Five days, three reports, one compelling case for building civic power

Amidst the ongoing chaos of partygate, there is one policy issue that continues to cut through with pundits and poll-watchers: the hotly anticipated Levelling Up White Paper.?

Against this backdrop, an array of policy recommendations, insights, and analysis have emerged.?

Over the past five days, three reports in particular have made a compelling case that, white-paper or no white-paper, what communities really need is a levelling-up of political power: so they can take control of their own lives and deliver the change that matters most to them.?

The Road Ahead?

First, the NCVO published their annual ‘Road Ahead’ report late last week. This is a treasure trove of information for civil society organisations looking to develop robust strategies amidst uncertain times.?

Unsurprisingly, I was struck by their evidenced emphasis that coupling the current focus on local devolution with community organising could be a ‘game changer’.?

The report convincingly argues that Levelling Up must go beyond big-ticket infrastructure investments to consider how it can build the ‘social infrastructure’ that ensures communities thrive.?

Over the past three decades we’ve heard a consistent refrain that traditional spaces for communities to organise and socialise are gradually disappearing. Elements of this analysis are reductive, and miss some of the powerful offline and increasingly online connections, campaigns, and activism that are fostering new and exciting communities.?

But there is no doubt that many communities are feeling increasingly detached from democracy and increasingly powerless to affect change over their own lives. According to NCVO, one way to reverse this is to help rebuild the ‘places, spaces and opportunities that create togetherness, spark ideas, and foster pride in where we live.’?

We at the Civic Power Fund wholeheartedly agree. Bringing communities together through organising - an inherently relational practice - and helping these communities build and exercise political power is a crucial way to deliver this.

Everyday Levelling Up?

Hot on the heels of Make the Road was More in Common’s Everyday Levelling Up report. Based on extensive focus groups and a poll of 4,000 people, More in Common looked in detail at what Britons want from Levelling Up.?

This analysis closely echoed NCVO’s description of social infrastructure. Rather than centralised infrastructure investments like Hs2, the people surveyed simply want nice parks, safe playgrounds, and good jobs for future generations.?

None of this is to say that investment in high-speed broadband or Hs2 isn’t key in the pursuit of these aims, but it does reflect a growing disconnect between national policies and local communities.?

Instead of listening to local communities and supporting action that they want, policy solutions are all too often imposed from above. This is something Darren McGarvey stressed in his brilliant book Poverty Safari. From charities, to government, to funders, we spend too much time trying to make things better rather than asking what might help.?

This is why investment in community organising is so important. Again, the practice of organising fundamentally disabuses this approach, by showing the power of listening to and following the lead of a community as they identify shared challenges and solutions.?

All across the UK, small and often unseen grassroots organisations are already doing this. By investing in these groups and connecting them to each other, we can help to build sustainable civic power that endures well beyond one specific policy fight or election.?

More in Common issues a rather sombre warning for the government: fail to deliver Levelling Up and you will lose the next election. But everything we hear at the Civic Power Fund is that, more than Westminster delivering policy change, the best way to meaningfully level-up is to give communities the tools to build their own local power - which will help them secure a clean park, win functioning local bus routes, and ultimately hold those with formal power to account for a better future.?

Covid Realities?

Yesterday Covid Realities, a joint project between the University of York, the Child Poverty Action Group, and the Nuffield Trust, released their final report.?

This makes for pretty devastating reading, chronicling how families already struggling have been battered by the pandemic. Rising poverty, isolation, and mental health challenges have pulled the rug out from under them. And this is before the impending energy crisis hits.?

As well as issuing an urgent wake-up call, this report offers two fundamental lessons.??

First, just how important political power is to quality of life. It has been far too easy for those in power to overlook the challenges facing low-income families - simply because they often lack sufficient power. Community organising could help change this.?

But equally, the report convincingly explains why the ‘how’ is as important as the ‘what’.?

Echoing the sentiments above, the families who contributed to Covid Realities spoke of ‘their eagerness to be part of making change happen’. Building a community with these families not only made for better policy solutions, participants also reported feeling empowered by this community. The act of building connections and imaging a better future together made a better future possible.?

What does this mean for the world of social justice funding?

Before it was a well rehearsed political slogan, social justice funders have been exploring how they can support long-term local change. This is characterised by four key trends.?

Place. A growing movement of funders are prioritising investment in ‘place’ - for example Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Oglesby Charitable Trust, who have summarised their insights from place-based local giving here; the exciting new LocalMotion initiative, a collaboration between six funders, including the Lloyds Bank Foundation, Lankelly Chase, and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, to understand what sustainable, community-driven giving looks like; and Big Local, the hyper-local grant giving programme that is putting faith in communities to spend on what matters to them. Based on two decades in this space, Rensai has also done some really interesting analysis of what good looks like.?

Power. The trends outlined above also raise questions about - in the words of JRF’s new Emerging Futures initiative - ‘who gets to imagine the future’. Place-based investment can lead to sustainable and transformative change by ensuring communities are not only free to imagine a better future, but also able to wield the power and resources necessary to achieve this future.?

Democracy. Critical to the exercise of this power, is full participation in democracy. Funders like the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and? the UK Democracy Fund are working to ensure that the communities and groups traditionally excluded from democracy - including young people, ethnic minorities and immigrants, and those living ‘precariously’ - can exercise their full democratic rights. Having an impact at the ballot box is one of the most straightforward? ways to ensure those with electoral power sit up and listen.?

Flexibility. And building on the refrain above, meaningful funding of this work must be flexible, accessible and unrestricted - so that local groups can access the resources they need without prohibitive barriers. Road Ahead argues that the uncertainty and emergency heralded by the pandemic required funders to give more quickly and flexibly. This ‘awakened’ the sector to the incredible impact of unrestricted grassroots giving.?

The Civic Power Fund

As I’ve set out here, the Civic Power Fund hopes to connect all of the above trends to build the long term civic power that, beyond a white-paper or a slogan, can ensure communities take control of their lives and achieve the lasting change they seek.?

We want to do this by directing more, and more flexible, resources to building the power of local communities; ensuring these communities can engage in democracy; and through connection with one another, building the local and national movements that can hold duty-bearers to account for decades to come.?

As we embark on this journey, we would love to talk to potential donors and grantees. Please get in touch to help us explore!