The North West London Social Action Hub - Stonegrove Community Trust

Our mission is to build and support a resilient and sustainable community of active citizens in and around North West London that works collectively to take action around their common concerns and overcome social injustice. A community that reaches out and listens, connects, and motivates people to build their collective power. When people are organised, communities get heard and power begins to shift creating real change for good.

The NWL Social Action Hub is a partnership between Our Yard at Clitterhouse Farm & the Stonegrove Community Trust aiming to embed the principles and practice of Community Organising and Community Hosting across North West London through the offer of high-quality certified training, coaching, and support and through the growth of a community of practice.

We started the training with six successful Introductions to Community Organising sessions which will continue alongside the second training course which is Listening in Community Organising. It is essential that you complete the Introduction before booking the Listening course.

To book your space now click below:

BOOK NOW

What is Community Organising?

Community Organising is the work that brings people together with an aim to take action around common concerns and overcoming social injustice. The aims lie in bringing people with shared interests to help them develop the confidence to create social action. This may take the form of campaigning for a change of policy or seeking to improve social welfare. Most importantly, Community Organisers engage, listen, connect and motivate to build collective power but have no political affiliation. It aims to give people the skills to overcome social injustice by creating a community of active citizens who are engaged and empowered. All these skills are taught as part of our Community Organising training and are enshrined in the Community Organising principles of practice.

You can find the list of Community Organising principles here.

What is the North West London Social Action Hub?

A Social Action Hub is a term used to describe the local hubs of Community Organising, which offer quality assured accredited training affiliated to Community Organisers. Social Action Hubs, like ours, are a cluster of organisations committed to change through Community Organising and are accountable to local people within the area. Ours will serve to promote the values of Community Organising and support the network of people who are involved in taking action for change in North West London and will assist the building of relationships both locally and nationally.

You can find the list of Social Action Hubs here.

Why us?

Our two organisations have come together to create the North West London Social Action Hub because we believe in the power of Community Organising to effect social change. Each of us brings very different experiences, skills, and assets, and together we can offer accredited training that will allow our community to be empowered to create change. We as organisations are an example of how the principles of Community Organisers are a success in practice.

Meet Paulette – Your Accredited Trainer.

Paulette Singer has a background working in the homeless sector and experience in project management, funding acquisition, volunteer coordination, training delivery and community engagement with “hard to reach” client groups. She has worked in prisons helping individuals into training and employment and has successfully delivered on both ESF and Local Government contracts. She is a qualified RHS Horticulturist, Permaculture gardener, and adult trainer. Paulette has been Community Organising for eight years and now works as a Community Organising and research facilitator. She is a co-founder of the Our Yard at Clitterhouse Farm project where she actively embeds Community Organising principles and practices to develop this thriving community enterprise. She has been a resident of Clitterhouse Crescent since 2010.

Case Studies:

Clitterhouse Farm

Stonegrove Community Trust and Community Organising

Beaj’s Story

What will I learn?

Community organisers reach out and listen to people, then connect and motivate them to build their collective power. In this course, you will start to explore how people come together so that they can understand and take action on their concerns to build community and overcome social and economic injustice.

You will learn about:

What community organising is
The importance of listening to build relationships and explore issues
Power in communities and why it matters
What motivates people to act
How to take your next steps in community organising

Like all of our training, it is both active and thought-provoking. It is designed so that everybody can take part and share their ideas and experiences. Many different people have taken part in the Introduction to Community Organising course, from members of the community, people who work in community organisations as well as individuals from local government and statutory services. Our more senior residents can also benefit from the course who want to learn new skills and want to take on a new project within their community.

Why now?

The Covid-19 pandemic has laid bare the structural inequalities of our local communities and wider society. Our communities cannot simply wait and expect to be improved and saved by others. We need to empower people to build their own power and capacity, to create stronger and more sustainable communities which act together for the whole good of the community. This June we will be offering Community Organising accredited training both virtually and in-person restrictions permitting.

Take a look at our pilot video from Jan 2020:

To book our training sessions click the “Book Now” link on a date in the list below:

As this training is highly interactive and requires a minimum of 9 participants for certification this means the dates may be subject to change.

Introduction to Community Organising 17th Jan at *Clitterhouse Farm*	Book Now
Introduction to Community Organising 11th Feb	Book Now
Listening in Community Organising (Workshop 2) 23rd Feb	Book Now
Power in Community Organising (Workshop 3) 23rd March	Book Now
Action in Community Organising (Workshop 4) 27th April	Book Now