Community Organising Toolkit

Community Organising is a powerful approach to building power in communities to win long-lasting change and tackle the root causes of injustice.

This toolkit has been created to help you assess how well you are using the Community Organiser’s Principles of Practice in your work.

It is based on the Community Organiser’s Framework. For each section, it will help you to assess where your organisation is and provide recommendations for how to level up your Community Organising practice.

Beginners’ Self assessment

Click the button below to register and download the High Trees Beginners’ Community Organising Self-Assessment for individuals:

Start now

Advanced Self assessment

Click the button below to register and download the High Trees Advanced Community Organising Self-Assessment for groups:

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What is Community Organising?

Community organising is the work of bringing people together to take action around their common concerns and overcome social injustice. Community organisers reach out and listen, connect and motivate people to build their collective power.

Community organisers reach out and listen, connect and motivate people to build their collective power. When people are organised, communities get heard and power begins to shift creating real change for good.

Framework

This framework is the basis for the Community Organising toolkit. It shows the various sections that are assessed by the self-assessment toolkits. It was created by Community Organisers Ltd.

Download here

Principles of Practice

The principles of practice are the values by which Community Organising is practiced and are covered in more detail in the self-assessment toolkits. It was created by Community Organisers Ltd.

Download here

Frequently Asked Questions

Different users

What is Community Organising? Is it right for me?

When communities work together, the possibilities for positive change are endless. Community organising is the work of bringing people together to take action around their common concerns and overcome social injustice. Community organisers reach out and listen, connect and motivate people to build their collective power. When people are organised, communities get heard and power begins to shift creating real change for good.

Who is the beginners' self assessment toolkit for?

This toolkit is for people or organisations new to community action overall that have little to no experience of community organising. The Toolkit is intended to help individuals, small groups or organisations to take their first steps in community organising. The recommended actions provided should be seen as a broad range of recommended actions for you to pick from depending on what level you feel is most applicable or attainable given your groups size and capacity.

Who is the advanced self assessment toolkit for?

This toolkit is for individuals, small groups or organisations that have some knowledge or experience of Community Organising, campaigning or activism and that are looking to improve their practice and bring it more in line with Community Organising principles of practice where possible. The recommended actions provided should be seen as broad Recommended Actions for you to pick from depending on what you feel is most applicable or attainable given your groups size and capacity.

Using the self-assessment toolkit

We’re not doing all stages of the Community Organising framework, do we still complete them?

Yes, the goal is to assess your efforts against a holistic framework for Community Organising which ensures your efforts are being directed in the most effective way that covers all the key bases you need to develop a strong group and take action. We provide recommendations for all levels, including if there’s no activity in that area at all.

Do we go in order of the stages of the framework presented here to develop our group?

They are very roughly in the order in which you might go about doing Community Organising but, practically, several of these stages will be happening at the same time. When you have a group more experiences in Community Organising, you will find yourself doing all stages on and off at the same time.

Going further

How do I learn more about Community Organising?

High Trees offers Community Organising courses throughout the year. You can see the dates for the next courses available here.

I'm from a group or organisation in Lambeth, London. Is there any further support you can offer me?

For individuals, groups and organisations based in Lambeth, London, High Trees Community Action Team offers coaching and mentoring around the implementation of the recommendations given in this toolkit and improving your Community Organising practice in general. If this applies to you and you have any questions or want to enquire as to our availability for additional support, please get in touch using the details at the bottom of the page.

Some of it doesn’t make sense to me – how can I get further clarification?

Please feel free to get in touch with us. Our contact details at the bottom of the page.

Further Resources

Below are some websites you might find useful for further resources, reading and examples of community organising in practice.