By Bob Holman

In July, I was in the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital. In the previous nine months, I had come under different departments for difficulties in swallowing, speech, use of my right hand and breathlessness. Then it was all brought together in the neurology department. The consultant said: "Mr Holman, I am sorry to say that you have motor neurone disease [MND].”

MND adversely affect the nervous system and its muscles. It is degenerative, progressive and life-shortening. My wife, Annette came in to comfort me. We reflected that this was the very week when we had planned to accompany children from Easterhouse to an annual camping holiday in Lincolnshire; it would have been my 39th trip.

A few days later, Annette brought in a clip sent from camp. Children and leaders expressed their sorrow that I was not there. I wept. Then I realised the camp was going well. It no longer needed me. The core of continuity was local involvement, sometimes described as self-help. This article is about the importance of these factors, not the demise of Bob Holman .

After several years in social work, I became an academic. Yet being Professor of Social Work at Bath University did not satisfy me. In 1976, we moved into the former doctor’s surgery on the Southdown council estate to work with local people in a voluntary project. I met Dave Wiles, a delinquent on probation. After a conversion to Christianity he was determined to make amends in his estate. We knocked on doors and responded to teenagers by starting a club in our house. Other residents joined in and the Southdown Project was formed. After 10 years, it was completely in local hands with Dave as leader. Annette and I decided to move to her native Glasgow.

Years later, I did a follow-up of 51 Southdown teenagers, most of whom had displayed problems. The results showed that a minority did go into public care or prison but the number was far fewer than statistically predicted. Most were in jobs and stable relationships. The former teenagers explained that the leaders were local, understood their circumstances, were easy to reach and ready to give help. Interestingly, 41 per cent participated in some form of youth work. Nearly 40 years after our first meeting, Dave Wiles is a senior youth worker and a teacher of others.

In 1987, we moved to a flat in Easterhouse. After two years about 30 of us gathered to form Fare (Family Action in Rogerfield and Easterhouse). It has its own building with 30 staff and volunteers drawn mostly from the east end. Fare runs youth activities in a number of centres, holds clubs for schools and gives attention to pupils with learning difficulties. The police have commended Fare for its involvement with gangs and a decline in youth violence. Some helpers are former gang members.

Mention must be made of Fare's annual Olympic Games, this year at the Emirates Stadium with more than 800 children. The races, relays,long jump,indoor javelin, skipping etc prompted much excitement but no trouble. The helpers numbered 81. Fare’s staff included leader Jimmy Wilson, once a gang fighter in Greenock; Stephanie Mooney, who came into contact with Fare while running wild in the streets; and Paul Humphries. In youth clubs before he joined the army, he heads Fare’s extensive outdoor activities. Success stems from local involvement.

Fare is just one of thousands of voluntary bodies whose contribution stems from local self-help. David Cameron, when he became Prime Minister, boasted of a growing Big Society of voluntary organisations. The reverse has been true with organisations struggling for funds and numbers have fallen.

Small voluntary groups have suffered most because they have depended on grants from local authorities. Councils have had to cut their grants because the national government has slashed their income.

I have been heartened by Jeremy Corbyn’s vision of a society characterised by “kindness” and “caring” and by the SNP’s emphasis on opportunities for all. Yet neither party has specified a policy to financially back local projects enabling residents in deprived areas to play a greater part in securing such ends. I would like Labour and SNP to agree on such a policy and both to put it in their next manifesto.

As for me, I attended Fare’s celebration of 25 years of locals serving their own area last week.

Bob Holman is a campaigner against poverty and inequality.