Who's organising your community?

The coalition government's idea of recruiting "an army of 5000 Community Organisers", is part of the community empowerment strand of its 'Big Society' vision.

Locality (formed by the merger of bassac with the Development Trusts Association) won the £15 million contract to deliver the community organisers initiative. They began the recruitment process for Senior Community Organisers on 16 June 2011. They are also seeking up to 200 organisations to act as hosts for trainees.

Locality launched their first series of 'kickstarter' projects with organisers being hosted in the following local organisations:

1. Barton Hill Settlement, Bristol
2. Birmingham Settlement, Birmingham
3. Cambridge House, south London
4. Community Links, east London
5. Goodwin Development Trust, Hull
6. Keystone Development Trust, Norfolk
7. Kirkgate Arts, Cumbria
8. Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
9. Marsh Farm Outreach, Luton
10. Penwith Community Development Trust, Cornwall
11. St Peter's Partnerships, Tameside, Greater Manchester
    
    A second group of 11 host organisations has now been announced:
    
    
12. Selby Trust in Tottenham, London
13. The Centre for Equality & Diversity in  Dudley
14. Saffron Lane Neighbourhood Council in Leicester
15. Re:generate, the lead training partner in the Community Organisers programme, who will build on their existing work in Bath and North East Somerset
16. RISE Community Development Ltd and West Itchen Community Trust who will collaborate to host organisers in Southampton
17. ETEC Development Trust in Sunderland
18. Voluntary Action Melton in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire
19. Granby Toxteth Development Trust in Liverpool
20. Somers Town Community Association near Kings Cross, London
21. Five development trusts in different parts of Bradford who will share the hosting between them
22. High Green Development Trust in Sheffield

A third group of hosts is currently being finalised.

Community Organisers' training is being undertaken by Locality's lead training partner, RE:generate Trust.

Locality is also setting up an Institute of Community Organisers. This is intended to be the professional association for Community Organisers, and the lasting legacy of the Community Organisers initiative beyond the end of government funding for the programme. It is expected that the Institute will have a year's independent trading in the final year of the government-funded programme 2014-15.

Chief Executive Steve Wyler outlined its five key pledges:

1. To speak truth to power ("At a time when cuts are falling disproportionately on the poorest communities, we will tell it as it is")
2. To take on the blockers and the bureaucrats ("All too often communities achieve things despite those who control resources and decisions - we aim to change that for good")
3. To forge a big alliance ("No single organisation can by itself achieve the community transformation we are aiming for - we will build mutuality within our movement, and alliances with others in the third sector, private sector, and government")
4. To build community capability ("We are determined to build resilient organisations that are here to stay, founded on asset ownership, enterprising business models, and high-impact social action")
5. To mobilise a million ("Through local campaigns, community organising, and timebanking, we will help our members mobilise a million people over the next three years")

Response from civil society

The initiative met with a mixed reception from civil society organisations (CSOs), largely because while the government is funding the Community Organisers' training, it was made clear from the outset that they would be expected to find their own salaries. There is therefore widespread civil society concern that those communities who most need the skills offered by Community Organisers will be those least able to afford them.

Also, the government seems to be focussing almost exclusively on communities of place - what about those geographically dispersed 'virtual' and 'causal' communities... of identity, of interest, of need (but see Nick Hurd's comment below)?

Urban Forum published a very useful briefing on Community Organisers.

Concerns have been raised by some commentators that the government simply has a misconceived, top-down notion of community organising, which is traditionally a broad-based grassroots movement, in which community organisers come from within their own communities, which in turn set their agenda and sponsor their training.

This traditional model has long been established in the British Isles through local broad-based community organisations (BBOs) working under their national umbrella body, the Citizen Organising Foundation, founded in 1988. While BBOs are made up of smaller local civil society organisations, such as congregations, union branches, schools and local associations rather than individual citizens, their methodology is based on a very similar model of one-to-one conversations with local people about their experiences of living in their neighbourhoods.

Response from the Opposition

The Labour Party has set out to recruit an army of 10,000 community organisers through David Miliband's Movement for Change.

Mr Miliband has invited Citizens UK to train Labour Party Community Organisers, because of their expertise in training citizens as members of institutions and local groups.

Community Organisers and the Community First Fund

In June last year, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General Francis Maude announced "a Community First Fund to be targeted towards the most disadvantaged areas in the country." After a competitive bidding process, the Cabinet Office selected the Community Development Foundation to work with several organisations to deliver the Community First programme, including supermarket chain Asda.

The fund has two aspects:

1. £30m Neighbourhood Matched Fund programme for some of the most deprived areas in the country: people will be encouraged to give time, expertise and goods towards the projects they identify in their areas and the government will match these pound for pound, helping to stimulate local interest and action.
2. National £50m Endowment Match Challenge: aims to raise £100m in donations, which will be matched with £50m of government investment. This money will continue to grow over the life of the programme ensuring a sustainable source of funding for communities in years to come.

A blink-and-you'd-miss-it comment from Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society, indicated that match funding would not be an absolute requirement for Community First funding.

Community Organisers are encouraged to support communities to come together in Community First areas to develop a plan and to identify projects or activities that local people wish to undertake.

What does it all mean?

If you're working in one of the areas identified by Locality and/or the Community First Fund, the chances are that somebody somewhere is being trained and funded to work there too. It does not mean, however, that such a person will be aware of work already established locally, nor of the local voluntary and community sector service delivery and support infrastructure that already exists.

Keep an eye on the Community Organisers website, and if any of the places or projects named above or yet to be announced are within your area of benefit, you may do well to contact the relevant Community Organiser or host organisation, to ensure where possible that you are able to work collaboratively.

Naturally, NAVCA is very interested to hear of member organisations' experience around the Community Organisers initiative, so please keep us in the loop.