This is me! how I turned into an authentic accomplice

 So this is who I am.. Jill Childs Principal Lecturer in Social Work..  I have woven a innovative and complicated path to reach where I now stand as I survey the landscape, I realise, it’s only one generation back that my great grandparents were in service as a scullery maid and footman in Grosvenor square contributing to hosting events for titled individuals. I have grown knowing what it means to value opportunities that are given to me, to appreciate my privilege and to respect opportunity.

My path into Social Work began from my own failure in the education system at 18 and the consequent opportunity that arose by chance of volunteering Crisis at Christmas in an open access night shelter in central London over Christmas in Waterloo in 1992 to realising my dream to working with homeless people in a Dickensian night shelter environment in central London. Working with London's most excluded and difficult to reach. My work in 1993 in Cork, Ireland Simon Community working with alcohol dependant men and women with complex entrenched trauma, together with my work for Oxfordshire MIND during my early years post qualification and latterly for in the NHS Trust in an Assertive Outreach environment really enabled me the opportunity to refine my professional practice as someone committed to seeing result of true gaps in attainment in our society.

Living on the edge of society drew me closer to the oppressed both professionally and personally and whilst as a student studying the BA in Social Work at Oxford Brookes University I lived on a boat on the Oxford Canal. I found a part of myself within this innovative, soul focussed, present  community of boaters, to which I am ever grateful for my time in their lives. My peers overall brought me to a further international space in Africa. ....I could finally breathe....my time in Cape Town South Africa in 1999 during the time of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was truly a moment in time that was inspiring. I saw South Africa begin to recover from the trauma of Apartheid.

I had no idea that the literature that I would be drawing on now (Mbembe 2017) would be a product of that transformative time, but in many ways it is no surprise. My further visits to Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda has further embedded and inspired my commitment and love and place to call myself an accomplice. I have seen life and death in these places and I rightly am humbled as a learner. With breath and utmost respect, from here I begin my journey as a white accomplice, with privilege with humility and with commitment as an emerging accomplice.

I have been mentored loved, supported and lifted and to these extraordinary people,  to whom, I am externally grateful Frankii Charles, Nabeela Talib, Dr Susan Muchiri, Dr. Nick Pike Maxine Fletcher Jane Hope and Wiltrud Young - for their wisdom, steadiness, kindness and  helping me to to develop my ability to see the bigger picture when I have lost my way. Truly thank you for all you are and all you continue to be in my life. I continue on as an evolving white accomplice