Community Organising in Stroud District

 

Our work in Stroud District began in Forest Green, Nailsworth, where we were commissioned by Stroud District Council to work alongside residents as part of the Strengthening Local Communities programme.

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Our starting point was community organising: spending time in the community, listening to residents and finding out what they liked about where they lived, what concerned them and what ideas they had themselves. Alongside the conversations we were able to offer Community Organising training and support people who wanted to become more involved in their community.

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An important part of the work was creating an opportunity for somebody local to train as a Community Organiser while working within their own community. Luke Burrows, a Forest Green resident, was recruited as our trainee organiser and supported to develop his skills through the work.

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Luke later completed his Level 3 Award in Community Organising at The Living Room, training in the same cohort as Deb Baker. They subsequently trained together to become Community Roots trainers, and Luke later became a Director of Community Roots.

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His journey is a good example of what we mean when we talk about developing local leadership. The commission enabled us to work in Forest Green, but it also created an opportunity for somebody living there to develop skills and experience that continued well beyond the original project.

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Stratford Park Skate Park

 

Our work with Stroud District Council also took us to Stratford Park Skate Park, where we spent time talking to the people who used the space. As with our earlier work at Gloucester Skate Park, we started by listening. Through those conversations we met people who cared about the Skate Park, had ideas about how it could develop and wanted a greater say in its future.

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We supported them to connect with one another, explore their ideas and begin building relationships with other people involved with Stratford Park, with the aim of helping Skate Park users develop a stronger collective voice.

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Training was available alongside the conversations, giving local people opportunities to develop Community Organising skills through being involved in something that mattered to them.

The Arkell Centre and the Freezer of Love

 

When Covid arrived, the work changed.

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Stroud District Council asked us to support the Forest Green community through the Arkell Centre and, working with the Community Team at Forest Green Rovers and Nailsworth Youth Club, we connected with The Long Table and established a Freezer of Love.

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The Freezer of Love provided nutritious frozen meals that people could access locally on a pay-as-you-can basis. Alongside this we helped establish a community pantry, providing another way for people to access affordable food and practical support during a very difficult period.

The food work brought us into contact with other groups and organisations responding to similar needs across Stroud District. Through those relationships we began to understand much more about the community food activity taking place across the area and to make connections between people doing complementary work.

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Those connections would later become important well beyond Forest Green.

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Friends of Forest Green

 

As we continued listening in Forest Green, anti-social behaviour was one of the concerns that came through repeatedly. We also met residents who wanted to do more than raise the issue; they wanted to understand what was happening and explore what they could do themselves.

From those conversations Friends of Forest Green began to develop.

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With support from National Lottery Awards for All, we were able to continue working alongside the group, supporting residents to build relationships, explore the issues in more depth and develop the confidence and organising skills to take action.

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Importantly, we did not begin by deciding what the solution to anti-social behaviour should be. We supported residents to explore what people actually meant by it, recognising that different people could experience the same behaviour very differently, before looking at where there was common ground and what might be contributing to the concerns.

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Our role was to listen and support, helping residents connect with others, explore ideas, develop their skills and build relationships with organisations or individuals who might be able to help.

This work later extended to children and young people, creating opportunities for them to talk about their own experiences of bullying and anti-social behaviour and, importantly, their own ideas about what could make things better.

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Across the different strands of our work in Stroud, the projects changed but the approach remained consistent: listen to people, build relationships and support local people to explore their own ideas and their own potential to create change.