BLOG: How community organising can make you love where you live even more

By Maria Moriarty, Resident Engagement Manager

Community organising is about bringing people together and recognising that everyone has skills, knowledge, and experiences that can make communities a better place to live. By working together, we can achieve things that we could never do alone - take action around common concerns and change things for the better.

You might be wondering how you can use your skills, knowledge and experiences to enhance your community and the answer is: a lot! Here some examples of what community organising can look like:

• Community garden-this is a wonderful way to bring people together and create a green space that everyone can enjoy.
• Skill sharing- do you have a skill that others might benefit from? It could be anything from cooking to DIY projects. You could organise a workshop for local residents and share your knowledge.
• Neighbourhood clean-up-organise a day with your neighbours where everyone comes out to clean up the neighbourhood. It’s a great way to keep your surroundings clean and get to know your neighbours better.
• Every little bit helps- even the smallest actions can have a big impact when we work together. To learn more about community organising, visit the Citizen UK website at www.citizensuk.org. Citizen UK is an alliance of local communities working together across England and Wales. You can also click here to look through some of the amazing Citizens UK success stories from other inspiring community organisers!

Community organising pilot in Wembley

To bring this to life in our communities, we’re running a community organising pilot at Matthews Close in Wembley. We’ve already started conversations with Matthews Close residents to understand their thoughts on where they live and the local area in general, and the types of change they would like to see. The pilot is all about promoting a stronger sense of community and togetherness, so we can all work together along with the local authority and other local organisations to bring about meaningful change for people living at Matthews Close.

The first stage of this involved putting together a group of colleagues who are passionate about empowering customers. We got a team of volunteers together from different teams at SNG to bring fresh ideas and energy to this pilot. Now the group have spoken to residents to gather their initial thoughts, we’re going to facilitate a workshop to identify the best opportunities to collaborate, and who within the Matthews Close community can help to lead on those opportunities. The aim is that this kickstarts a strong, ongoing series of initiatives that brings all the people at Matthews Close closer together as that’s what community organising is all about! In the long-term, we hope to do what we can to help customers work together to use their collective voice to influence positive changes in their local area which work for everyone.

We plan to reach out to more customers in the different areas we work soon, so stay tuned for more updates on community organising near you!