When the pandemic hit, the first responders to the crisis were neighbours taking direct action to support each other. Whilst programmes were being designed and implemented to protect those labelled as ‘vulnerable’, local people were self-organising their neighbour to neighbour response reaching out, connecting and ensuring those at risk were supported.

• How did we do it?
• What have we learnt?
• And, what challenges have we faced and how can we overcome then?

In the first of this webinar series we want to look at the core elements of the Community Organising Framework; Reach and Listen. What lessons can community organising learn from the response, and, how can the skills and practice of community organising support those who are continuing to reach out and involve everyone

The growing neighbourhood response is fostering a deeper sense of place – new relationships and connections between local people are being formed. Assumed ‘unmet’ need is being addressed as people who previously knew each other and broaden their circles to include neighbours that they previously had not known, hence developing a renewed sense of care and neighbourliness.

But how do we ensure the stories that emerge from these new connections can be told powerfully, so that they can be heard and they can be learned from?

Join us in this second webinar of the series to explore how we can look at effective frameworks for story telling used by those involved in community organising to build bridges between groups, connect people and build power.

The emergent civic action of local people taking action demonstrates the latent leadership potential in community. As people step out in the tens of thousands, not as volunteers for the state, but out of allegiance to their neighbours, we need to find strategies that can nurture and sustain these new forms of leadership.
Community organising focusses on supporting community leadership, what lessonsn can we learn from the approach so that we can sustain the response to the pandemic once it has passed.

Join us in this webinar to explore:

• How are we developing leadership in others to strengthen the local response?
• How do motivate and support people to take and share leadership, and what are the challenges in this?
• How do we develop our structures so that people can act co-operatively and collectively after the pandemic?

In this penultimate webinar we will explore how the actions that people in communities are taking are the foundations for building the world as it should be post-pandemic.
Many newly formed groups, and established ones, have started to explore how their actions can continue beyond the pandemic. In this webinar we will look at learning from the community organising framework and explore:

• What are the changes that we want to see, and what role do we play in it
• Power, and tactics for shifting it, through people taking action together
• How we can engage with power holders and decision makers
• How do we start tackle the root causes of inequality that have meant some, have faced greater challenges than others during the pandemic.

In this final webinar we are going to explore how collectively we can harness the emergent power of community to bring about genuine change, for good.

As new forms of leadership emerge, and as people start to look at how they can sustain the actions that have taken place during the pandemic we need to start to explore the power imbalances in our society.
In this webinar we will start to ask ourselves some important questions, as we look to the future.

• How do we harness the neighbour to neighbour power that is developing
• How can we start to share power with institutions and organisations that exist in our communities?
• How do we strengthen and revitalised democract at the local level