From 2013 to Today: Reflections and the Road Ahead

January 5th this year marked the big return to work for most of the nation, including Voice4change England, after a well-earned Christmas break. For me, though, the date has a particular significance beyond the beginning of another year of work. Thirteen years ago, on Jan 5, 2013, I took over as the new Director of V4CE.

People have asked me to reflect on the changes I’ve seen over the years since that opening working week, when I took on the leadership of the organisation.

That’s not an easy thing to do in a single blog piece, but I’ve considered the proposition. Here are a few thoughts to some of the direct questions that have been put to me.

How has V4CE changed over the past decade?

The short, blunt answer is we are bigger, with a larger turnover and more staff members. There were six staff members back in 2013, armed with an annual budget of around £180k. I was brought in to negotiate a potential merger with fellow infrastructure organisation NAVCA. Mergers were very fashionable at the time. Runnymede, ROTA, and BTEG all looked into it at some considerable expense, time and effort. However, like them, ours came off. The pull of organisational independence proved to be too strong on all sides. The few that did happen seemed to have more in common with coordinated asset stripping than positive mutual integration. I was advised to consider spending off the reserves and begin winding the organisation down. Straightaway, I decided that wasn’t going to happen. My plan was to build.

By 2015, through hard work and a committed group of staff and trustees, we were able to stabilise financially and move on with our programmes. Membership went up from around 400 orgs to 500 plus. It marked the beginning of a long journey to reimagine the purpose of our founding objectives. Rethinking what infrastructure support looked like in the 21st century would take several years, culminating in the creation of our Grants Team in 2020 and the launch of the Pathway Social Invest project in November 2022.

What has stayed constant in its values?

In terms of our values, one constant has remained throughout my time: a belief in putting the interests of members and associates at the forefront of our work. That, for me, remains a strong value. This is also the challenge for V4CE as it celebrates the 20th anniversary of its creation. We also have to ensure, as a civil society organisation, that we champion the rights of all to play a full role in civil society – whether that is through voting, volunteering, enterprise development, working with patient consultation groups, becoming school governors, LA Councillors… and yes, even becoming MPs.

One moment or change you’re particularly proud of

There are many incredible moments that I have been proud of over the years: the jam-packed Alternative Perspectives and Flip the Script conferences, respectively in 2014 and 2016, which brought the sector together to really thrash out issues of social change, inequalities and youth voting engagement; the sold-out screening of the film Blacks Britannica and debate at the British Film Institute that featured contributions from sociologist Colin Prescod, the actor Lenny James and legendary political thinker Sivanandan in 2016; V4CE writing the first published piece on Covid and Race in April 2020; founding the Pathway social investment fund in 2022; and being nominated for the British Community Awards at the House of Lords. There have been many special moments to consider. However, if you were to pin me down, then it would be the decision to set up our own independent infrastructure team.

Even in the mid-2000s, we had talked about setting up a regional support structure that could operate across the nine regions of England. Today we have it in place. Here, I thank the Indigo Trust and former Trustee, the late Elizabeth Balgobin. They helped advise me on how to set up a team to provide over £2.7m in grants for struggling organisations within 18 months of its creation – the first BME-led organisation to deliver more than a million pounds in grants in charity history.

One hope for the next phase of the organisation

As a society, we are clearly heading into a new era of political instability. Many people have characterised it as a movement towards the Far Right. However, what is more telling for me is the collapse of traditional institutions and parties that hold society together. Years of failed policies and broken commitments have taken their toll on the electorate, who have become disillusioned, cynical, and yet conversely more demanding of their political representatives.

The organisations that I think will be capable of flourishing in the future, I believe, will be those that are able to bring people together – particularly across barriers of race and class. Forty years ago, this would have been easy. Independent voluntary organisations such as the Indian Workers Association (IWA), Pakistani Worker Association, Bernie Grant’s Black Trade Union Solidarity Movement and so on were at the forefront of mobilising and organising campaigns. Charities would lead in lobbying and creating the space for public debates to take place on the things that mattered to ordinary people. Going back further, we could also include the labour movement in that mix. The examples of the Grunwick dispute and Imperial Typewriter strike were instances of BME-led working-class struggles, also supported by a range of independent working-class voluntary organisations.

Unfortunately, these moments are seen today as dusty historical relics of the past, with little relevance for a new generation. Voice4change England, alongside its members, strategic partners and supporters, is facing a challenge in civil society riven by depoliticisation. My one hope, therefore, is to create a new movement and a new history for our time.

Some decisions in the world are too important to be left to so-called “experts” and politicians. Democratic renewal and strengthening of ordinary people’s voices at a community level has always been important to our work. It is going to be even more so in an increasingly polarised world going forward.

Kunle Olulode

Director, Voice4Change England