Welcome to Citizens UK Regional Community Leadership Training

A key tenet of Community Organising is that ‘Action is to an Organisation as Oxygen is to the Body’ – so we don’t do any training that does not lead to action. 

Each year hundreds of people use our training to campaign for change in their communities (this recent video from Citizens Cymru Wales showcases a number of them: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq6plgMUNgg) and we hope to equip you to do the same. 

Working with Newman University, who accredit our training, we have designed a course which follows the ‘Research – Action – Evaluation’ structure that is a key part of our Community Organising curriculum. Every training participant has committed to completing the three aspects of the Training over a 6-24 month timeframe (you can choose the pace that suits you):  

• RESEARCH: 50 hours of online or classroom-based Knowledge and Skills Acquisition (you will fulfil 25 of these on the 3-day course; you will be able to fulfil the remaining 25 either through regular participation in your local CUK Chapter over the course of the following 2 years, by choosing to attend additional accredited workshops delivered in your local CUK Chapter, or by joining online and offline discussion groups on selected films, books and podcasts);

• ACTION: 50 hours of Practical Application in your community with support from a Citizens UK Organiser (if you already have a community leadership role these are not additional to the hours you would already spend – but you will need to think about how you will apply your learning in your local leadership context);

• EVALUATION: Complete a short reflective portfolio to capture your knowledge and skills acquisition and make a short verbal presentation of your learning at a CUK Regional Learning Network meeting after you have concluded your 50 hours of Practical Application. 

We encourage you to participate in the November training with some idea of how you plan to utilise Community Organising in your own context during the Practical Application phase. You may well change this plan over the course of the 3 days, but it is good to have some idea of what this is in advance. If you are unclear, then please do contact the Citizens UK Community Organiser who nominated you. Their job is to help prepare you for this training, and then to support you to put it into practice afterwards.

Participants in Citizens UK training share three overlapping motivations: Social Justice; Leadership Development; and Institutional Development. The focus of Citizens UK Regional Community Leadership Training is towards Social Justice, and equipping you to use Community Organising methods to lead campaigns in your local Citizens UK chapter, but we also encourage you to think about how your 50 hours of Practical Application could help you become a more effective leader and strengthen your own organisation.

On behalf of the Community Organisers leading this training (Matthew Bolton, Claire Arkwright, Saeed Haque, Ali Abdi, Daphne Giachero, Froi Legaspi, Paulina Tamborrel, Pete Rogers, Phil Warburton, Richard Weaver and Tom Chigbo) thank you for committing the time and energy to organising for social justice and the common good - it has never been needed more!

Before you join the training, please read through the other 'lectures' in this section - they include the schedule for the 3 days, a reading list (which we encourage you to have engaged with ahead of the training) and other information that will help you make the most of the course.

We look forward to welcoming you on Zoom from 09:45 on Wednesday 18th November, for a prompt start at 10:00. Please make sure you join each session in good time so that we can respect the schedule. We will send a final email via Teachable with the Zoom links on Monday 16th November.

Good luck in turning your anger into action!

Jonathan Cox, Deputy Director of Citizens UK