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Naomi Diamond, Locality

LGIU, 23rd January 2012

Community Organisers

Locality – our History

Two established networks of long term, independent community organisations. Over 100 years of history.

Merged to form a new membership body with a common cause – over 400 members in England

A movement based on localism, community assets, enterprise and social action

We want local organisations to meet local needs today, and we want them to survive & thrive so they can meet local needs tomorrow. Through our network we help current and aspiring members to to be resilient, enterprising and cooperative.

Locality - Our Work

Start-ups

Networking & peer support

Lobbying

Asset Transfer & asset management

Enterprise

Neighbourhood planning

Energy, housing

Collaboration

Community Organising

Community Organising –

the Programme

• Cameron’s ‘Neighbourhood Army’

• 5000 Community Organisers trained

• Legacy body - ICO

• Turning around some of the most challenged

communities

• Sister programme to Community First

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Community Organising-

the Roots

• 1880s Settlement movement, trades unions

• 1900s neighbourhood based social work

• 1940s Saul Alinsky (founder of community organising) – Rules for Radicals,

• 1960s Civil rights movement

• 1970s Organising for international development -Liberation theology and Paulo Freire (Brazilian educator) – Pedagogy of the Oppressed – listening, dialogue, consciousness-raising

• 1980s Citizens UK – broad-based, urban, faith-based

• 1990s ‘Root Solutions - Listening Matters’ - RE:generateapproach – neighbourhood-based

Democracy cannot work without the units essential to its operation – families, congregations, labour unions, and organised collectives of citizens who act in public life for justice and the common good…..The organiser’s task is to connect those smaller units of civil-society power into collectives that have the ability to hold elective officials and corporations accountable……

We must create new instruments for public life based not on technology or science but on communal habits of the heart….By providing average citizens with a means of group action through which they can participate actively in the public democratic process, the new organisations that we need will offer a more public and personal source for political participation than the media, focus groups, and attitude and opinion polls….Politics is an activity, It’s not a thing. “

Edward T. Chambers “Roots for Radicals” 2004

What do Organisers do?

•Organisers listen to people and encourage dialogue. They do not bring any message or seek any specific outcome. Listening is the key.

•They listen to hundreds of people – one 2 one and then in groups. They are looking for the ‘generative themes’ that motivate people to act. They organise action around these themes.

•Actions may aim to change the powerful or to create a DIY response, or both. Actions emerge from analysing power and identifying where change can come from. Actions may be entirely new solutions or may build on existing work. The goal is an intelligent shift of power to citizens & communities.

What will happen?

• 500 paid community organisers spend a year working and learning within

a community - listening and building powerful networks which lead to

action using ‘Root Solutions - Listening Matters’

• Each community organiser recruits along the way at least 10 voluntary

(‘mid-level’ organisers who also listen. Some go on to run their own

campaign, project or businesses to address problems which have been

articulated widely in the community. Thousands of people are listened to

and hundreds commit to taking action for the benefit of their community.

• At the end of the year some communities have powerful networks which

continue to develop and grow on their own. Many areas will seek ways to

continue the work of developing networks and taking action.

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Training Community Organisers

• Training ‘on the job’

• 500 training bursaries (£20k covers salary, expenses and deeper training)

• Foundation training in ‘Root Solutions - Listening Matters’ by RE:generate

• Guided actions, mentoring, peer learning, e-networks, annual action camp – accredited by OCN

• Choice of deeper learning in 2nd half of year

• Learning is cascaded to voluntary community activists through the process

Hosting Community Organisers

• COs need ‘a place to be’. Hosts will be locally rooted organisations who are interested in transformation and are not afraid of challenge. Hosts provide support and help organisers to hit the ground running

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

• 100-200 hosts over the lifetime of the programme – diverse locations and types of host. Recruitment ongoing with a new group of hosts every 3 months

• Started recruiting in July. Over 200 applications.

Timescales

• Feb-April: Development

• September: kickstarter training begins

• Oct 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

Where are we now?

• 11 kickstarter hosts and a second tranche of 12 host areas

have recruited between 2 and 5 trainee community organisers

each. The 1st cohort of 45 organisers had their initial training

in Sept and the 2nd in Dec and have got started on the ground

• 12 further host areas had their induction in Jan and are

recruiting their organisers to train in March

• Next selection of hosts end February

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Hosts

KICKSTARTERS

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 Met University

Marsh Farm Outreach, Luton

Penwith CDT, Cornwall

St Peter’s Partnerships, Tameside

2ND TRANCHE

Selby Trust, Tottenham

Centre for Equality & Diversity, Dudley

Saffron Lane N’hood Council, Leicester

Re:generate Bath & NE Somerset

RISE/West Itchen Community Trust,

Southampton

ETEC Development Trust, Sunderland

Voluntary Action Melton, Leicestershire

Granby Toxteth DT, Liverpool

Somers Town Comm Assoc, London

Bradford 5 Development Trusts

High Green DT, Sheffield

Hosts3RD TRANCHE

Commonside CDT, East Mitcham

Cricklewood Homeless Concern, West London

Foresight, East Marsh, Grimsby

Gloucestershire Rural Community Council

Island Community Action, Portland, Dorset

Jobs Education and Training, Derby

Peterborough Citizens Advice Bureau

Portchester Community Association, Hampshire

Riverside Community Resource Trust, Gravesham,

North Kent

Sefton Council for Voluntary Service, Merseyside

Sneinton Alchemy, Nottingham

The Broughton Trust, Salford

our first community organisers

Keep Informed

• www.cocollaborative.org.uk/

• www.locality.org.uk/communityorganisers/

• Tweets from @corganisers using the hashtags

#communityorganisers.

• Programme manager’s blog at

http://jesssteele.wordpress.com/.