John Battle, former MP of West Leeds and trustee of Barca-Leeds shares a few highlights from his “Barca Story” following his recent knighthood for his public service.

We asked John about when he started doing charity work and he told us about his journey from politics into assisting non-profit groups.

From 1987 to 2010 I served the people of West Leeds which is Bramley Armley Kirkstall and Wortley as their MP so I was more involved in campaigning and looking at causes. Really Parliament was about budgets and laws. Why are the budgets and laws not serving the people that I live among and represent? So, I started there really, I would say it's a good question though, but since I've left Parliament I've become more aware of the need to give people personal support as well as ask questions about causes of why they're in difficulties, so working with community centres, food banks and housing advice, debt advice that's become more important since I retired in the last 10 years.

When asked about how his relationship with Barca-Leeds started, John talked about Mark Law and the beginnings of the organisation.

(I was introduced to Barca-Leeds) Probably through Mark Law, because I remember it in the very early days before it was Barca, Mark and a little team of people used to work in Bramley as youth workers basically, for a parish project run by a quite a dynamic priest in the neighbourhood at Saint Peter's Church, and I think the church funded youth workers, I think they came originally from the inspiration of the church. I always associate Mark as a young man sitting on walls and fences in the Broadleas, talking to young people who would otherwise be running themselves into real difficulties with the law, so I always thought Mark was a really good youth worker, second to none and that's where I met him and then the project needed underpinning a bit and I was involved then in some of the early work in trying to stabilize the project, then it's grown and moved with Mark and a good team of people into the fantastic project it is today.

We asked John about his work in New Wortley and the men's walking group that he leads, he told us how much it had helped those in the local community

The Wortley flats (referring to the homes of most of the walking group participants) had the highest suicide rate, when I left Parliament, in the country - 18 in four years and to my knowledge there has only been one, suicide at the flats in the last 10 years, so in terms of the reduction of suicide rates, that’s a hard measure if you like.

When we asked John about his recent knighthood and what it felt like, he talked about the voluntary work he does at Bramley Baths.

Its surreal, but I joke that I’ve got friends in deep places, mainly the deep pool ends at the Bramley baths, 'cause that's where it came from! I've done 10 years at Bramley Baths and I've not been too brilliant with Covid and I’ve not being so well and during COVID times we had to shut the baths down but we managed to get work done to regenerate it, so we've got new investment into it.

There's a strong team in there of young people running the baths, and there's a strong team of trustees and I suspect that they were the ones that organized the petition, so I'm very proud that they felt that they could nominate me.

When asked how he would summarise his Barca story, John described his guiding principles for helping to run a charity like Barca-Leeds

My Barca story is that in a sense it was to see it start from Mark and his teams work locally and one thing is to learn from Mark how you need to be compassionate, but also professional, not faff about. The key is to do it really well, and according to the best science and evidence from medical and social workers as you can, so make sure you just combine compassion and also professionalism in the fullest sense. At the same time keep it rooted in the community and keep that social dimension as strong. That's why Barca-Leeds is one of the best beacon projects 'cause it's managed to achieve that, I often joke that Barca-Leeds has become a semi multinational 'cause it's grown so big but the reason is its strength in depth, It really does things really well and exceptionally well and that's why it attracts commissioning and public support.