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Active Citizens

Extra Workshops Oct-Nov 2011

Following a fun and fruitful Active Citizens course that ran from March – June 2011 (details below), two extra workshops will be held this autumn to cover topics that were requested by course participants.

Active Citizens workshops bring together people who are active in our local community, to network and gain skills and support for running successful projects. Everyone is welcome – including those who took part in the Active Citizens course earlier this year and anyone else who is a local active citizen – so please spread the word.

Formalising and Funding – Weds 26 Oct
6.30-9.00pm, Longfield Hall, 50 Knatchbull Road, London SE5 9QY
Including:
  • Legal structures for community organisations and social enterprises
  • European funding and pointers towards other funding opportunities
Local Connections – Thurs 10 Nov
6.30-9.00pm, Longfield Hall, 50 Knatchbull Road, London SE5 9QY

A workshop to share ideas for ways that we, and others involved in creating social change locally, can support each other’s work – and support each other as individuals. We’ll also look at how our work relates to the Council, and national government policies around localisation.

For a full agenda download Active Citizens Local Connections.doc
The evening will include:

Part 1: How we as active citizens can support each other

  • How’s it going for us, our projects and our communities at the moment?
  • What’s limiting us and what resources are available to us?
  • What would a more supportive community of active citizens look like?
Part 2: Working with Councils and the Big Society
  • Sharing experiences of working with the Council as a political body, service provider, landlord, and funder
  • Lambeth as a “Co-operative Council”: what’s new and what are the opportunities for active citizens to get involved?
  • The national “Big Society” agenda: how will the policy changes and new institutions affect us?
Look forward to seeing you there, and please invite others who may find this relevant.
More information about previous Active Citizens training sessions is available below.

About Active Citizens in Brixton

The Active Citizens programme was a series of workshops that ran from March-June 2011, bringing together a group of around 20 people who are active in our local community, and providing a framework to support the development of social action projects. The programme included an international exchange to Gdansk in May for ten of the Brixton participants, with a Polish Active Citizens group visiting Brixton in June. Active Citizens was funded by the British Council and facilitated by Remade in Brixton in partnership with the Low Carbon Communities Network.

Participants and their projects

Active Citizens brought together a network of local activists centred on the Loughborough Junction / Myatt’s Fields area (where Remade in Brixton’s new base, the Brixton Reuse Centre (BRC) is being developed) and also linked into wider communities of interest in reuse, creativity and sustainability. Active Citizens connected members of BRC with other local community groups and residents, enabling participants to:

  • Network and develop ways to collaborate and support each other’s work
  • Get support to plan and deliver effective social action projects
  • Access up to £200 of funding per project
Projects funded through the Active Citizens programme included:
  • Mary Ekenachi from Angell Delight Community Project received funding for their project Harvesting & Sewing, to gather locally grown lavender on the Angell Town Estate and sew lavender bags to sell at Myatt’s Fields Harvest Festival.
  • Bua Watanawikkit from Brixton Reuse Centre received funding to purchase a toolkit and portable workstation for community reuse projects.
  • Helen Steer from City Farmers received funding to purchase a bicycle trailer produced from reused materials by Cycooldelic Revolution at BRC, to enable the delivery of plants and materials to local growing projects.
  • Pete Boyce from City Farmers received funding to launch the Dig for Plenty project, researching food growing knowledge from the older generation who remember “digging for victory” during wartime.
  • Shengzhen Chen from Ikosi Creations received funding for the printing of Ikosi Brixton Magazine, a new publication celebrating Brixton as a multicultural hub and self-reliant community tackling economic and environmental challenges.
  • Ella Bryant from Joined-Up Streatham received funding for Animapping Brockwell Park, a participatory creative mapping project to run at the Urban Green Fair, exploring the history and personal experiences embedded within Brockwell Park.
  • Michael Armstrong from Oxjam Camberwell Takeover, a local music festival raising money for Oxfam, received funding for team training for himself as Takeover Manager and his team of volunteers.
  • Nicholas Okwulu from People Empowering People and the Rupert Gardens Project received funding for video recording of the Loughborough Estate Big Lunch.
  • Rakesh Bhambri from Transition Town Brixton received funding to build a permaculture-based Low Maintenance Food Growing System with residents from his local community.
Participants in the Active Citizens workshops also included members of Loughborough Junction Action Group, Myatt’s Fields Park Project, Makerhood, Brixton Green, Ascension Trust, Sprouting 56, SpaceMax, and local residents from the Paulet Road estate (where BRC is located) and surrounding areas.

Workshop themes

Drawings by Active Citizens participants depicting aspects of their personal identity – from Sharing Stories workshop, 13 April

Drawings by Active Citizens participants depicting aspects of their personal identity – from Sharing Stories workshop, 13 April

A series of four Active Citizens workshops were held at Longfield Hall, 50 Knatchbull Road, London SE5 9QY:

Know your neighbours 16 March, 6.30-9.30pm

Meeting other participants and engaging in dialogue on environmental and social issues. Practising skills of listening and communication as a basis for shared vision and action.

Sharing stories 13 April, 6.30-9.30pm

Communicating our life experiences, influences, values and aspirations. What are the roots of our commitment to local action, and what do we want the fruits to be?

Planning projects 11 May, 6.30-9.30pm

Identifying short projects (or specific goals within existing projects), that you can accomplish from May-Sept 2011 with up to £200 seed funding per project and the support of other Active Citizens participants. Planning the steps to achieve your goals. Ongoing advice and support sessions for individual projects are available on a flexible basis up to September.

Going global 8 June, 6.30-9.30pm

During the visit of our exchange partners from the Polish region of Tricity (Gdansk and neighbouring urban areas), we explored the theme of global citizenship. What local and global systems have an influence on what we can achieve within our communities? How can we act effectively with others locally and worldwide?

For a summary of the programme, download Active Citizens in Brixton 2011.

Deep in conversation at the Planning Projects workshop, 11 May

Deep in conversation at the Planning Projects workshop, 11 May

International exchange

The international exchange with Gdansk in Poland was a key element of Active Citizens – an eye-opening, thought-provoking set of experiences, and a fun adventure that helped the Brixton group get to know each other better, as well as making new friends from Poland.

Our visit to Gdansk (12-17 May), and 6 days with the Polish group in London (4-9 June), were packed with visits to community projects revealing the wide range of forms that “Active Citizenship” can take, and the generous spirit that inspires so many to contribute and bring change to their communities. The photographs below showcase just a few of the highlights.

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