A brief guide to building a local development campaign
- Do you moan about how dull your neighbourhood is or that it isn't what it once was?
- Are you fed up of hearing others run down the area you live in?
- Do you believe it is up to local politicians to sort this or that mess out?
Well … politicians occasionally listen to what people have to say. But sometimes they don't. Here are some ideas to help improve your local community, make elected representatives take notice and to develop new networks that will bring about real change.
Don't wait for someone else to take up your ideas or nothing will ever happen.
Take an Inventory of Your Local Community
Get together with friends and neighbours to write down what you think is good and bad about the area.
See if a local church or community space is available to hold a meeting. Put up fliers in local shops and on community notice boards once you have a date, time and venue then write to your local newspaper to ask them to publicise it in advance and hopefully even attend. Invite people of all ages and from all backgrounds to help develop or add to your initial ideas at the meeting.
Consider carefully whether or not you want to invite local politicians at this stage. It is perhaps not a good idea as the meeting may descend into a bad-tempered affair. Some politicians have a habit of trying to close new initiatives down, especially if they think they will eat up their time or public money. Remember that this is about you - the community - doing it for yourselves. You can always suitably harass politicians later when you have an action plan. However, involve good and trustworthy politicians as early as possible if they already have a good track record of active community participation.
Devise a simple photocopied questionnaire to hand out at the meeting so you can record everyone's opinions and set them out on the seats. Put a simple statement at the top giving the reason for the meeting but do avoid flagging up your own pet concerns too much at this stage. List the ideas you have collectively come up with so far and leave plenty of space for attendees to write down their own thoughts and notes.
If your campaign aims to be on a single issue only, include the arguments and observations you have already come up with as a guide to aid discussion.
Gather the questionnaires at the finish of the meeting and remember this affords a good opportunity for further individual discussion. Be positive always.
Ask at least two people to take written minutes of the meeting. These records should accurately reflect issues raised and highlight any suggested action.
Try to get visibly keen people to nominate themselves as centres of contact for others interested in becoming involved with the individual areas of activity that will certainly arise. Keep names and contact details for these people.
Suggestions to Kick-Start Ideas
- Setting up collection points for donations to local charities
- Recycling initiatives
- Creating local arts or sports opportunities and venues
- Starting a Neighbourhood Watch and getting the police involved
- Organising a Car Pool to save on fuel costs (and to make new friends)
- Identifying existing neighbouring or regional issue campaigns to link up with on particular topics
- Planning “block parties” to make new friends with neighbours and promote campaigning networks for social or environmental change
- Creating after-school clubs and babysitting services to give children positive activity outlets and to help working parents
- Tackling issues of sex, drugs and violence that children face locally by organising talks at schools
- Organising, supporting and encouraging representatives to attend other town meetings so as to represent your collective views to local government officials and elected representatives, etc
The above are only suggestions. It's important to decide what you want the outcomes of your campaign to be and whether you want it to continue for further future development of your community.
After the Meeting
Arrange to summarise the results of the returned questionnaires and incorporate these into one document (your first newsletter!) with the written minutes. Distribute this “action plan” by post or email using the contact details you will have requested on the questionnaires at the meeting.
Make sure those attending know how to get in touch with key people who say they want to be active in the new group. Encourage them to set up their own gatherings to deal with those parts of the campaign they feel most strongly about and to report back regularly.
Suggest a further general campaign meeting after, say, one month to share progress reports and to agree specific target timetables for action. Make sure you are available to offer any support or encouragement you can in the meantime. Opportunities for ongoing communication need to be fostered and you might want to consider putting together simple but regular newsletters.
You could lobby or involve politicians and local government officials - but more on your terms now! - when plans really start take off. Don't hesitate to update the local press about significant progress and don't forget to keep in touch with all of your new friends.
Outcomes
Hopefully you will then be able to:
- Rave about how good your neighbourhood has become
- Hear others talk enthusiastically about the area you all live in
- Plan for the future and celebrate your successes
- Witness the local politicians' desire to become involved in something so fundamentally good!
