Community organising as a tool for change: Celebrating International Women's Day 2025
Community organising as a tool for change: Celebrating International Women's Day 2025
By Hali Ahmed and Syeda Jaheen, interns with Citizens UK from Queen Mary University of London
As interns in Citizens UK and more specifically as women interns, Citizens UK has truly opened our eyes up to how vital and integral the woman perspective as well as women's community organising is to the fabric of civil society.
By participating in the TELCO Annual Accountability Assembly, "Organising Across Difference", and watching the inspiring and dedicated community leaders, particularly an overwhelming women presence of organising and holding the leaders to account. Witnessing how these women have advocated, and some have successfully campaigned to improve the lives of their local community, example being the success of the campaign to save St. Georges Pool and subverting traditional gender roles is testament to the work of Citizens UK.
Women are shaping the politics of the lives of their local communities, advocating and addressing issues that primarily affect the lives of women. Illustrated through the campaigns for housing and special educational needs for children, the domestic sphere that is heavily shaped by the female experience is being pulled to the spotlight thus, malign the lives easier for the women who are at home, who are the mothers and who are wives. Showcasing that you do not have to pick and choose what role you must embody but to shape the world and be a pioneer addressing such multifaceted issues by utilising the unique intersectional lens we possess.
This development of skills is demonstrated throughout our various campaigns that we are advocating for during our internship, a specific example is the greater park safety campaign. Including the female perspective has created a greater scope for advocacy due to ensuring that we develop improvements to the parks that are also tailor made to suit the needs of all women. Advocating for more lighting ensures greater safety for women, advocating for more multi-use game areas that creates a better, more interactive environment for children that aids the lives of mothers who statistically shoulder more of the weight of childcare.
In addition, more gym equipment creates a more accessible, inexpensive active environment for the elderly, in particular elderly women, who are disproportionately affected by osteoporosis through menopause. Watching how the female leaders in the TELCO Annual Accountability Assembly meeting demanded space and inclusion for improvements of various sectors of society that also prioritised the female experience inspired us all to take action in our own respective campaigns.
Emphasising the core message that excluding any perspective in your advocacy is to do a major disservice to the cause, true freedom and liberation includes us all. Citizens UK has demonstrated to me that it is committed to and continues to be committed to developing the leadership skills in women, for women and that is why we are proud to be interns here at Citizens UK.
Hali Ahmed
Power is flexible. It can work against you, or it can work for you. In a patriarchal society, it is most often the former. Community organising gives women a chance to take advantage of power's flexibility and redirect it to themselves. There is power in solidarity.
During my time interning in Citizens UK, I've seen how the uniting force of a group can be empowering and can allow women to take back agency.
Take the Tower Hamlets Assembly as an example, from mother's, to educators, to leaders, all women of a different role uniting for the same cause. That's power. It was inspiring to be in a room with women who were playing an active role in creating social change in their local community. Particularly when a Primary School teacher gave a speech on behalf of her students' performance. She emphasised how important it is to involve the next generation in this conversation. Educate them, not only on the inequalities, but how to combat these inequalities.
That's social change. Instead of leaving them out of the equation, community organising gives young people a voice and shapes the next generation to cause long-term social change. Therefore, this International Women's Day, I urge every woman not only to celebrate the history of women empowerment before them but be present in empowering themselves now. Community organising creates space for women of all ages and roles to be involved. So get involved!
Syeda Jaheen
Citizens UK is made up of hundreds of member organisations that are committed to taking action together for social justice and the common good. By creating diverse and long-lasting alliances of organisations in an area, Citizens UK helps community leaders to build the power they need to get a seat at the table with decision-makers and negotiate for change, as part of a stronger whole.