?

Please take time today to think – Are today's  pirates exactly how we see them? Are today’s Care Homes exactly as we see them?

I thank you for taking the time to read this first of what I hope will be many blogs in the future

“With hope and belief there are no limitations”

Stephen