Last week I had the absolute pleasure of spending four days in the city of Berlin with colleagues from across Europe as part of the European Community Organizing Network (ECON).

Present were representatives from:

• Freie Ungarische Botschaft
• Cere from Romania
• Centre for Community Organising in Slovakia
• Serbia On The Move 
• DICO – Berlin

and many others…

This was a fascinating four days exploring the opportunities and challenges that we face as we seek to build organising networks across our respective countries and build solidarity together.

Despite our different approaches, we all shared one goal – and that was to build our power with those who do not have it in our countries and achieve greater democratic engagement and action.

As well as spending time together exploring how we can build and strengthen ECON, we also held a donor seminar at the German Marshall Fund with funders from across Europe working with them to develop their understanding of community organising and share lessons from the Making A Way Forward ‘Community Organising and the Future of Democracy in Europe’ report published by ECON and the Ariadne Network in early 2019.