June 25th Changemakers Meeting Report

Progress at last meeting, 25 June 2008

• The Constitution for Changemakers Greater Manchester, was officially adopted.
• Daniel Burton was elected to continue as temporary Chair.
• We will nominate temporary Trustees at our next meeting on July 17th – so be sure to attend!

Constitution:

All those present at the meeting voted unanimously to adopt the Constitution. This means  all organisations and individuals who are willing to subscribe to the Constitution and are accepted by the Trustees can become official member of Changemakers. There was a short discussion of the process for amending the document in future, should it become necessary.

Trustees:

We will be appointing temporary Trustees for Changemakers at the next meeting on 17 July. This will include a temporary Secretary and temporary Treasurer, and other trustees.

Listening Campaign:

Mark Waters outlined the first action Changemakers members are asked to participate in: the listening campaign. This will begin with training for all the listening teams in September, and will involve every member organisation in hundreds of focused one-to-one conversations with their members and the wider community to unearth their concerns, passions, and struggles – and invite them to act together for change.

Each organisation will run the campaign independently for two months (with support from Changemakers), and we will come together at a Changemakers forum to create our first Agenda for Action.

If you are interested in piloting the campaign over the summer, please contact Tom Viita at jvc@church-poverty.org.uk

Training:

There will be two courses of the Changemakers Leadership Training in October. The first will be weekday training from Monday 6 October to Thursday 9 October. For those who cannot manage training on weekdays, there will be a session from Friday 10 October to Sunday 12 October.

Member organisation  receive free places on the training.

Professional colleagues from the Gamaliel Foundation in the USA will lead both training courses.

To request a place on these training events, please contact Lorraine Shaw: 0161 236-9321 / 07913 091 206 lorraines@church-poverty.org.uk

Parking in The Groves, Longsight:

Paul Keeble brought a small issue to the meeting: a dispute with the local council about a parking zone boundary in M13. This is one example of small issues that local residents frequently face in our city as they struggle to receive fair and effective representation in the planning process. For moreinformation go to:  www.thegroves-M13.co.uk A meeting with Councillors will be held on Monday 7 July, and Paul invites any interested individuals to attend and show their support.

Next Meeting

Thursday 17 July at Cross Street Chapel, M2 1NL

Refreshments will be served from 6.30pm

7pm prompt start. 8.30pm close

NB This is a Thursday, not the usual Wednesday.

Important Next Meeting – 25th June

Calling all ChangeMakers!

The most important meeting of ChangeMakers is next Wednesday 25 June.

Meeting details:

Wednesday 25 June at Cross Street Chapel, M2 1NL

Refreshments will be served from 6.30pm

7pm prompt start. 8.30pm close

At the meeting we will be doing five key things:

• vote on the constitution
• hear some good news about funding
• hold one-to-one conversations with new people
• launch our recruitment campaign
• launch our pilot listening campaign

I urge you to attend to represent your organisation and cast your vote on the constitution. This is the foundation that will hold our varied groups together and it is important that we are all there to publicly show our commitment to each other.

Why not bring other members of your community too, showing your collective support and meeting the diverse communities of Manchester who are making the vision a reality.

The constitution can be viewed online here. If you are unable to attend the meeting, please register your vote before Monday 23 June and RSVP to lorraines@church-poverty.org.uk or call 0161 236 9321.

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting as we put Changemakers on a formal footing and launch two significant campaigns.

Yours sincerely,

Revd Daniel Burton, Vicar of Cheetham LEP
Temporary Chair of Changemakers

Report From 21st May ChangeMakers Meeting

Changemakers is rapidly moving towards its formal establishment: the Constitution will be approved at the next meeting, and we call on all those who have been connected with Changemakers to attend this significant event which will pave the way for membership, trustees and action. Responding to key issues identified at the last meeting, we heard excellent presentations on two deep-rooted problems that affect many different communties across Manchester – gun crime and refugees – and heard how Changemakers can be part of the changes that must happen. As we look towards the future actions we will take in the public realm, the Listening Campaign sets out to hear the true voice of Manchester’s citizens in 2008.

