We support active citizenship

We support residents to develop their skills, knowledge and confidence to become active citizens and lead on delivering practical changes in their neighbourhoods.

We employ residents from the neighbourhoods where we are seeking to effect change.  Those Community Organisers build a network of their fellow residents to volunteer to grow community action. 

We deliver a programme of training and provide support so residents are equipped to take the lead in their community and organise events, activities and local projects in their community.

We do community research

Our Community Organisers conduct research to understand the skills, assets, resources and needs of their community. They hold in-depth interviews and workshops with residents, to gain a deeper understanding of their local community. They also interview professionals from different sectors, to find out the opportunities and barriers within the wider system.

We amplify the community’s voice

Each neighbourhood has a community-owned manifesto, developed by residents. This outlines the goals of the community. Community Manifestos are the guiding star for all community action in the neighbourhoods we work with.

The Chalcots Community Manifesto and the Hilgrove Community Manifesto are two examples of this. 

We support participatory budgeting

We support residents to make decisions on how funding is spent including public budgets and the shape of services to benefit their local neighbourhood. Residents are given the control to prioritise what is most important to them and determine what interventions and services should be delivered. We have done this with Chalcots Community Bank are developing this on the Hilgrove Estate.

We support collaboration between residents and professionals 

We build longer-term relationships between residents and professionals so they can work together to improve their neighbourhood and the wider system. We host spaces where residents and professionals share their experience and expertise in order to co-design better solutions and harness the assets in the community and the system.

We share our learning 

We want to inspire others to create change in their communities. To do this, we write Playbooks, do Show and Tell events, publish blogs and resources, all with the aim of sharing what we have learnt.