Neighbourhood Leadership

Grangetown residents are being offered training in Community Leadership on a course accredited by Cardiff University and in partnership with Citizens Cymru Wales.

The idea

The course will enable aspiring community leaders to build neighbourhood organisations based around relationship-building, alliance building, community listening and action for the common good.

It will apply the theory and methods of broad-based community organising at a micro level, enabling ordinary people to create and sustain new civil society organisations that can become vehicles for widespread democratic participation and local campaigning for social justice and the common good.

Progress

Over the last eight months, leaders from the Butetown, Riverside and Grangetown areas of Cardiff have been undertaking an accredited Neighbourhood Leadership Module with Cardiff University alongside Citizens Cymru Wales a chapter of Citizens UK that  organises communities to act together for power, social justice and the common good. Citizens Cymru Wales develop the leadership capacity of their members so they can hold politicians and other decision-makers to account on the issues that matter to them.

A number of the module sessions were delivered at the Grange Pavilion and up to 5 of the 20 participants were recruited from the Grangetown Community, including Araf Haq of the Grange Pavilion Project. They will now meet regularly to help bring about change in their communities by building teams around the issues that have been raised.

An event sponsored by David Melding AM at the Pierhead Building in Cardiff Bay was organised by the course participants where representatives of faith groups, businesses and organisations in and around Cardiff Bay were invited to join leaders from the Butetown, Riverside and Grangetown. The ‘Bay Citizens Vision’ attracted over 80 people from the various communities to come together to organise for power, social justice and the common good.

Next steps

The people of Grangetown that completed the Neighbourhood Leadership course will now rally their community into action and find out what the people in their neighbourhood really want.

For further information and to keep up with Citizens Wales activities, contact Jonathan Cox Jonathan.Cox@citizenswales.org.uk or follow @CitizensWales