Progress at meeting

Constitution
After a meeting of the Constitution Committee, Bill Harrop presented the completed document and explained the reasoning behind it. The document puts Changemakers on a solid footing and opens the way for organisations and individuals to become members. It can be downloaded on the Changemakers blog and a period of open consultation has begun. If you have any comments on the constitution or amendments, they must be submitted to Church Action on Poverty by 20th June (contact details below). The Committee have done a very thorough job and it is unlikely there will be any major changes.
The full Changemakers Constitution will be approved at the next meeting on 25th June: please attend this meeting to show your support for Changemakers as it comes into formal existence.

Manchester Refugee Support Network
Addisu Tewolde from the management committee of MRSN outlined an exciting pilot project in Moss Side to bring a focused and effective solution to some of the community tensions related to refugees and migrants. If successful over the coming months, the pilot could be rolled out across Manchester. He called for Changemakers to work with MRSN and support these local, community-rooted projects.

Mothers Against Violence
Angela Lawrence gave an inspiring and heartfelt speech about the birth of Mothers Against Violence out of the experiences of pain and violence in Manchester’s communities devastated by guns and killings. She called on everybody present to reject apathy and powerlessness, and to make a difference where they can. Angela also reminded us of the importance of being respected in communities and being prepared to work long-term for a better future. She applauded the ambitious and all-encompassing vision of Changemakers to work for the common good of Manchester and all its residents.

Listening Campaign
Initial preparations for the first Listening Campaign are underway. This will be the foundation for the first public actions Changemakers will take later in the year. We will have many hundreds of focused conversations across the diverse communities in our city, with every member committing to listening to its own network and going out to those who are not reached by those in power: we are calling for everybody interested in Changemakers to volunteer what time they can. The campaign will be launched at the next meeting on 25 June and will begin with a free half-day Training for all volunteers, and the formation of a Coordinating Team to oversee the project. It will run over the summer and will culminate in a exciting meeting in early September to bring together all the evidence and hammer out the agenda for when Changemakers bursts onto the public scene.
Marie Trubic and Tom Viita are heading up this campaign. If you would like to be involved in the planning of this first key action in Changemakers, contact Church Action on Poverty.

Other Committee Reports
Paul Keeble and Carol Connell presented short reports on the progress of the Funding and Training Committees.

Ben Gibbs explained the important function of the Recruitment Group at this vital stage in the growth of Changemakers: to support each organisation in going through their own processes for declaring membership. Every interested organisation will receive all possible assistance, including presentations by the group, question-and-answer sessions, and whatever else is needed. The Recruitment Group will be meeting in the coming weeks to prepare its strategy for ensuring that we can begin our public life with as many members as want to join. The Group is open for more volunteers to bring their expertise and time to this vital role.

Changemakers Blog
All the documents relating to Changemakers can be accessed online at our excellent website set up by Ben Gibbs: Changemakers blog

Please note: most Changemakers communication is by telephone and email. Hard copies of documents can be provided on request, but only in exceptional circumstances are we able to provide regular communication by post.

The next meeting will be Wednesday 25 June, beginning 7pm prompt at Cross Street Chapel. This will be a crucial meeting for Changemakers. I urge you to attend to vote on the constitution and demonstrate your support.

Revd Daniel Burton, Vicar of Cheetham LEP

Temporary Chair of Changemakers

Next Meeting – 21st May

The next Changemakers meeting will be on Wednesday 21 May, once again at Cross Street Chapel – see map here.

This meeting will start sharp at 7.00pm. Refreshments will be available from 6.30pm. The meeting will close at 8.30pm.

We have started to explore some of the issues raised in the last meeting and will talk about which issues to further research. We will also talk about membership of Changemakers and what it involves.

We very much hope to see you or representatives of your organisation at the next meeting as we work together to make Manchester greater.

Progress at the last Meeting

The meeting on 30 April was an important one for moving Changemakers on as an organisation. As well as tackling some of the nuts and bolts of establishing Changemakers in Manchester, we started looking to the future in terms of some of the first issues we might want to work at. It was encouraging to see so many new faces, and we offer a special welcome to those of you who joined us for the first time.

