Alan Ferguson – A reflection on his contribution to community development from SCDC
/The community development movement in Scotland lost a valued practitioner and advocate last week following the death of Alan Ferguson Director of SHARE Scotland.
Alan lost his last battle against a cancer which took him much too soon from those who loved and respected him. Our sincere condolences go to his wife Jenny and to all his family members.
Alan made an amazing contribution to people’s lives through his tireless work on behalf of tenants over many years as a community worker in Castlemilk, Cambuslang and Wishaw in the 1980s. A passionate believer in fundamental rights to shelter and economic equality, Alan was instrumental in the development of the Glasgow Tenant newspaper supporting tenants to have their voices heard at a time when council housing was under attack from the Conservative government. He also developed this role as co-ordinator of the Strathclyde Campaign for Investment in Council Housing.
This was a turbulent time for Scotland with the advent of the poll tax and the drastic cuts in social security benefit entitlements, which disproportionately affected Strathclyde’s most disadvantaged communities. An active socialist as well as a gifted professional, Alan helped local people organise by forming their own independent groups and campaigning for what we would now call a rights-based approach to housing and other issues. He was a passionate and courageous worker during this period who was not afraid to help people tackle powerful vested interests. He was highly regarded by local groups and colleagues in the organisations he worked for, who all recognised that he put his community development values and principles of equality and justice, to the forefront of his practice
Alan always had time to support new workers and I, and many others, benefited from this. Never afraid to challenge and argue, he was able to do that supportively and with a healthy dose of humour, while retaining a clear vision for why we were all there and who we ultimately served.
He continued to invest effort in community development practice development such as the National Workers Forum on the 1988 Housing (Scotland) Act which trained community development and tenant support staff and helped the national tenants movement assist 3000 or so new tenants groups to form during this time.
Despite moving from front line community work to an academic role training housing professionals, becoming Director of the Chartered Institute of Housing and latterly with SHARE, Alan was always a great supporter of tenant education through training organisations such as the Tenant Participation Advisory Service and the Tenants Information Service. Both of these used community development approaches to help tenants take control of their lives.
Whether he was working to develop progressive housing policy, support best practice or help the tenants movement campaign for the defence and improvement of Council and other forms of social housing, Alan always wanted to know “what’s in it for tenants themselves”.
He took his community development ethos with him and shared it with everyone he encountered, promoting and supporting a community development perspective in the other organisations he touched as worker or volunteer board member. He retained an active interest in community development generally and was an active member of the Community Development Alliance Scotland in its early years.
Alan was committed to the dignity of tenants as part of his enduring belief in combatting inequality. His death is a tragedy for those who loved him, but also a huge loss for the housing world and for progressive thought and action in Scotland. He has also left a real legacy for community development in Scotland that should be celebrated.
I had the privilege to have worked with Alan on housing issues in the 1980s. Sadly, I hadn’t seen him for some time thinking that was something I could do easily in future. If he was reading this, Alan would have reminded us that community development is a collective activity, promoting collective awareness and progressive social action. But occasionally there is an opportunity for one person to contribute in a more pivotal role and Alan achieved that. For those who knew and worked with him and called him a friend, his light will never go out.
Mick Doyle
Head of Programmes
SCDC
