Community Organisers is a national charity that supports grassroots community organising across England.
Since their establishment, Community Organisers has developed, grown and supported the field of community organising practice by working with local, regional and national organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors.
Their work is rooted in over 30 low-income neighbourhoods and is built on the three core pillars of community organising: training, support and action. They lead listening campaigns that identify issues that are deeply felt and widely held across their networks and are then able to convene alliances of local, regional and national organisations who work together to identify the root causes of issues and, through collective action, bring about the changes in the system that are driving inequalities.
Connection to Esmée's strategy
- Priorities
- Long-term outcomes
- Local people are able to exert more influence over the decisions that affect their lives and are the drivers of change.
From Larissa Fischer, Funding Manager, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation:
Community Organisers is an important anchor organisation in the field of community organising and have helped seed community-based organisations over the years. Their work and expertise in training community organisers and leaders is well recognised by grassroots organisations, larger stakeholders and government. By funding their work, we hope to learn how grassroots movements can join together to call for and effect change on a regional and national level as opposed to just on a local level. The role of community organising is critical in enabling communities to engage with and influence policy making, system and service design and development and we were excited by the opportunity to support a key organisation in this field to build on an existing and successful model.
From Nick Gardham, CEO, Community Organisers:
With support from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, we will be able to accelerate our impact by increasing our reach through the engagement of new Social Action Hubs. Many organisations across our network spend significant amounts of timing addressing the symptoms of inequality. We want to work with them to start to identify the root causes of what is driving inequality and build their collective power to push for changes in the system.
