Community Organisers 2019 and 2020 Reports
Final reports for the 2019 and 2020 surveys of Community Action Hubs and comparator areas.
Applies to England
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The DCMS-funded Community Organisers Expansion Programme (COEP) ran between 2017 and March 2020 and aimed to provide Community Organiser training through 20 local Social Action Hubs located in areas of high social or economic deprivation. Community Organising is defined as ‘the work of bringing people together to take action around their shared concerns and to overcome social injustice’. The COEP trained 3,966 people in Community Organising. This builds on the 6,500 people trained in Community Organising through the original Community Organisers Programme (COP), which was funded by the Cabinet Office from 2011 to 2015. Overall, this takes the total number of trained Community Organisers through both programmes to over 10,000.
DCMS commissioned Kantar to conduct in 2019 and 2020 a boost survey of the Community Life Survey in the areas surrounding the Social Action Hubs delivering the COEP. Concurrently, the same survey was also asked of people in other areas of the country as part of the national Community Life Survey. This enabled a comparator group to be assembled, comprising those living in areas where the COEP did not run. The boost survey only enables comparisons at a single snapshot in time during which the Social Action Hubs were operational and providing Community Organiser training. However, the surveys can test for statistically significant differences between areas surrounding the Social Action Hubs and comparator areas at the time of survey, in order to identify any differences in indicators of social capital, loneliness and social action. It is also possible to compare differences between areas surrounding the Social Action Hubs in 2019 and 2020.