Tired by Tina Cribbin
We are so tired…
Tired out from being harvested
About our “stories”
How the vultures from the art,
Academia, policy makers too
Want to engage with us
Sit down and have a brew
Listening, dissecting explaining
All the while claiming their latest
Art, Plan and Research paper.
You are no different from the property developers
That come and break up an already functional
Well-equipped community.
We don’t need your “expertise”,
Thank you for the opportunity.
I think a conference is what’s needed with
These “lower income groups”.
So we can take notes watching
The bleeding all the while scheming
Would this be a great hook for my latest book?
But I’m learning too
I’m learning to see behind the doublespeak.
I seek the truth behind your deceit.
I will record your every experience
Your horror and shock.
As I turn what you do on its head
Did you know I can write too!
In my latest book there will be an inscription
To those who inspired, those that just took
So thanks for your interest
We are learning to say no.
We are capable enough to create our own show.
On our terms, where no one redefines our truth.
Listen out for us, we plan to raise the roof.
(From Classphemy, 2019).
More Stories
What is the city but the people?
Our Strategy for 2025-2028
New Year Retrospective
We are recruiting!
CLASS has two exciting new roles available to support the deepening and broadening of the Community Savers network, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and the Tudor Trust.
We are recruiting a full-time Senior Development Worker and a part-time Finance and Operations Manager: please read on for further details and consider helping us achieve our aims by circulating these exciting opportunities through your networks!
Senior Development Worker **Deadline extended to Monday 14 March**
Community Led Action and Savings Support (CLASS) is looking for a Senior Development Worker to join our small and dynamic team.
CLASS is a charitable support agency for Community Savers: a network of majority women-led and neighbourhood-based community groups who are reducing poverty and inequality in our neighbourhoods, towns, and cities.
This is an exciting opportunity to make a significant contribution to community-driven development and wellbeing in North Manchester: supporting community associations to realise collective visions for their local areas; and deepening and broadening the reach and impact of the Community Savers network.
You will work in alliance with the Community Savers leadership, members of Miles Platting Community and Age-Friendly Network (MP-CAN), the CLASS Director, and other local partners to take forward plans for the protection and improvement of green space, the development of local community facilities, and capacity-building and skills-development of local community leaders. You will develop new relationships and connections across Manchester in support of regular community learning exchange and the mobilisation of new savings groups and associational networks.
About you:
You will be passionate about social justice and championing community expertise and have a compassionate, non-judgemental approach to working with others. You will have a strengths-based orientation with considerable drive, energy and determination to succeed.
Other knowledge, skills and experience you will need include but are not limited to:
- An excellent working knowledge of the context for community working in neighbourhoods where people have experienced long-term economic, social and political exclusion.
- Experience of translating resident/community-led ideas and visions into practical projects that deliver improvement.
- Experience of networking with statutory and non-statutory organisations to create new opportunities for resident-led community groups.
- Excellent active listening and interpersonal skills including conflict mediation.
- Experience of taking an enabling approach to the facilitation of resident-led community meetings, projects and partnerships.
About the role:
Job Title: Senior Development Worker
Salary: £27,741 - £29,577
Working commitment: Full-time
Contract: Fixed term for 2 years
Location: Working from home or in community settings in Greater Manchester
Benefits:
- 28 days annual leave in addition to public holidays
- Attractive workplace pension scheme
- Flexible employer sensitive to the needs of today’s workforce
- Commitment to continued professional development
This work will involve regular local travel and occasional national travel.
If you have the knowledge, skills and experience we need to advance our social justice goals then we would love to hear from you.
We particularly welcome applications from under-represented women; including women from working-class backgrounds; Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women; and women with disabilities.
If you require any reasonable adjustments to any stage of our recruitment and selection process, please email us at recruitment@class-uk.com. The application pack and form can be made available on request in alternative formats, where reasonable and practical.
>Download Application Pack
>Download Application Form
Please contact recruitment@class-uk.com to request an application pack by email.
Please note that CVs will not be accepted.
In accordance with CLASS policy and relevant legislation we will ask the successful candidate to be screened by the Disclosure and Barring Service. However, a criminal record will not necessarily be a bar to your being able to take up the job.
Finance and Operations Manager
(Now closed to applications)
Community Led Action and Savings Support (CLASS) is looking for a Finance and Operations Manager to join our small and dynamic team. This is an interesting and varied role with attractive benefits.
CLASS is a charitable support agency for Community Savers: a network of majority women-led and neighbourhood-based community groups who are reducing poverty and inequality in our neighbourhoods, towns, and cities.
This is an exciting opportunity to make a significant impact on the growth and development of CLASS and the Community Savers network by ensuring we have the financial and operational systems in place to remain agile and effective in our provision of support and community benefit as the Community Savers network expands.
You will work closely with the CLASS Director, the Board of Trustees and the Community Savers leadership to plan, manage and monitor annual and project budgets, prepare management accounts, manage our day-to-day operations including policy review and implementation, and provide capacity-building support on financial governance to community groups.
