Ask Charlotte 2 — Initiative for Initiatives
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2018/10/24
Charlotte Littlewood is the Founding Director of Become The Voice CIC. A grass roots youth centred community interest company that she has built in response to the need to tackle hate, extremism and radicalisation within communities and online. Here we talk about having an initiative for projects.
Littlewood is involved in humanitarian work. Often, this work does not pay well. In turn, this has some intriguing implications for the individuals involved in these activities. They want to make positive – hopefully – changes in the world for the benefit of people through a social cause.
She described how, from a young age, acquired and maintained an interest in human rights. Indeed, the violations of human rights become an immediate concern for a young humanitarian. Because the ubiquity of the violations is stark and staring the international community right in the face. Actions need to be taken, often bold acts by the young.
Littlewood stated, “I did a law degree with the aim of working in human rights. Whilst doing the law degree, the war in Syria broke out. There was very much a sense of the next human rights issue being around a clash of civilization between East and West, and cultures and religion, rather than states and state power. I started reading and learning Arabic. I started reading the Quran as well.”
This is despite coming from a faith-based background. Littlewood has an academic interest in religion, including Christianity and Islam. Her professional work was oriented around faiths and minority groups, and cohesion and integration work.
“Eventually, it led me to start my own community interest company in that. That has always been my drive. It is to tackle human rights abuses and stand for minority rights abuses but from a standpoint of bringing us all together and cohesion,” Littlewood said, “I don’t work on human rights from the perspective that we should put minorities above everyone else. No matter what they’re believing in or action they’re involved in. It is involving everyone on the same level, bringing everyone together, and making sure no one’s rights are violated.”
It is taking a firm moral stance on the import and salience of human rights applied in a similar manner across the board without regard to identities, labels, and so on. Individualist moral calculus bound within the ethics of human rights.
Littlewood explained, “For instance, I would not work with a minority group that believed homosexuals should be thrown off the cliff and stoned to death simply because they are a minority group — as we have seen in a shift with some leftwing thinking.”
This creates the basis for a high value on autonomy and choice compared to other values. Littlewood self-describes this as a belief system for her. Following this, I asked about overcoming the inevitable issues of a young person coming to grips with the setbacks of a founding an organization while also attenuating the question because Become The Voice CIC (BTV) was only founded in January of 2018.
Littlewood said, ‘We are only just developing our funding strategy. We had some bits while in Palestine. But we need a more sustainable model. We are working with Think Try Do, which gives free support to Exeter alumna students to build their businesses and social enterprises. They are helping with being more product focused and meeting with schools around the products, getting an idea of what people’s needs and wants are, getting a wishlist in essence, and then matching that with funds to help pay for the work to be done if the school needs it.”
This becomes the model for the products of BTV. She is going to present at funding meetings with thinktanks, philanthropists, and trusts, in order to garner financial support for BTV. But the use of free tools in the early stages of BTV has been crucial to its operations.
“So, one of my directors is good online. She built the website and doing that for free. It is under the knowledge of paid roles when we get some funding. My other director coming back to Palestine once we have a project; he will help with the bids and funding, “Littlewood explained, “It is about passionate people willing to invest their time, they are also able to put being a director on their CV, which is good.”
Littlewood is all about setting a reasonable and realistic goal for BTV and then pursuing it. One is the finding of funding by January. If the funding is not acquired by that time, then she will, in fact, transfer those responsibilities of the CIC to the directors.
She concluded, “One has a part-time job. One is a masters student; financially, both are comfortable and can do it in their spare time. For me, it is full-time. However, I am optimistic. The meetings for October are promising, I am hoping to talk with you again after that time, to see how it has gone. It can give some insight into whether what we have done is successful. If it successful, it means that we will have our first successful money-raising after 7 months. A lot of CRCs and charities do not see the first bit of significant money for a year.”
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