It Started With Good People.

An old ‘Hot Chocolate’ song tells a love story:

An eight-year-old girl, a nine-year-old boy in the back row of the classroom… ‘It started with a kiss’, but develops… How things start is important.

Yesterday I attended a Seagull Theatre directors meeting. We reported to Grace, a representative from Arts Council England…

We reported on the Seagull staff. Existing staff members developing their skills… newly appointed staff bringing different skills… dedication and commitment… understanding their community and the Seagull cause… working together as a team.

We described new plays that have been written, developed and performed.. work with young creatives… provision for neurodiverse people… growing work with the very young… 1940’s day, the carnival… support of adults with Parkinson’s, dementia, learning disabilities… links with art galleries…

Grace was interested, asked good questions, demonstrated support, said that we have a lot that we should be proud of. We should be better at publicising and sharing the good work that we are doing…

It starts with good people. Good people do good things. The good things can be publicised and shared. It’s a good model.

When I was teaching I worked with a good team of skilled, dedicated professionals who understood their community. The staff team did a good job teaching children how to learn, how to live. The good work that was done could be publicised and shared… but it started with good people.

Too often things are done back-to-front. We start with an idea, that’s given lots of publicity. Important people may provide finance; powerful people may try to make it happen, but the people who will operate it or benefit from it aren’t the start. They’re the end.

For those of us with faith, this is the pattern for the church… starting with an inspirational leader, pulling together a random group of people, teaching and motivating them to do good things, be good people and respond to their community. Only then could there be positive publicity.

It started with good people.