About you:
You will have a commitment to advancing social justice, a compassionate co-working approach, and excellent attention to detail. Other experience and skills you will need include:
- Management-level accounting experience within a charity setting including processing payroll and pension contributions.
- AAT Level 3 qualification or above, or equivalent professional experience.
- Sound technical knowledge of current accounting regulations, and accounting software such as Xero and Quickbooks or similar.
- Ability to present financial information in a clear and concise manner to non-financial colleagues and community groups.
- Experience of monitoring, evaluation and reporting for charitable projects, and organisational policy development.
- Experience of developing effective systems for human resource management.
- Experience of supervising volunteers.
- Ability to work quickly and accurately under time pressure.
About the role:
Position: Finance and Operations Manager
Location: Greater Manchester (home-working desirable)
Salary: £11,097-£11,831 (£27,741-£29,577 pro rata)
Working commitment: 15 hours per week
Contract: Fixed term for two years
Closing Date: 5pm, Friday 4 March 2022
Interviews: Wednesday 23 or Thursday 24 March 2022
Benefits:
- 28 days annual leave in addition to public holidays (on a pro-rata basis)
- Attractive workplace pension scheme
- Flexible employer sensitive to the needs of today’s workforce
- Commitment to continued professional development
This work will involve some local travel within Greater Manchester and occasional national travel.
If you have the commitment, skills, and experience to develop and manage the financial and operational systems we need to advance our social justice goals then we would love to hear from you.
We particularly welcome applications from under-represented women; including women from working-class backgrounds; Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women; and women with disabilities.
If you require any reasonable adjustments to any stage of our recruitment and selection process, please email us at recruitment@class-uk.com. The application pack and form can be made available on request in alternative formats, where reasonable and practical.
>Download Application Pack
>Download Application Form
Please contact recruitment@class-uk.com to request an application pack by email.
Please note that CVs will not be accepted.
In accordance with CLASS policy and relevant legislation we will ask the successful candidate to be screened by the Disclosure and Barring Service. However, a criminal record will not necessarily be a bar to your being able to take up the job.
Community Led Action and Savings Support - Registered Charity No. 1188480
More Stories
What is the city but the people?
Our Strategy for 2025-2028
New Year Retrospective
Community Savers secures National Lottery grant
Community Savers have been awarded a two-year development grant of £209,500 from The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest funder of community activity in the UK, to deepen and broaden the impact of our women-led approach to reducing urban poverty and inequality.
The National Lottery funding has a focus on supporting transformational and long-term change. The funding is seeking to support “visionary initiatives that go beyond individual organisations, and instead focus on ecologies, platforms…networks”, that are capable of “generating infrastructure through which many things are possible.”
For Community Savers and CLASS this call felt like a perfect fit. The funding, made possible thanks to National Lottery players, will enable our women leaders to strengthen the existing network while reaching out to other communities across Greater Manchester and Sheffield to share their approach and reach a wider diversity of communities. Savers will be enabled to further develop innovative and collaborative initiatives like those in Hulme and Miles Platting and to share learning with similar groups in other areas for possible adaptation. Community Savers and CLASS will have additional capacity to support groups in a wider set of neighbourhoods to form community networks and identify priorities for collective action together with local service providers and local government.
Sharon Davis, Mums Mart Treasurer and an original founder and mentor of the Community Savers network said:
“We are all absolutely delighted about this National Lottery funding. It feels like after all the hard work of the last two years this is real recognition for what we do. A lot of what we do goes unnoticed but by working together across different communities, and now different cities as well, it feels like we are building a stronger voice. I also just want to say well done to all our women savers and leaders across the network – we should all be really proud of ourselves.”
Sophie King, Director of CLASS, said:
“This feels like a transformative moment in the Community Savers’ development. It is wonderful to have this recognition from such an exciting new initiative from The National Lottery Community Fund. As the savings leadership have experimented with the approaches of the 85% women-led Shack/Slum Dwellers International since 2016, including through visits to Cape Town and Nairobi, it has been amazing to watch women translate these ideas for the UK context. The accumulation of confidence, skills, knowledge and significant outcomes for people living on low incomes in Greater Manchester, and now also in Sheffield, has been humbling to be a part of. It has been achieved through a fantastic combination of peer support and solidarity, learning-by-doing and learning exchange, and community-led co-production.
Community-led co-production is made possible when communities are supported to form confident, well-organised and completely independent community associations and to network together with other local groups through dialogue and peer exchange. This enables communities to prioritise issues they want to change and then form co-production partnerships with public agencies and authorities from a more prepared, confident and collective position, rather than participating in someone else’s initiative as a service user.
The savings approach starts by addressing individual and household needs such as financial resilience and well-being - but this is just the beginning. The savings groups are building blocks of social transformation which comes from communities testing out innovative ideas and scaling these up through their own networks and local/national government. Groups also save together into a club account thereby building trust in each other and the skills to manage collective finance and collective agendas.”
About the National Lottery Community Fund
We are the largest funder of community activity in the UK – we support people and communities to prosper and thrive.
We’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and to work closely with Government to distribute vital grants and funding from key Government programmes and initiatives.
