Community organising is about building relationships with people in a community and empowering them to take action on issues they face in their local areas. By listening to local people about the concerns they have, a community organiser can find out if there are common themes within the community about what people feel strongly about. Once these common themes are established, community organisers can encourage these people to meet to share ideas and discuss a plan of action to achieve a shared goal. By asking questions such as ‘what do you think you could do about this?’, and ‘do you know others that feel this way’, people can realise that they have the power to act.
Often there is already a common interest in the community, but people may lack the confidence or resources to do anything about it. This is where organisers can then provide resources, training and guidance so that people recognise their own power and acquire the tools they need to create change themselves. Done right, community organising can create a network of communities that are all advocating for themselves and what they feel is important in their local areas.
So how are we applying this within the Wildlife Trusts? Across the UK, the Wildlife Trusts have started a new movement called Nextdoor Nature. The goal is to create a network of people creating space for nature and recognising their potential to improve their neighbourhoods for nature in ways that suit them. We would like to focus on urban areas which typically have less green space, to make sure that nature is accessible to everyone! Our area is Swansea, particularly the neighbourhoods Sketty, Uplands, Castle, Morriston and Llansamlet, although if you live outside these areas and have ideas, please do still get in touch!
It could be that there is a bare patch of grass on your street that you think could be planted with wildflowers. Or perhaps you’d use your local park more if there were more benches to sit on. Or you think that the abandoned patch of land near you could be transformed into a community garden. It can be anything, the idea is that you drive the project based on what you would like to see done to improve your local area for wildlife.
If you live in Swansea and would like to get involved in the project, please get in touch with Lil, our Project Officer for Nextdoor Nature, or fill in our online form by clicking here...