Community Organisers - could you be one? Could your group help train them?

THE COMMUNITY ORGANISERS PROGRAMME is a £15m Governnment funded scheme to recruit and train 5,000 'home grown' community organisers.

There will be up to 500 senior Community Organisers who will be trained and given bursaries of £20,000 for their first year, along with a further 4500 part-time and voluntary organisers who will support them.

Community organisers will listen and work with residents, public and voluntary sector workers,and small businesses to help develop their collective power to act together for the common good, as identified locally.

The programme is being delivered by an independent community network called Locality. Read their website for information on becoming a Community Organiser: How to become a Community Organiser?

Locality are also looking for 100-200 host organisations between now and 2014 to recruit and support trainee community organisers.

Hosts, according to Locality, will be rooted in their local communities, locally controlled and accountable. Hosts, must have the capacity to train and support 2 - 5 trainee Community Organisers, and be able to help them ‘hit the ground running’ straight after their introductory training. Hosts will be contracted by Locality and receive a £3000 fee for their work. See: How to become a Host Organisation?

The Goodwin Development Trust in Hull is already involved in recruiting the first senior Community Organisers.