Our funding has a positive impact and makes a difference to people’s lives. We support projects focussed on things that matter, including economic prosperity, employment, young people, mental health, loneliness and helping the UK reach NET Zero by 2050.
Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, our funding is open to everyone. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.
National Lottery players raise over £30 million each week for good causes throughout the UK. Since The National Lottery began in 1994, £43 billion has been raised for good causes. National Lottery funding has been used to support over 635,000 projects - 255 projects per postcode area.
More Stories
What is the city but the people?
Our Strategy for 2025-2028
New Year Retrospective
Women Thriving: a transformative year for Community Savers
The announcement of the third national lockdown on 6 January 2021 was not the start to the year that anyone had hoped for… the rollercoaster ride of the COVID-19 pandemic, was, it seemed, still rolling on.
As the Women’s Budget Group find, COVID has had a disproportionate impact on low-income women for whom the pandemic has worsened already challenging situations ‘in terms of health, employment and unpaid work, resulting in increased levels of poverty, debt and mental health deterioration’.
Community Savers’ ability to support their communities through such profoundly challenging times in 2021 has been strengthened significantly by three grants from the We Love Manchester charity’s Stronger Communities Fund, and the Smallwood Trust’s Frontline Women (see April news) and Women Thrive funds.
We Love Manchester!
Manchester-based groups have been able to use the We Love Manchester funding to relaunch their savings meetings after the lockdown easing in March, enabling people to build up some savings again and improving mental health and wellbeing through an array of activities and events.
Mums Mart were able to relaunch their savings meetings in March and hold a fantastic AGM and family fun day in August benefiting over 100 local families leading to lots of new members. They have gone on to raise over £300 at their Christmas Fair this month where local residents were able to benefit from low-cost Christmas gifts.
Miles Platting Savers had a fantastic relaunch event in September attracting over 100 local residents and leading to an additional ten members joining. Participants celebrated with a community wall made up of drawings of the household goods and other items the Savers have been able to provide to 34 families this year through their small grants programme (via Henry Smith Charity). MP Savers are also active members in the Miles Platting Community and Age Friendly Network - MP-CAN!, which successfully merged MP Community Network and MP Age Friendly Neighbourhoods board in July this year. Members are now united behind an exciting vision for the area including a climate action plan and a community-driven social club development after the loss of many community facilities since 2007.
In Hulme, Hopton Hopefuls were able to use We Love Manchester funds to organise an “International BBQ” together with On Top of the World Project where Savers were able to share progress with tenants on their Ageing Well work for older tenants in the Aquarius estate which is driving forward a “Naturally Occurring Retirement Community” model. This has led to a new Independent Living Adviser post and will soon see recruitment of a new Development Worker to take forward the NORC model in partnership with tenants. The initiative has shaped One Manchester’s plans for supporting older tower block tenants across Hulme. Excitingly, the GMCA's Ageing Hub has now taken up this work as a best practice case study and are exploring ways to roll out the model with housing providers across GM.
Beyond Manchester, Brinnington Savers and Arbourthorne Social Savers have done a brilliant job of keeping their savings meetings going throughout the year despite repeated challenges with COVID and a broken ankle to boot! Brinnington have been able to build on the work they have been doing supporting older residents with digital inclusion and savings accumulation to attract a £2,000 grant from Stockport Homes Community Fund - great news!
Retreat, Reflection... Recognition!
Since September, Community Savers have been on a transformative journey of retreat and reflection which was made possible by some generous donations from our fantastic supporters out there and a significant capacity-building budget from Women Thrive Fund. Thank you so much to all who have donated and to the Smallwood Trust for your ongoing faith and interest in our work!
Our two-day retreat in Snowdonia was a game-changer for the network (why retreats matter), building and strengthening relationships between women leaders (and with CLASS), deepening leaders understanding of each other’s visions and projects, celebrating our achievements, and taking home souls filled with inspiration and motivation.
This gave us the solidarity and shared purpose we needed for two really productive theory of change and strategic planning workshops with leaders in the final two weeks of September facilitated by our long-term cheerleaders Participate!
Together with all the amazing support members have provided in their neighbourhoods throughout the year, the retreat and workshops contributed directly to the wonderful recognition of our transformative potential from the Tudor Trust who have awarded Community Savers and CLASS an unrestricted grant of £40,000 per year for three years.
Savers have found dialogue with the Tudor Trust positive and enabling giving everyone an opportunity to shine. Thank-you Tudor Trust for your kind words of recognition:
“The trustees really liked the emphasis on women’s leadership and the deep recognition of community expertise which is at the heart of CLASS’s work, and which sits at the core of the Community Savers groups. They were excited by the trust, mutual support and vision for change held within the groups, and by the clear sense of connection between members of different groups […]
The trustees saw the need for an organisation like CLASS to provide the development and technical support which enables the groups to flourish and felt that governance arrangements had been carefully thought through to support genuine working in alliance with the Community Savers network. Above all there was a sense of real excitement about what the groups are doing for their communities, as well as a huge interest in seeing how things develop over the next few years. The rooted and radical nature of the work, and the group members’ ability just to get things done were also greatly appreciated!”
