Social Action Hubs are grassroots organisations that are committed to building community power through community organising. To find out more about social action hubs and join the growing network click the link below
In the summer of 2024, Community Organisers worked with The Democracy Network to host and run a series of conversations with the community, as part of The Democracy Network's campaign to ‘Put People First’.
The Democracy Network is a network of people and organisations working on issues of power, democracy and voice in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. They support each other to connect and collaborate, share and learn, build a way to agree ways forward, and take action and influence decision makers together.
Community Organisers received funding from them to host and run 5 conversations with 5 of their Social Action Hubs and the communities they work with in Luton, Hartlepool, Stockport, North Birkenhead and Haringey looking at putting people first in politics.
It was stark how many people in the community felt disillusioned with the political system and that, for many, Westminster Politics felt distant from them. People felt they had little power to effect change.
Nick Gardham, Community Organisers
These conversations shifted the focus of The Democracy Network’s work over the election period to recenter those who should be at the heart of any efforts to protect and realise democracy in practice. Especially those communities experiencing socioeconomic inequality or who have been most failed by the political and democratic systems of the UK.
These conversations were held pre and post election and explored how people felt about democracy in the UK.
Whilst faith in politicians remains low in the UK (as reflected in voter turnouts), it is very often the work of community organisers that ensures that people are not left behind in times of crisis. It is therefore community leaders who earn the trust and engagement of people who can otherwise be alienated by interactions with formal state mechanisms.
Harley Wishhart, The Democracy Network
One key theme that came through was the importance of local democracy and the importance of people being able to build local power to inform and influence the decisions that affected them locally.
Following on from this there was an emergent theme around the need to ‘Clean Up Politics’ which has led to The Democracy Network’s next campaign.
Community Organisers went back to the original communities who took part to facilitate a conversation about what a ‘cleaner’ version of politics would look like.
In these conversations communities said there was a need to put ‘ordinary’ people back in to politics, to create spaces where people can be heard and to be more transparent about the division and inequality that exists.
Democracy is what we do here as a community – it is working in solidarity with each other- this is what democracy means to me.
Workshop Participant, Tottenham
At the Democracy Network conference in Sheffield, Moussa Sylla (Haringey) and Glenn Jenkins (Luton) shared the outcomes of these conversations to a packed room of supporters calling for a dramatic shift in politics that puts power back in the hands of local people
Community Organisers continue to do this through its work with The Democracy Network. You can sign up HERE to be part of this network to clean up politics and put people first.
Humanity Project’s aim is to create a new kind of people-led politics that takes back control from the politicians. This is especially important for communities whose inequalities have created a barrier to exercising civil and political rights. It’s about listening to each other and making politics fit to deal with the problems we face in the UK today.
In this context, courage is found in the difficult work. Generative work to not just speak more to each other, but to listen; work that needs more funding and hands on deck from those of us that have it to spare. The under-celebrated work to create ‘power with’, that builds the trust between people required to find the ‘power to’ challenge injustice and repair and rebuild political systems that work. The courage to find our way together back to reclaiming safety, belonging, and dignity.
Harley Wishart, The Democracy Network
Three Pillars of Community Organising
Good community organising practice is built upon high quality training, experienced mentoring and support and, of course, putting the learning in to practice.
That's why our core work at Community Organisers is built around 'Training', 'Support' and 'Action'.
