Saturday 9 June 2012

Building capacity and community organising in #rdg

There isn't much I like about the current government – cuts agenda, tax breaks for the rich, undermining the NHS etc – but one of the things I think is good is their community organiser initiative.

http://www.cocollaborative.org.uk/

I think community building is always a good thing, but especially when communities are under attack. In Newtown we are about to lose our community development worker – employed by the Council.

My basic understanding of this initiative is that an organisation in an area can apply to be a host for the community organisers. The organisation gets a small sum of money for this. They then recruit a small team of community organisers. There is a bursary for each community organiser of £20,000. Some of this pays a wage for the organiser, some of it is for training. The organisers work with communities to tackle problems and recruit volunteer community organisers.

So my question is are there any organisations in Reading who are interested in hosting the project? Maybe Reading Voluntary Action, Reading International Solidarity Centre or Reading Federation of Tenants and Residents' Associations?

More information on the project can be found here.

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