We look forward to getting a lot more 'things done' in 2022!
More Stories
What is the city but the people?
Our Strategy for 2025-2028
New Year Retrospective
Women in the lead: why retreats matter for networked community action
Sophie King, Development Manager at CLASS, explores what the Community Savers-CLASS alliance has learned about the importance of reflection and retreats for women’s community action.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Explore any urban neighbourhood – seek out its craft groups, its over 50s exercise classes, its food banks, parent groups, and meal clubs – and there you will find amazing women.
Women have always played a critical role in community action in the UK (and across the world). Since the onset of austerity policies in 2010 which has reduced spending on public services and social support, women have been at the forefront of the battle to provide a safety net for the most vulnerable in our society. And now COVID.
The gendered nature of community action usually goes unrecognised. It is almost always unpaid, and the cost of activities are frequently shouldered by communities themselves.
This presents us with a very real challenge. The Community Savers approach amplifies and builds upon the expertise and resilience of grassroots women leaders to make change happen. But this creates additional demands on women who are already shouldering many of their own community, family and work pressures.
Yet, being in the network also builds resilience and enables effective strategies to spread. Throughout the pandemic, savings group leaders have been able to fall back on their network for moral support, ideas and information, or just to offload when things get tough. Crisis resources have been shared between groups – when there is a surplus in Miles Platting, Manchester, women in Wythenshawe have been able to collect and redistribute in the south of the city. Before COVID, groups were travelling to learn from each other’s projects and approaches, where a savings group set up in one place, a food project would replicate in another.
Retreat and reflection
Grassroots women leaders need time away from firefighting to have the space to take a breath, reflect on their achievements and challenges, and share experiences with each other.
Taking this time for reflection enables them to take stock, recognise all that they have achieved, re-energise and re-strategise.
Some movements and initiatives can do this in-situ, but it is very different in the context of women providing crisis support in low-income urban neighbourhoods.
Women in the lead
Building on 30 years of SDI’s learning by doing, the Community Savers-CLASS alliance are attempting to build a genuinely alternative form of community-professional partnership.
Our work together is led by, for, and with grassroots women but protecting that principle requires constant dialogue, reflection and renegotiation. The issues we must address jointly are challenging and tension is the norm. One size of professional support does not fit all groups as one of our leaders pointed out the other day. Equality of access to support is also important.
We need to make collective decisions about how workers spend their time, what resources are raised for which activities, and how they are distributed. But as the network grows the governance demands become greater and more complex. Under what conditions should community leaders be remunerated? How are funding proposals developed? Who represents who under what circumstances? Which processes are going to secure transparency and accountability and avoid tokenistic solutions?
And: where to find the time and space to have these discussions without needing to rush to school pick up, hospital appointments, food collections, or tonight’s campaign meeting?
September 2021
In September 2021, Community-Savers & CLASS will be going on a 2-day retreat in North Wales. We would like to enable 4 amazing women from each of the Community Savers affiliate groups to attend.
We need to raise an additional £1,000 to make this possible. If you can, please help us to reach our target by making a donation.
Thank-you.
More Stories
What is the city but the people?
Our Strategy for 2025-2028
New Year Retrospective
Lessons learned from the pandemic
Whitney Banyai-Becker shares lessons from a reflection with savings group leaders in April 2021.
Learning through regular reflection is fundamental to the Community Savers approach to achieving positive change for their members and neighbourhoods. In April, Manchester-based savings group leaders came together to share reflections on the last 12 months around:
- What have you learned about your group or your community during the crisis?
- What strengths and challenges have emerged?
- What support does your group or community need now?
- What messages or lessons would you most want to share with a wider audience?
A pre-existing mental health crisis
Community Savers leaders agreed that the biggest revelation was learning how many people were coping with mental health challenges prior to the pandemic, with the repeated lockdowns exacerbating this. Groups have supported people through serious lows and suicidal thoughts from cups of tea in a car park to regular weekly phone arounds. Communities have also rallied around to support people who they know would not ask for help directly, making informal mentions of people in need to their local groups so groups can proactively reach out.
Low-income, working families are some of the worst affected
It was often the working families that needed more support. One leader commented, “A lot of them ended up being furloughed only getting 80% of their wages, but they didn’t have to pay only 80% of their monthly bills”. Many of these families have significantly worsened situations of debt now. Savings groups are reaching out to encourage new people to come along to weekly savings meetings now these are starting up again face to face.
Intergenerational community action
The pandemic revealed how the make up of groups shape their capacity. Many groups in Community Savers neighbourhoods are run by by women with children or by older women (who come from an era, we reflected, where community solidarity was stronger). This meant that a large number of groups had to stop. A big responsibility fell on the shoulders of anyone who was not particularly vulnerable or who did not have overwhelming care responsibilities. There is a need to support groups to mobilise younger and diverse networks of people to get involved in community action.
