Modernising Christmas
Micky Walsh, Head of Organisational Development at Crisis
Mick joined Crisis in December 2004 to shadow the outgoing Head of Christmas Maff Potts and oversaw the close-down of what was then our temporary Christmas centre at the Millenium Dome. Mick did a brilliant job and at the instruction of the Dome owners ensured the building was cleared and every last Xmas tree pine needle was removed from the floor of the Dome within two days of the centre shutting, despite the Dome due to become a building site the following week!
When Mick joined Crisis, our Christmas event was delivered in large disused and sometimes semi-derelict buildings and this at a time when many homelessness service buildings were receiving a significant upgrade via the Hostels Capital Improvement Programme. We had also opened our first Skylight and so the time was right to review and develop Crisis at Christmas. Having been told to ‘modernise Christmas’ by our CEO, I produced a proposal for change that was full of fine ideas but no sense of whether this was achievable. We needed someone to deliver our vision of a Christmas event based in comfortable and fully functioning buildings to ensure people experiencing homelessness maintained dignity and a sense of belonging in the community. Mick was that person and his energy, vision and commitment to delivering only the best for the people we supported, saw us move to delivering Crisis at Christmas in school and college buildings.
At our ten or so centres in London, people facing street homelessness were prioritised for our buildings with sleeping areas and we set up day-centres for those experiencing other forms of homelessness such as in hostels or other temporary accommodation. Mick also set about ensuring there were inspirational spaces and a wide range of activities for people attending our centres. At a distance it’s hard to convey the seismic shift that these changes to the Christmas model represented; however, the success was greatly due to Mick’s passion, vision, energy and belief that homeless people deserved a great Christmas and a potential spark for positive change in the year ahead. Obviously this change couldn’t be delivered alone and Mick built positive relationships with volunteers, principals and teachers at the schools and colleges, local and central government, organisations from the homeless and other sectors to ensure the delivery of Crisis at Christmas as we knew it until the arrival of the pandemic. One significant consequence of the Christmas model developed under Mick, is that it provided Crisis Fundraising with something more significant and meaningful to raise money against and this very much underpinned our growth across the UK. Another consequence is that we moved a little closer to integrating our London Christmas offer into the wider homelessness provision, an approach that has been accelerated in response to Covid under Ian Richards.
Before Mick joined Crisis he had a background in arts project management and these skills and experiences made him a brilliant Head of Christmas. He had an exceptional ability to pull together and inspire a temporary multi-disciplinary team to deliver the services. This consisted of thousands of volunteers, donors of items such as food and clothing, a small staff team and people from various professions to deliver specialist services for people facing homelessness. Mick was a great leader of a diverse and hugely impressive team.
Mick was himself a brilliant sculptor (you can see his work at <www.mickbateman.com/gallery.html>) and he also understood the benefits that participating in the arts could bring to people facing homelessness. Mick saw an opportunity at the Crisis warehouse (an old pickling factory) in Bermondsey that no one else did. On very little budget and in partnership with the Bow Arts Trust, he created a temporary arts centre that brought together aspiring young artists and people experiencing homelessness under one roof. There were scores of studio spaces on the upper floors, a range of classes and activities were delivered and the ground floor provided large exhibition spaces when not being used to store vegetables and other foodstuffs for meals at the Christmas centres that week.
The Bermondsey Project hosted some excellent art exhibitions (and great opening parties) by established artists and also enabled people who had experienced homelessness to exhibit alongside them. It was truly inspiring to experience a building that encouraged people with lived experience of homelessness to develop their artistic practice and see themselves as artists and move beyond the label of ‘homelessness’. There were also a number of roles needed to run the project that Mick filled with people with lived experience. The Bermondsey project brought together key passions of Mick’s, his empathy for people often at the margins of society, his love of art and his understanding of its power to inspire and transform lives.
As well as the Bermondsey Project, Mick came up with the idea for the Art in Crisis festival that first ran in 2013 and enabled us to pull together and promote the Arts activities in all our Skylight centres.
Mick had a real can-do spirit and a desire to take forward ideas and make them happen. He found some of the organisational processes and policies frustrating and this resulted in the occasional spectacular Mick Bateman eruption. You didn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of these, but he usually had the honesty and good grace to apologise soon afterwards.
Mick described himself as a maverick and his ability to act on impulses and instinct gave a sense that there was always something happening around him and that contributed to him being such an exciting and inspirational colleague to work with. Mick was honest and direct and would tell you straight what he was thinking, he’d argue the toss and just once in a very blue moon would admit that maybe you had a point.
I ‘managed’ Mick for ten years, found him great company and (mostly) a joy to work with and Crisis was all the better for enabling Mick to find a place where he belonged, could develop his ideas and creativity and make things happen to help people facing homelessness.
Mick was a great friend to many at Crisis and the ripples out from his time with us live on.
…
Ian Richards, Head of Crisis at Christmas
I can’t agree more with Micky’s sentiments, I also worked alongside and with Mick on various projects and I’ve never seen such drive, enthusiasm, anger at the injustice and downright stubbornness to get the job done which we will continue with. I thank you for that and most of all your friendship Mick, rest well my friend.
Claire Benjamin
Dear Mick. I’ve just heard the terribly sad news that you’ve passed away. You made a big impression on me in my life, you were a wonderful boss when I worked with you on the Crisis Open Christmas job in the office in Spitalfields. I’ll never forget you, you are magical person and I hope you are at peace, sending love always.
Kar Nam
So sad to see that you’ve passed. I worked for you a long time ago when you were “head of Christmas”. During a very stressful Christmas period I remember someone calling up and yelling and yelling at me, and you mouthing at me to just hang up. I’ve rarely felt as supported as I did in that one moment. Thank you for showing me what supportive leadership looks like.
Leslie Morphy