Planning for Action

A lively debate in discussion in groups raised the following concerns that people felt were of real importance for them and their communities:

• Mental Health – lack of services, and among young people.
• Asylum Seekers and Refugees (6) – destitution; access to health care; bad housing; poor community integration; human rights.
• Fear of crime and the effects of crime (3); fear of being a witness.
• Gang culture, the hopelessness and disenfranchisement of young people.
• Inequality of resources, jobs, transport.
• Demonisation of young people (3); lack of productive employment; need for mentors and role-models; more resources for young people.
• Privatisation of public spaces in Manchester, e.g. Piccadilly Gardens.
• Lack of public consultation, and often of poor quality.
• Capacity Building of small organisations (2) and networking.
• Neighbourhood breakdown, and need to rebuild communities.
• Family Breakdown (3).
• Debt (2).
• Improved inter-faith dialogue and interfaith work (2).
• Environmental concerns – litter, recycling, greenhouse effect, transport.
• Public transport.
• Support for working mothers.
• Accountability of government and police.
• Victimisation and stigmatisation of groups, e.g. young people.
• The effect of foreign policy on local communities and groups.
• Drugs and alcohol use.

Two of these issues have been raised repeatedly in previous meetings:

• the gang, gun and crime situation which breeds fear in local neighbourhoods and poisons the life of young people growing up in parts of the city
• the issues facing refugees and asylum seekers, and particularly the attempt by the government to deprive failed asylum seekers of primary health care

These are obviously issues which are already on the agenda of many local organisations and we need to understand what our particular contribution might be to working on them. So at our next meeting on 21 May we will hear directly from people who have knowledge of these issues and how they might be addressed, and most importantly how we might be able to add value to those campaigns.

Building our Organisation

It was also really encouraging that people volunteered to take us forward in terms of establishing Changemakers as a constituted organisation to which people will soon be able to make a formal commitment:

• Bob Day from Roby URC, Longsight is heading a group to finalise a constitution for Changemakers. Copies of the proposed constitution will be available at the next meeting with a view to finally agreeing that constitution at our meeting in June. This will help us to move on from our temporary governance arrangements.
• Dr Vincent Pattison from Manchester University is bringing people together to look at recruitment to Changemakers – what it will mean to be in membership and how we can ensure that we have a good number of very different organisations who commit to working with each other.
• Hilary Evans from St Peter’s Church, Blackley will take a lead with Lorraine Shaw on planning for the next training programmes which we will be running with the support of the Gamaliel Foundation in September.
• Paul Keeble from Urban Presence will be working with Church Action on Poverty staff to help us secure solid start-up funding for Changemakers.

Stakeholders

Until we are formally constituted as an organization no-one can be a member. Instead we encouraged people for the time being to think of themselves as stakeholders – those who have a real interest in building Changemakers, and are prepared to make commitments to see that come about.

It was very encouraging that a good number of people at the meeting were able to see themselves in that way. In this initial stage of building Changemakers, stakeholders are those who

• are prepared to attend meetings and bring others with them
• are willing to work to bring their own organisation into membership of Changemakers
• are willing to work to bring other organisations into membership
• are prepared to go on training and to encourage others to do the same.

What will Changemakers be about?

As there were many new faces at the last meeting it seems important to spell out once again what sort of organisation we are hoping to establish in Manchester. Changemakers will be:

• A large, independent coalition of different local organisations committed to working together for the common good of Manchester
• Aimed at tackling local issues that are not being addressed in other ways
• An organisation that trains hundreds of people to take part in public life
• An organisation which builds effective and respectful relationships directly with power holders and service providers
• An organisation which will be highly respected for its ability to engage thousands of people in creative solutions to the problems they face in their communities

The next Changemakers meeting will be on Wednesday 21 May, once again at Cross Street Chapel. Please note that in view of comments from the last meeting this meeting will start a half hour later than previously advertised. We will begin the meeting sharp at 7.00pm. Refreshments will be available from 6.30pm. The meeting will close at 8.30pm.

We very much hope to see you or representatives of your organisation at the next meeting as we work together to make Manchester greater.

Revd Daniel Burton, Vicar of Cheetham LEP

Temporary Chair of Changemakers