Open all hours but not equal partners
Group leaders shared their frustration with the lack of proactive partnerships from service providers towards grassroots faith and community associations. Grassroots groups were the first to respond but crisis-response planning took place at higher levels. There is also work to be done to improve service referral processes to groups and a need for stronger relationships. While leaders were sympathetic to the strain on services linked to budget cuts and the crisis itself, they also emphasised that they didn’t have the option to stop work and go home. This contributed to a sense of abandonment – that the first instinct of professional agencies in some areas was to ‘look after their own’, leaving communities to fend for themselves.
“I’m allergic to tins”
Everyone celebrated the amazing efforts of a diverse mix of volunteers, providers, charities and community groups to ensure that people who were sick, shielding or in financial difficulty had food and basic necessities throughout the pandemic. However, the desperate rush to get food to people further highlighted for community leaders the vital importance of the community sector, and, again, how much larger organisations and networks have missed and misunderstood by not involving grassroots groups more actively. Community-run food initiatives found they had people ringing them wanting to donate half their food parcel because it was food that they just couldn’t eat. One person even began claiming they were ‘allergic to tins’ in a bid to try and get some better quality food. There was no fresh produce and an over-supply of tinned goods. Some community projects felt they offered more balanced parcels with a decent balance of nutrition and could have worked in partnership with larger organisations to try and ensure more parcels had a better balance. One savings leader who has been providing food intensively throughout the pandemic explained: “It’s much better to do that because it shows you value the person. When someone has worked up the courage to ask and then gets rubbish food, it hurts and they may never ask again because of that”.
No space to meet
In some areas, community centres and other meeting spaces like churches have remained closed even to peer support groups, which were permitted to meet throughout the lockdowns in recognition of mental health vulnerabilities. Some wellbeing groups had to stop simply because they had nowhere to meet. This sent a message that providers didn’t consider community groups responsible enough to use the space in a COVID-secure way. Leaders discussed how the crisis has further underlined the critical importance of community buildings and space and how an ideal situation might be spaces that can be co-governed with local groups.
The tip of the digital inclusion iceberg
The pandemic has revealed the extent of digital exclusion. There is a need for significant investment in digital upskilling and community leaders stressed that this requires careful thought and tailored approaches – it is not just about providing devices. One leader shared how an agency gave her a Google Chromebook as part of their digital inclusion drive for which she was extremely grateful but did not know how to use claiming: “I may as well have been asked to speak fluent Russian!” Positive experiences of the CLASS-Community Savers Go Digital! initiative were shared. This initiative matched up digital-savvy volunteers to provide tailored support to community leaders from 12 groups across Greater Manchester and Sheffield. Outcomes included big confidence boosts for leaders feeling more capable to use digital technology to run their groups and organise activities online. An important learning point has been that digital exclusion affects people of all ages.
Grants have been a great help, but support is still needed
Leaders reflected that the response of the funding community has been really positive with a good range of small grants channelled to community associations. However, there is a significant lack of support for groups trying to write, submit, and administer proposals and grants. One community leader shared that, “There is specific language that’s needed to be successful”. Monitoring can also be disproportionate to the amount of money being offered taking precious time away from actually doing good work. n the past, the monitoring required has actually inhibited people from doing the actual work. There is a need for more experienced workers on the ground who can support groups to do this. Leaders were also concerned that these crisis grants will disappear now. For many the crisis is not over, these types of grants and additional support are still very much needed.
New friends, deeper local networks
Last but definitely not least, leaders shared how inspiring it has been to witness the pure determination and resilience of local community networks that have helped so many people through this time. They shared experiences of meeting amazing new people across their neighbourhoods and that they are now looking forward to strengthening these new relationships and expanding these local networks over the coming months.
More Stories
What is the city but the people?
Our Strategy for 2025-2028
New Year Retrospective
Go Digital: Lessons learned and new horizons
Whitney Banyai-Becker shares reflections on the Community Savers Lottery-funded Go Digital! project, drawing on conversations with volunteer trainers and community leaders.
Of all the many changes thrust upon us by the pandemic, being able to run activities online was definitely an early imperative.
An online survey in April 2020 with Community Savers and Inner-city Exchange groups, generated the information and impetus needed to develop a programme of digital inclusion work: Community groups were clear that there was a need for grassroots support if they were going to be able to support their members and keep some activities going during the lockdown.
Thankfully, CLASS was able to access funding from the National Lottery Community Fund enabling us to recruit six Digital Inclusion Volunteers that would be paired with Digital Champions – members who were nominated by their community groups to receive train-the-trainer support.
Community-based Digital Champions were provided with a range of devices depending on need including refurbished laptops, new tablets and Mobile WIFI hubs to fully equip them for Go Digital skill-sharing sessions. Most pairs got started by January 2021 and since then, over 75 skills-sharing sessions have taken place!
What have we learned about digital inclusion?
Digital skills-sharing focused both on equipping group leaders with skills that would be useful during the pandemic such as organising online meetings, but also skills that are critical for managing a community group over the longer term, like creating files and folders and knowing where to find them again. Importantly, the sessions were tailored to priorities identified by the Digital Champions themselves.
Increased confidence has been a huge outcome from the project. One Digital Champion, Ellie shared for example how: “…I can get quite flustered; it affects your confidence really. So even with finding files and documents… if I’m having to trundle through, I just get discouraged and…it’s a vicious cycle because next time I remember how I felt and avoid it. There has been much less of that dread and because I know how to do it now, I don’t feel so down on myself or intimidated by it.”
