Some Friday Reflections folks - a thread - started by some tweets and comments from a couple of Scotland's outstanding leaders that set a chain of thoughts off in my head 1/20

First of all there was this quote from @margl43 about Poverty 2/20

Then this from @sirius_d about an absence of hope and opportunity for so many young Scots 3/20

On top of that further statistics appeared underlining that the poorest in our society pay the heaviest price 4/20

We all look at different issues in the organisations we lead but many of us reach the same conclusion - I've been calling it the #PovertySyndemic 5/20

many others such as @HarryBurns16 have been talking about this for years - that those with the worst start in life have the worst outcomes across so many different criteria 6/20

and its not as if its a new phenomenon - poverty has been an issue for generations 7/20

So, do we need a new vision for the future? 8/20

Actually, I would contend that we got it almost 10 years ago....June 2021, the Christie Commission Report highlighted generational depravation and low aspiration as the major issues facing Scotland 9/20

In light of the banking crisis of 2008 it challenged us to make best use of scarce resource, to work together and to build bottom up and not top down 10/20

Probably, as we eventually come out of the current situation, resource is going to be even less - the need for the findings of Christie more pronounced 11/20

But its hard. Our organisations have barriers, internal and external. Cultures that are hard to move. It sounds easy but its very difficult and joint spending and planning are very rare 12/20

Added to that - we plan for the short term. We look for quick outcomes and things we can measure. The demands of Christie require innovation and the results will take time 13/20

But significant change is possible - it takes commitment and setting aside what we did in the past 14/20

Our vision should be to build a cathedral and not a series of garden sheds 15/20

This will require us all to pull together. If, as I believe, many of us across organisations are reaching the same conclusions that is a great place to start #fromlittleacorns #StrategicDisciples 16/20

Our aim should be to use Compassion, Love, Empathy and Understanding to build a movement that tackles the issues we all contend with at the roots 17/20

We need to tackle the 'lethal absence of hope' by providing opportunity and tackling inequality and poverty 18/20

If we can get the ball rolling and see things develop I am certain that more people will join us 19/20