The Awakening

Until three or four months ago I was just like millions of others: an average person living an average life and oblivious to the real problems that some in our society have to live with day to day.  Sure, I knew there were people less fortunate than me and when watching programmes like Secret Millionaire there was always a pang of guilt that ‘I should do more’.  Those feelings of guilt always disappeared quite rapidly as I very quickly got wrapped up in my own busy life.  Priorities I suppose.  After all, there is already an army of public services and charities who provide all the assistance that these people require.

Or so I thought.

In November 2011 I decided to slide my toe under the carpet that I had conveniently placed in front of me to hide unforeseen stains: there was something that I felt needed to be done for an individual that I know, a guy who has lost control over his life and yet nothing ever seems to change for him.  I was angry that ‘I needed to be involved’ because of this so-called army of support that I believed was in place.  “I’ll knock a few heads together” I thought and this will galvanise that army to get to grips with ‘Barney’, at which point I could back out gracefully having ‘done my bit’.

The problem though is this.  There isn’t a cohesive army in place. Yes, there are lots of individuals doing wonderful things and there are organisations who work hard to ‘put procedures in place’.  But the more I lift that carpet the bigger the stain that lies underneath appears to be.  I have been truly shocked at some of the things that I’ve found and because of my promise and commitment to Barney it’s impossible for me to walk away.

None of this is rocket science.  It’s a simple matter of collective will and organisation. Perhaps some tough decisions need to be made.

So who is Barney and what is this all about?

Peter is his real name but he is known throughout the area as Barney.  Most people in the Evesham area will know of Barney because he’s regularly in the newspapers for all the wrong reasons.  As we start to peek under that carpet we’ll find that there are a lot of people out there, all with major life challenges and most of whom have been let down by ‘The System’.  They may as well be Barney. 

And that, I believe is part of the problem.  They are all treated the same way as the ‘processes’ available to them are inflexible.  Whilst the assistance available to most would be sufficient to get them back on their feet there are, unfortunately, a group of Barneys who simply aren’t that conveniently shaped round peg.

The Barney that I know is going to die unless we do something rather quickly.

Sorting out the problems appears to be a mountainous task ahead but over the past few months I’ve come to realise that it’s almost impossible to sort out one person’s life when the basic infrastructure is insufficient.  This means that I’ve inadvertently got sucked into a major project which I simple can't ignore.

At the start of 2012 I started the ‘Help Barney’ campaign.  Already a few wonderful people have come forward to offer their assistance and we have formed a group.  I think some progress is being made.  But what we need now is our own army of people to band together to say “this just isn’t good enough and there needs to be change”.

And so the blog.  It’s been quite an emotional few months and acknowledging the daunting project ahead I need somewhere to let off steam and share my thoughts.  I’ll do my best to bring you, the reader, up to speed over the next week or so.  Perhaps then you’ll share my concerns and understand why we need your support to Help Barney.