But we have learned that building people’s digital skills has significant impacts on people’s confidence more widely. When you can suddenly arrange a Zoom call for your group – you feel pleased that you have successfully used the technology, but its more than that. You feel your confidence growing in organising meetings for the group, it creates a feeling of leadership. Digital Champion Vanessa reflected, “It gives people a wider perspective of what they can do”.
Leaders have also found that it is building their confidence to engage with professional agencies and get the responses that they need. Donna reflected that, “I’m proud of my emailing skills. I had been trying to resolve an issue with my housing, and until now I would always just telephone. I had been phoning but not really getting a response. When I received a letter, I thought, right, I am going not going to keep phoning I will reply by email. And I did… I typed up a very nice, polite, professional and confident email to her. And I got a reply right away!”
The project has also brought people from different generations to work together. One Digital Champion, Sue, shared how: “It’s brought the younger generation to us. It works both ways I think. The older generation with the younger generation – I think that’s good for society. We understand them better and they understand us. I think the whole experience has been very helpful.”
Practical lessons: What works?
- Zoom screensharing and remote-control access was very helpful with online sessions.
- Asking someone how they learn best, and how they found each session, so you can improve how you support them next time
- Highlighting similarities across software: e.g. explaining similar functions between Google Docs and Microsoft word.
- Patience, flexibility and practice is key! Specifically: going at each individual’s pace and adapting to their specific needs and interests
- Encouragement to explore by asking questions, clicking on things to find out what they do, and making mistakes… Everything can be undone!
Practical lessons: What to avoid?
- Teaching too many things in one session.
- Moving on to a new topic too quickly, people need to practice and reinforce
- Making assumptions about what people will already know: some people may not even know how to switch the device on
- Most people prefer face-to-face training when possible and progress is much quicker
Our Digital Future
Members of Community Savers groups suggest that this project will continue to have impacts over a much longer period now that groups have a trained up Digital Champion. Beyond just being able to continue the skill-sharing with a wider set of beneficiaries, the new skills mean that committee members can share roles and responsibilities more widely because people have the digital skills to carry out a more diverse set of jobs: “For the group I think it’s having more people to take on some extra roles… in the future we can divide responsibilities more as we have more knowledge of how to do certain things”, shared Julie from Mums Mart.
The project has also strengthened relationships across the Community Savers network, creating new channels for grassroots solidarity across neighbourhood and city boundaries. Since leaders have learned how to use zoom, the Community Savers Network has been holding a weekly peer support drop-in session to provide a space for community leaders to reflect, learn from, and lean on each other. Groups rotate responsibility for facilitating the discussion on a monthly basis. They have decided to keep this going beyond the lifting of restrictions.
Finally, Community Savers emerged out of a series of international exchanges with South African and Kenyan activists affiliated to the urban social movement Shack/Slum Dwellers International. Leaders are now looking at how to use their new video conferencing skills to strengthen their relationship with their tech-savvy Kenyan mentors at Muungano Wa Wanavijiji!
All in all, Go Digital! has been a real game changer for the Community Savers network. Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund for making it all possible, and a huge well done to all the Go Digital volunteers and Digital Champions who have worked so hard to make it such a success!
More Stories
What is the city but the people?
Our Strategy for 2025-2028
New Year Retrospective
Women-led savings for financial & social wellbeing
The Money Advice Service estimates that 22% of UK adults have less than £100 in savings, yet savings are critical to wellbeing, decent living standards, and long-term family resilience. Recent research by the Resolution Foundation (2020) shows that low-income women have the least savings and are worst impacted economically by the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, research is increasingly revealing that it is women more than men who have suffered the worst mental health impacts of the pandemic. The health and social injustices the COVID-19 crisis has exposed have been widely reported, especially the disturbing reality of a death rate twice as high in deprived compared to affluent areas. Yet the fact of these health inequalities is nothing new. It is an uncomfortable truth that it has taken a pandemic with a death toll of 149,000 and counting for this to be considered a national concern.
This is the context in which our women-led savings groups have been operating: using savings as the glue through which women can address inequality and isolation with togetherness, fun and mutual aid. Together the savings groups build financial resilience, but also confidence, skills and collective social welfare responses which have the power to unite low-income women around locally-driven solutions that work for women and families.
Three groups who particularly focus on mums, families and older women are Brinnington Savers, Mums Mart, and Sheffield Social Savers. Since January, they have been able to benefit from support from the Smallwood Trust through the National Lottery’s ‘Frontline Women’s Fund’.
Sharon Davis of Mums Mart says “the funding couldn’t have come at a better time”. While groups have adapted their activities into COVID emergency response work, most of the weekly savings meetings had been put on hold with significant impacts on members mental health and ability to save or access support. This funding followed hot on the heels of the network's Lottery-funded 'Go Digital!' project through which community group leaders have developed the ability to run activities online and support their members to increase their own digital skills for participation. Support from the Smallwood Trust gave leaders the boost to restart savings meetings either online using these new skills, or face-to-face in COVID-safe venues, as well as additional funding to be able to reach older women and families who were really struggling with isolation, or accessing essential items and financial support.
