Les Back meets with Dr Susan Batchelor, Dr Caitlin Gormley and Jim Thomson to learn more about a new piece of research exploring repeat violence in Scotland.

To be homeless is more than not having a roof over your head. It is also about a denial of being, a person out of place to look away from, to ignore and not make eye contact with them as you pass busily through Glasgow's Central Station.

The numbers of people living precariously in the city is increasing (a recent article in the Glasgow Herald says they have doubled recently). This is a story of a deep crisis not only in housing, but it also reveals the symbiotic relationship between social inequalities, homelessness, violence, and the drug economy

And it’s a story that many people and organisations are trying to rewrite. One of them is Glasgow City Council who has been putting up Rough Sleepers and Vulnerable People or RSVPs in a number of city centre hotels for a few years now. For an overstretched local authority struggling to meet demand, this has been a controversial and troubled solution to a very complicated issue.

Another organisation working in this field is Simon Community Scotland; a charity providing information, advice, care, support and accommodation to people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness.

The Simon Community has a wealth of expertise and lived experience within its teams of staff and volunteers, one of them is Jim Thomson, who - at the time of our interview - was the coordinator of We See You, a project run from the Simon Community’s access hub in the city centre.

Jim and the Simon Community partnered with my colleagues Susan Batchelor and Caitlin Gormley as part of a major research project on Repeat Violence in Scotland.

It’s a piece of work that is urgently important so Les met up with Susan, a senior lecturer in sociology and Caitlin, a lecturer in criminology - who are both based in the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research and Jim to learn more.

Thank you to Jim Thomson and The Simon Community Scotland for hosting this recording

You can read the report on repeat violence in Scotland here

https://www.gov.scot/publications/repeat-violence-scotland-qualitative-approach/

Recovering Community is presented by Les Back and produced by Freya Hellier

Les Back visits the Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow to talk about history, and how it impacts our lives and relationships in the 21st century. He meets with Hunterian Curator of Discomfort Zandra Yeaman and Dr Jay Sarkar to learn more about why history is so important when it comes to meaningful and respectful connection and cohabitation.

Glasgow is famous for its museums and galleries - from The Burrell Collection in the Southside, to Kelvingrove in the West End. But as you wander around these grand, serene places, do you ever think about how these traces of the past got here and what museums are actually for?

Perhaps they’re to inspire, to educate, to memorialise our shared history. Or maybe to help us relax on a Sunday or enjoy a nice coffee and piece of cake, but could there, or should there be the possibility that museums can make us uncomfortable?

It’s a question that’s in the minds of the curators and community at The Hunterian - the museum right at the heart of the University of Glasgow’s main building. The Hunterian is home to a beautiful and important collection of art and objects, bequeathed to the University in 1783 by the pioneering obstetrician Dr William Hunter, who was a former student.

A collection tells a story about the collector; it also tells us a lot about the society, politics and trends of the time it was formed. But when we think carefully about how the collection was put together, it also tells us a lot about power, wealth and privilege - and that’s where the stories can start to get uncomfortable.

Discomfort is closely related to confronting the legacy of empire in our culture. The museum exhibits often provide symbols or clues about the unspoken or glossed damage and violence within the historical record. Reckoning with that imperial past involves ‘decolonisation’ an idea that’s in the minds of many people who think about history - from teachers and activists, to artists, curators and writers.

Learn more about the Curating Discomfort here

https://www.gla.ac.uk/hunterian/about/achangingmuseum/curatingdiscomfort/

And you can learn more about Decolonisation Through Archives, including the podcast here

https://www.decolonisationthrougharchives.scot/

Recovering Community is presented by Les Back and produced by Freya Hellier

Les Back swaps his desk for the kitchen table as he travels to Castlemilk in the south of Glasgow to meet a group of remarkable women working together to feed their community.

Is there a more powerful symbol of community than the soup pot? It is both a distinctive part of Scottish working-class experience and at the same time a universal ritual of solidarity in hard times. Eating a home cooked meal is a kind of communion with others. But what happens to a family, or even a whole society, when the basic necessity of food is out of reach?

The huge demand on food banks in recent years is a stark reminder of just how big of a problem food poverty is, and it’s a highly politicised problem that brings out the best - and worst - in us.

But what if we were to think about food solidarity instead of food poverty? If we think about sharing a meal with some sitting next to you at the table rather than crumbs of charity handed by the privileged to ease our conscience.

Les first met the women of Castlemilk’s Food Solidarity Soup'erheroes at the University of Glasgow through his colleague Kait Loughlin who is a Community Knowledge Exchange Lead. Kait runs a programme called ‘Community Matters’ that trains researchers how to work with communities, and the insights of the Soup'erheroes have been part of this process of educating researchers.

These heroes don’t wear capes, their ‘souper power’ comes in the form of fresh fruit and veg, bags of lentils, free music events and hope and solidarity by the pound delivered every week in Castlemilk.

Cathy Milligan is a long standing Castlemilk resident and activist, and she welcomed Les to her house along with fellow soup'erheroes; her niece Natali, and Bridget Crossan. We were also joined by Paddy McKenna who is the Community Development Manager for Cassiltoun Housing Association, and Kait Loughlin.

Our heartfelt thanks go to everyone involved in making this podcast possible

Learn more about the work of the Souper heroes

https://m.facebook.com/groups/379205031059351/

You can find the Castlemilk Cooks Up Memories cookbook here

https://www.nemoarts.org/castlemilk-cooks-up-memories/

Recovering Community is presented by Les Back and produced by Freya Hellier