As Angela Davis says, “radical simply means grasping things at the root,” we understand radical community development to mean tackling inequalities at their roots. This can mean tackling ideas upstream in systems, to prevent worsening inequality downstream. Radical community development means standing with people who are experiencing inequality and being alongside them to tackle the issues.
The challenge
Deep national inequalities are felt in our neighbourhoods. Across the UK, residents living in the poorest parts of our cities are struggling to make ends meet and are often at the sharp end of social injustices. These inequalities affect everything from average life expectancy, access to food, the air we breathe, to how much leisure time we enjoy outside, how healthy we feel, and even how hopeful we feel about the future.
People feel 'done to' rather than listened to. They notice initiatives come and go. They lose trust in institutions; they lose trust in people and places.
With fewer community centres, youth centres and gathering places, more of us feel lonely. With fewer social connections, people in our communities are more likely to feel like strangers to us. We are less likely to know our neighbours.
Few of us feel capable of changing things. We might not always have the self-belief, skills, experience or knowledge to engage with local decision-making and community action. We might be too familiar with the barriers we face when we do engage. We see the problems, we know them well, but we do not see ourselves as citizens with a role to roll our sleeves up.
Inequalities in our communities mean many people are not able to live happy and healthy lives. When people facing barriers are not involved in co-creating and shaping solutions, we miss out on vital knowledge, skills and experience we need to tackle our collective problems innovatively.
What we do
Nobody is better placed to understand the issues in our communities, or to deliver the solutions we all need, than the people who live and work there. We work with communities to build vital social connections, recognise their own power, learn and share skills and improve their own lives and communities.
For more information contact Megan Smith at megan.smith@theaws.org
It’s really nice getting to know people from the area. It reminds you how nice everybody generally is in a world that kind of wants you to be afraid of your neighbour. This is such a gorgeous antidote to all that. I love it.
“Through coming to the Community Cafe, I also got involved with a project with the Equality Trust. I did three sessions on community reporting training as well which involved some training and getting three Stories from within my community which is something I’ve never done before and gained some experience doing it.”
“I think what we co-create here can be a stepping stone for people. We empower people to come in, take part and then hopefully move on and achieve more for themselves.”
“Coming to Share Shack has been an amazing experience for me, because I don’t get to interact very much with other people at work. So when I come here and play table tennis on Mondays and Thursdays, it’s been an awesome experience and everybody’s been really, really helpful. I love my art, carving, making walking sticks, decorating canvas bags. I feel comfortable here. There are things you can’t do at home that you can do at the Share Shack. If there’s not space to do it at home, you can make it and take it back. People need to understand this little area is very important to the community.”
