Citizen Spotlights: the first phase
Looking back on the first four months of Citizen Spotlight calls
As part of the process of reviewing the first phase of the Citizen Collective community, we wanted to bring together a quick overview of the first four Citizen Spotlight calls to make them a bit more accessible. These have acted as a key entry point for the community, and they’re something we’re keen both to build on and keep looking back to. Enjoy!
Spotlight #1: Coalville CAN
I wanted to kick off Citizen Collective by hosting Ian Wilson and Deana Bamford from Coalville Communities and Neighbours because I think of them as the epitome of place-based citizening: starting with very little, getting stuck in, building community, and making things happen. At the time of the Spotlight, they were launching a Community Share Offer to raise several hundred thousand pounds, and buy the freehold on their HQ building — which they’ve now (despite some VERY bad behaviour from the Council) successfully completed.
Spotlight #2: Re-Action Collective
Part of the intention in choosing Re-Action for the second Spotlight was to shift the focus beyond communities of place to communities of passion and profession: Re-Action is a network of over 50 organisations worldwide, from across the outdoor industry, coming together to reimagine that industry in the context of the crises of our time. It all started with a clothing repair party in a village in the French Alps; again the spirit of starting where you are, finding the others, and following the energy was a key message I wanted to get across. Gavin and Heather also shared their plans for Citizen Friday, a campaign to replace Black Friday with a day to citizen — share, repair and get out in the fresh air — not just consume…
Spotlight #3: Open Collective / Social Change Nest
One of the most important early bits of infrastructure we wanted to get in place for Citizen Collective was to get ourselves set up on Open Collective, under the fiscal sponsorship of the Social Change Nest. This combination allows an informal group to get themselves set up to start receiving donations and making payments, without having to undertake all the administration of setting up bank accounts and registering corporate structures before you can actually get on with doing anything. It feels to me like a key part of the infrastructure for the Citizen Future, and getting Citizen Collective on there is part of practising what we preach. Esther and Pia are two brilliant women who have thought very deeply about all of this.
Spotlight #4: Democracy Fitness
For the last Spotlight of this phase, I wanted to bring a bit of an international flavour, and the Democracy Fitness approach felt like the perfect place to start. Born in the Democracy Garage in Copenhagen, the underlying idea is that our democratic muscles are something we need to work out just as much as our physical muscles. The team have developed a series of highly practical 30 minute training sessions for each of a set of 10 muscles, from Active Listening to Mobilisation — and it feels to me like a set of tools that will be really useful to anyone doing the work of building a Citizen Future anywhere in the world. Linea and Sofie did an amazing job of introducing them to the group. Definitely more to come on this…
The extra Spotlight: Learning from crisis in Valencia
While I was out of the loop on my work travels in November, the stewards’ group came together to organise an additional Citizen Spotlight, working our connections to get an insight into the flood response in Valencia. We’re hoping to do more of these more responsive events as we go into the next phase. Getting a real understanding of what it feels like to be in the middle of crisis, and to respond as citizens, felt like a really vital part of this first phase.
