The Community Organisers Expansion Programme – Final Report
The purpose of the Community Organisers Expansion Programme was to recruit and train 3,500 community organisers, thus expanding the number of Community Organisers recruited through Government funding to 10,000 by the end of the Parliament.
A Community Organiser was described as a local leader bringing people together to take action on the things they care about.
The ultimate aim was for residents to take action together in and across England’s most deprived neighbourhoods for social change – focused on the issues that matter most to them.
The Community Organisers Expansion Programme represented a second phase of the original Community Organisers Programme (COP) which ran from 2011 to 2015. programme. As such, it was expected that the Expansion Programme would build on what was achieved through the Community Organisers Programme, as well as addressing any gaps
Additional requirements of the Programme were to:
• build on the existing programme and especially support and deepen the impact of the most effective
organisers trained in the first programme
• recruit and train 3500 new community organisers across England, particularly in deprived
communities
• develop new approaches to sustaining community activity
• create opportunities for peer support and learning
• allow for local variation and flexibility of approach
• be inclusive
• look for synergies with other Government Programmes
This report describes how the Programme was delivered, what it achieved and what was learned for future programmes.