Georgie Mitchell from Sheffield Social Savers shared how one of the women they have been able to support “is a single parent who is really active with volunteering in the community even though she has a lot of challenges of her own. Her daughter broke her leg just before schools opened up again. She was in a plaster cast all the way up to her hip but the hospital said they couldn’t give her a wheelchair. To get a wheelchair she was going to have to pay £18 per week to rent one which she just couldn’t afford, and without it her daughter wasn’t going to be able to go to back to school. We were able to pay for the wheelchair for six weeks for her.”
Another group (left anonymous here) has been able to support a family fleeing a situation of domestic violence and provide crisis support to an older woman who was contemplating suicide due to months of isolation amidst long-term mental health challenges.
Sharon Davis, Mums Mart Treasurer, recounts how: "We have always had women of lots of different ages participate in Mums Mart – we’re not just mums we’re also grans, daughters and sometimes great-grannies! Some of our longest-term members are now getting quite elderly and one woman in particular called Jean is now 75 and she has no family nearby so during COVID she has completely relied on us for support. She has had a lot of health problems and been in and out of hospital for multiple tests and procedures. She has been isolating on her own at home since March 2020 – a whole year now. We have taken her to appointments and brought her home, we check in on her every week to see that she is ok and just have a bit of a chat, and we deliver her food and basic necessities regularly. She says she doesn’t know what she would have done without us during lockdown."
Donna Varley, of Brinnington Savers reported that: “The Frontline Women’s funding enabled us to relaunch our weekly savings peer support meetings again. The place we normally meet has been closed since the first lockdown and some of us have been really struggling with our mental health after being stuck at home, some of us have children with learning disabilities and other mental health challenges at home through the school closures. Although they had Education, Health and Care Plans, some were too afraid to go to school even though they would have been allowed.
Being able to meet meant we could also do taster sessions on tablets with some of our members who are at home without internet or digital skills. We’ve been able to buy three tablets and two mobile wifi devices for three of our Over-50s members who developed the confidence and interest to use one independently. One of our members, Christine, doesn’t even own a mobile phone. Christine has enjoyed it so much she has just had BT internet installed at home."
We all want to say a big thank-you to the Smallwood Trust and the National Lottery Community Fund. But also: Community Savers groups are always looking for new communities to do learning exchanges with if you want to find out more. Feel free to contact one of the groups featured on our home page directly to set up an exchange, or contact CLASS for assistance.
More Stories
What is the city but the people?
Our Strategy for 2025-2028
New Year Retrospective
Creating a NORC at Hopton Court
Hopton Hopefuls are the newest addition to the Community Savers family: a group of Over 50s tenants who have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with resilience, mutual aid, and a good dose of wry humour, supported also by On Top of the World Hulme.
Since COVID struck, many older tenants have been isolated in their one bedroom flats with little support. Older people were already facing challenges of social isolation and fragmented and under-funded health and social care services before COVID happened, while also trying to make ends meet on pension credits. But as other agencies pulled back from face to face working, increasing pressure fell on informal community groups and mutual aid initiatives to meet people’s daily needs.
Despite the enforced isolation, tenants were able to make good use of the gardens over the summer, supported by On Top’s socially distanced drop ins, bingo sessions, and Get Busy on Your Balcony! And true to the history of tenant action in Hulme, the Hopton community responded to the COVID-19 crisis not by retreating but by re-organising: setting up a new tenants group and working with CLASS and academics at MICRA, University of Manchester, and at Manchester School of Architecture, on research that could bring older people’s experiences at Hopton Court to light.
Hopton Hopefuls are now working in partnership with One Manchester to co-produce a new initiative called a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC) at their tower block with five objectives:
- Re-instating age-banding to Over-55s
- Development of age-friendly access and security systems
- Age-friendly adjustments to communal areas and older people’s flats
- Recruiting a new site-based Community Development Worker who can work hand-in-hand with tenants to realise the NORC model
- Developing a new tenant-managed community space in the Hopton Court gardens
Hopton Hopefuls are now launching a background paper based on their research called Ageing Well in Place in Hulme which sets out the rationale for these objectives, in sometimes hard to read accounts of how older people have fallen through the gaps between health, housing and social care provision. These accounts set out the need for urgent action.
Read Ageing Well in Place in Hulme
Why “Ageing Well in Place”?
‘Ageing in place’ has become a popular policy term defined as ‘remaining living in the community, with some level of independence, rather than in residential care’. This approach is favoured by older people because it is seen to protect their autonomy, and connection to social support, including friends, neighbours and family. It is favoured also by policy-makers because it is seen to avoid or delay institutional alternatives and can therefore generate significant cost-savings across health and social care services.
However, there is also growing concern about the quality and appropriateness of housing stock to support ageing in place, and the need for significant levels of health and social care to ensure that quality of life of older residents is maintained ‘in place’.
