We’re Right Here heads to Parliament
Incredible day in Parliament gathering MPs, local government and community changemakers to celebrate community power and build support for our Community Power Act.
Photographer: Jessica Bernard, 13 June 2022
“If you unlock the latent talent in our neighbourhoods we wouldn’t need Levelling Up. We wouldn’t need a redistributive economy. We can earn our own keep. That’s what community power is about.” – campaign leader Andy Jackson
The Campaign
We’re Right Here is a national campaign rooted in local areas and driven by community leaders that is calling for a Community Power Act to fundamentally shift where power lies in the UK. Local communities are innately powerful. They’re made up of networks of relationships and social ties that help individuals prosper, and they hold crucial and unique knowledge about people’s needs and ambitions. Yet that power is held back by a system which appears not to trust local people.
The powers that local people need to shape their neighbourhoods are mainly held far away, by institutions which often implicitly reject communities’ right to determine their own future. A Community Power Act would create new community rights, introduce a community covenant, and establish a Community Power Commissioner. Its effect would be to help shift power so that local people can shape the places they live.
Campaign leader Inayat Omarji MBE opens our Community Power Event in Parliament
Attended by MPs, local government and community changemakers, we spent the day celebrating community power and building support for the Community Power Act.
Photographer: Jessica Bernard, 13 June 2022
Our campaign for community power is growing from strength to strength. We believe that our best chance of bringing about the change we want to see is by delivering a campaign which is rooted in local areas and led by community leaders, but which draws on the incredible talents of our national partners. For this approach to be recognised so soon in our journey is brilliant. We’re looking forward to strengthening the campaign over the coming years and invite everyone who believes in community power to join us.” – Campaign leader Sacha Bedding.
Campaign leader Inayat Omarji MBE opens our Community Power Event in Parliament
Attended by MPs, local government and community changemakers, we spent the day celebrating community power and building support for the Community Power Act.
Photographer: Jessica Bernard, 13 June 2022
We believe that our best chance of bringing about the change we want to see is by delivering a campaign which is rooted in local areas and led by community leaders, but which draws on the incredible talents of our national partners. For this approach to be recognised so soon in our journey is brilliant.” – Campaign leader Sacha Bedding
The Change
We’re Right Here is a large and growing movement of people around the country taking action in their communities to tackle problems like inequality, local decline, loneliness and mistrust. By coming together to call for a Community Power Act, they are harnessing their power to shape the system.
Led by people with direct experience of making things happen in their local areas, the campaign draws on the energy and ambition of those committed to their communities and places, but also their frustration at a system that too often gets in the way.
By changing basic assumptions about where power lies, We’re Right Here is already inspiring others to act so that, ultimately, every neighbourhood in the country is supported to take control of its future.
The Future
A Community Power Act does not ‘create’ community power on its own, that comes from the awesome potential residing in communities everywhere. But this Act is needed to unlock that potential.
We’re Right Here looks forward to working with government, parliamentarians, local authorities, civil society organisations and local communities everywhere to make it happen.
Who else was involved?
The campaign is supported by ten national organisations long committed to community power. These are: Power to Change, The Cares Family, New Local, Locality, the Young Foundation, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Local Trust, People’s Health Trust and Friends Provident Foundation, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation
