Know your network: Hannah Dickson
Job title: National Development Officer
Organisation: Scottish Community Safety Network (SCSN)
Location: Everywhere (but based mainly in Edinburgh)
Network Member since: November 2017
Contact me at: [email protected] or @hannahdix on Twitter
How would you describe your job to a child?
Feeling safe and being safe in your home, school, street and work is important. I help the people working to make Scotland a safe place to live (such as the police or fire officers) to do it better. I also get people like the Government to care about safe communities and make it an important issue to which they give attention.
What does the concept of open government mean to you?
Open Government to me is rooted in honesty, transparency and accountability, participation and conversation. It is primarily about equality between citizens and governments and together shaping the society in which we live.
What would your autobiography be called?
Yes, I do know that my name is spelt the same forward and backward.
Why did you become involved in the Open Government Network?
I became involved because I believe in changing things by participating. I’m not very involved yet, unfortunately, but I hope that will change and participating in these conversations is my first step!
Tell us one thing you’d like this Network to do in the next 6 months
- Get people to use evidence better!! i.e. to drive strategic planning, service design and outcome measurement.
- Get organisations to mainstream prevention rather than have it as an ‘add on’, a short-term project or initiative
- See https://www.cecan.ac.uk/blog/a-whole-new-world-what-next and http://www.ncl.ac.uk/kite/social-renewal/little-heresies/.
What does a typical day look like for you?
I work part-time so a working day is getting up and organised for work, dropping my two children at nursery then heading into our office in central Edinburgh or visiting our partners which can be anywhere in Scotland or working from home. My work ranges from sourcing pieces for our newsletter to creating resources to support safer communities partnerships, tweeting (a lot), planning events, attending advisory groups for gender-based violence, Serious Organised Crime and road safety. I pick the kids up from nursery and then it’s a well-oiled machine(!) through dinner, bath, stories and bedtime!
On a non-working day I just enjoy the precious time spent with my little ones that seem to be growing up awfully fast!
What breed of social media user are you?
A mash up between Informer and Quizzer.
What three things could members of this network get in contact with you about?
Partnerships and collaboration, Safety and justice, Communities
The link to the one website/blog/online community that you cannot live without, and nor should others:
Is there a particular area of open government that you’re interested in? Or, do you have a question you’d like network members to respond to?
Does anyone have any examples where prevention has been mainstreamed?
Where do you see the open government movement in Scotland in three years?
Still here, bigger and I hope it has real clout.
Biggest like:
Sleep (*with two young kids I don’t really get any…)
Biggest Dislike:
Expert panels and plenary sessions