Even though ageing in place can involve challenges, the evidence suggests that older people invariably have a strong emotional attachment to their familiar homes, and neighbourhoods and rarely wish to relocate in later life. Evidence for this has been reported across a range of environments, from inner-city areas to suburban and rural communities.
What is a NORC?
A number of approaches have been developed in response to the challenges facing people ageing in place, especially those living alone. Many of these have particular relevance to people living in low income communities. One idea – first developed in the mid-1980s in the USA – comes under the heading of a Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC). A NORC is a term used to describe an age-integrated housing development or neighbourhood that originally contained different age groups, but which over time has become home to a concentration of older adults, 55 years of age and older.
New York has seen an extensive development of NORC programmes – often linked to high rise blocks with a large proportion of older residents. Typically, NORC programmes have been partnerships between a housing provider, its residents, and health and social service organisations collaborating to help older adults to age in place. The aim of the NORC is to
create opportunities for people to remain active in their community supported by, in the New York case, onsite social and health service supports and community-building activities:
‘Rather than just focusing on reacting to individuals in crisis – ‘one hip fracture at a time’ …the community itself plays an important role’ (Vladeck & Altman, 2015)
The NORC model is a good fit with the age-friendly approach pioneered in the UK by Manchester City Council. This model is also closely aligned with Manchester City Council’s recent emphasis on ‘Bringing Services Together’ at the neighbourhood scale which has been accelerated following the impact of COVID-19.
What can I do?
Hopton Hopefuls would like for the report to be read widely and to hear from anyone who has ideas or experiences to share that can help them on their journey to establishing Hopton as a pioneering NORC in Manchester.
Please contact sophiek.class@gmail.com to send feedback or to set up a meeting.
Ageing Well in Place in Hulme is co-authored by Tina Cribbin, Anne Finnegan, Mark Hammond and Christopher Philipson.
More Stories
What is the city but the people?
Our Strategy for 2025-2028
New Year Retrospective
Happy IWD 2021!
Jean is a 75 year old who has been isolating since March 2020. She is pictured above with her Mums Mart friends at an International Women’s Day celebration in 2018 so it seems fitting to celebrate her today together with the rest of the Mums Mart group.
Mums Mart is a women’s group that came together when a mum broke down in tears in the school playground one day exhausted from the stress of living on a low income as a single parent with no adult conversation for weeks at a time. Another parent brought her home for a brew and the ideas flowed from there – mums and families began coming together for Saturday evening meals at the local church hall, and then table top sales to raise money to take families away on day trips and weekends.
“Some of the kids had never seen the sea” says Sharon Davis, one of the founding members and Mums Mart Treasurer whose work to support women and families is being celebrated today at an online International Women’s Day celebration for Wythenshawe women and girls organised by Mike Kane MP.
Mums Mart is one of three women-led savings groups from the Community Savers network (together with Brinnington Savers and Sheffield Social Savers) who have been supported since January by the COVID-19 Frontline Women’s Fund managed by the Smallwood Trust who support women to overcome financial adversity and improve their social and emotional well-being.
Grassroots women’s organisations have had a critical role in supporting women and families throughout the pandemic. Elderly women like Jean, who has no family nearby and a number of health challenges requiring frequent visits to hospital, have been in desperate need of support from people whom they know and trust. Mums Mart have supported Jean throughout the period with food and basic necessities, lifts to and from hospital, and regular phone calls to keep her feeling connected and positive about the future.
But what does this have to do with savings? Sharon explains how Mums Mart became the pioneer for savings-based approaches from South Africa and Kenya in 2016 catalysing the Greater Manchester Savers network (soon to relaunch as Community Savers now a group has started up in Sheffield):
“When we first heard about savings we were an informal group of friends who were getting together every now and then to run a table top sale. We met with leaders from FedUp (Federation of the Urban Poor) and ISN (Informal Settlement Network) from South Africa and their savings approach really made sense to us. So we started up the first savings club as a Friday lunch club. Over time (working first with the University of Manchester and then with CLASS – our support agency) we developed our group so we had a constitution and bank accounts for our different activities, a membership process and a committee, and even our own members' community fund. We visited South Africa and Nairobi to learn how they do things over there. We started doing community exchanges with other groups in neighbourhoods like ours around Greater Manchester and sometimes further afield like Glasgow and Sheffield. That’s how new savings groups have sprouted up.
There have been lots of developments since then. We are raising money locally to co-finance 10% of the cost of renovating a derelict flat into a women’s wellbeing space. Co-financing is something we learned about from savings federations in South Africa and Kenya. It means we have more of a stake in our community facilities and puts us in a leadership role.
The women in our group have grown in confidence and we have grown stronger together, we trust each other and share things with each other more than before. We look out for each other – we help families out when they are struggling and we try and bring women into the group who we hear about and think they might benefit. We started out with about five of us putting a pound away a week but now we have fifty members. People save for expensive times of year helping to avoid using credit cards or expensive loans, but the savings is just the glue. What we are really building is community."
Well done to all the women leaders across the Savers network for your hard work and dedication in your communities throughout the last year!
Happy International Women’s Day 2021!
More Stories
What is the city but the people?
Our Strategy for 2025-2028