NWTWC promoted local and regional based learning to improve lives and create sustainable communities.
Author: Helena Kettleborough
Democratic structures around the world are subject to pressure and attack. A hopeful and positive response is to promote learning and education around Citizen Democracy. But how can we practically enable such learning when there are so few resources for community based education?
Pondering these questions in my home city of Manchester UK, I reflect on the history that surrounds me. On my doorstep is the Pankhurst Centre home of the Suffrage movement. Only a mile away is the former Chorlton on Medlock Town Hall, where the Fifth Pan African Congress met in 1945, to plan for the liberation of Africa from colonial rule. Twelve miles away is Rochdale, the birthplace of co-operation in 1844: now a global movement for social and ecological justice.
Rather than despair, we can go back to what we have done before and see if we can learn from past initiatives.
The initiative I explore is from the first decade of the 21st century: North West Together We Can (NWTWC), founded on the premise of opening doors to locally and regionally based learning to improve lives and create sustainable communities.
NWTWC (2007-2013) was the North West regional arm of the national UK Together We Can Partnership Programme which worked to empower neighbourhood workers and residents and support community development.1 It also worked alongside specific groups of residents, such as members of Black and Asian communities, women, LGBTQ+ communities and the homeless. NWTWC delivered learning seminars, commissioned research, supported pilot community empowerment projects in local authorities and organised two regional Community Empowerment Awards with Manchester Metropolitan University Youth and Community Department. One of their most successful and cost-effective initiatives was Learning Seminars.
The Learning Seminars organised by NWTWC were provided for free, and designed with minimal funding and resources. Local officers and practitioners presented and shared information about their current practice and experimental innovations for empowerment.
In small groups, attendees discussed how these practices could be adopted in their own settings in other parts of the region. Seminars took place in a wide range of venues, across an area of almost 6,000 square miles.
As far as possible, local public transport hubs were utilised. Tea and coffee were provided and, sometimes, lunch. Workshops were held on topics that included generating employment, participatory budgeting and community engagement and development. Seminars were open to community members, public sector attendees and businesses. The format was simple and proved to be popular.
Very sadly, the funding for NWTWC ceased in 2011 with Austerity.
Can we take the learning from NWTWC and take it forward today?
One step could be for universities and NHS trusts to open their learning spaces to community and local organisations and offer free learning workshops. Another would be to ask locally funded NGOs if they could organise the meetings and arrange the speakers.
We cannot allow the destructive nature of Austerity to kill the concept of free, participatory Learning Seminars which empower local staff and community members to gain a sense of agency and enable the sharing of knowledge and learning through formal and informal discussion.2
Let Learning Seminars rise like a Phoenix from the Ashes and shine again.
1. NWTWC flourished alongside two other learning organisations. Neighbourhoods NW (2000 to 2013) ran accredited training initially for Town Centre and Neighbourhood Wardens, local authority and other public sector staff and employees of local charities and NGOs. RENEW NW (2005-2009), a catalyst regional organisation promoted excellence and learning in urban regeneration and urban design, promoting community-orientated research and inter-disciplinary learning.
2. see The lost decade: the hidden story of how austerity broke Britain at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/03/lost-decade-hidden-story-how-austerity-broke-britain
Helena Kettleborough is the author of Journey to Hopeful Futures: A Handbook (2023) more information about the book is available here.
Citizen Democracy, politics, social justice, England, Article
