Community Organisers

Neighbourhoods Network31 March 2011

Who we are• Community Organisers Contract was

won by “Locality”

• Locality is the name of the organisation resulting from the merger of the DTA and bassac launching on 1st April 2011

• Locality is nationwide membership body for community owned, multi-purpose organisations

• 415 “Community Anchors” across the country

• Mutually supporting our membership around assets, enterprise and social action.

Community Organising?•Organisers listen to people and encourage dialogue. They do not bring any message or seek any specific outcome.

•Consciousness-raising rather than capacity-building. Find the ‘generative themes’ that motivate people to act.

•Change ‘the bad scene’ into a specific set of issues that people can take action around.

•Actions may aim to change the powerful or to create a DIY response, or both.

Guiding Lights• Based on Paulo Freire (Brazilian educator) –

Pedagogy of the Oppressed – listening, dialogue, consciousness-raising

• Saul Alinsky (Chicago rebel) – Rules for Radicals, tactics for effective organising

• Clodomir Santos de Morais – A Future for the Excluded – entrepreneurial awareness, wealth creation by the poor

Drawing on these and other theory & practice to create a home grown 21st century community organising movement.

Elements of the programme

• Training framework• Hosting• Networking support• Institute for Community

Organising• Learning & Policy Group

Training Framework• Learning bursaries (£20k x 500) – not salaries• training being developed by lead training

partner, Re:generate • Blend of residential, e-sessions, action camps

and knowledge hub• Trainer network managed by Trafford Hall• Accreditation to be developed with OCN YHR• Signpost to progression via academic

partners• Code of conduct

Hosting• COs need ‘a place to be’. They will be hosted by

community-led orgs – mutual benefits, mutual challenge

• 10 Kickstarters – places/orgs identified for the bid to provide range and get started quickly

• Second tranche of Kickstarters – focus more on equalities groups via Network Partners

• Will be 100-200 additional hosts over the lifetime of the programme

• All hosts receive 4 days of Locality support to plan for resilience and sustainability of the CO roles

10 Kickstarters

From April 2011• Barton Hill, Bristol • Birmingham Settlement• Cambridge House, South London• Community Links, East London• Goodwin Trust, Hull• Keystone Development Trust, Eastern Counties• Kirkgate Arts, Cumbria• Manchester Metropolitan University• Penwith CDT, Cornwall• St Peter’s Partnerships, Tameside

Networking Support• Organising is about building and mobilising local

networks – ‘horizontalism’• Web & Social media – www.dta.org.uk/communityorganisers– Twitter - @corganisers, #corg and

#commnityorganisers– Blog – see http://jesssteele.wordpress.com/

• Networking support will maximise opportunities for networking, peer learning, mutual support making use of broad range of social media.

• Lessons Log/Knowledge Hub (wiki approach)

Institute for Community Organising

• A 21st century Guild, a professional body assuring quality and providing ongoing training and support

• A mutual – owned by COs themselves• Shares retained each year that they

maintain their CPD (ie stay active and engaged)

• Brand developed in parallel with the programme, with a year of independent trading in 2014-15

Learning & Policy Group• High-level group of academics and

policy-shapers, serviced by Manchester Met Uni

• Drawing out the lessons from the programme and feeding them into policy (both Big Society and other fields)

• Chaired by Professor Anne Power, LSE• Other members include: Marj Mayo

(Goldsmiths), Toby Blume (Urban Forum), Tricia Zipfel (Just Change)

Timescales

• Feb-April: Development• June: kickstarter training begins• Nov: second tranche starts• Feb 2012: training cascaded to further

hosts, rolling programme to March 2015.

• ICO Year of Trading / handover (Apr 14-Mar 15)

• Closure (Mar-Jun 15) – ICO operating independently

More information

• www.dta.org.uk/communityorganisers.

• Twitter from @corganisers using the hashtags #corg and #communityorganisers.

• Programme manager’s blog at http://jesssteele.wordpress.com/.

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