Building from the base – examples from the archives
This post was recently published on our sister blog – At the grassroots. I make no apology for re-posting it here on Stirrings from below. Regular readers will be aware that I’ve been doing a fair bit of thinking about the direction I want my activism to take. This was most recently expressed in this post – Choices that need to be made... 22.4.25. Given the amount of doom-mongering and rage baiting that’s going on at the moment, I’ve got to the point where I’m only interested in listening to, and reading posts from, people who are willing to offer some kind of road map towards a better future. Anything else is just ranting or worse than that, a distraction. This is why I’m re-posting this piece because it deals with an example of how a local community got together, rolled their sleeves up and made a positive difference to life in their town. It’s about walking the walk as well as talking the talk...
On At the grassroots, we bang on incessantly about the importance of building for change from the base. We also bang on about the number of people who volunteer in their neighbourhoods being a healthy sign that deep down, there is a desire for change to a world that’s more humane and also, more connected to the natural world that supports us. We find the best way of convincing people about this is to cite examples. Hence the trawl through our archived blog – Alternative Estuary – to dig out the two pieces below which perfectly illustrate what we’re trying to convey. Both of these concern Hardie Park – a resident run park where we used to live in Stanford-le-Hope in Essex. A project which while it wouldn’t meet a political purity test, has to be considered a success in terms of what it’s done to boost community morale.
Staying grounded… 21.6.19
Our politics have always been about building for change from the grassroots by getting stuck in and supporting whatever projects are happening in our neighbourhoods that we see as having the potential to make a difference and to empower the people involved in them. That’s one of the reasons why we volunteer as gardeners at a community run park in our town in the east of Thurrock.
One of the reasons… The other is that we’ve lived in this town for a good few decades, have a strong connection to it and politics aside, we’ll happily roll up our sleeves to help out any project that will make it a better place to live in for everyone. So yes, we have a strong emotional connection to the community we live in…
After a week of total weirdness when it came to political activity, to get away from that, I went along to the park to get stuck into some gardening and catch up with the friends I’ve made there over the last few years. Friends who are quite comfortable about mildly taking the p**s out of each other while instinctively knowing where the line is:) Let’s just say, going there put a lot of things into perspective and reinforced why, if we want to bring about significant change, we have to start at the grassroots, in our neighbourhoods alongside people from our own class.
There’s no hierarchy with our gardening group – we collectively decide what needs doing over a cup of tea or coffee before we start and then get on with it. People slot into doing what they feel comfortable with, we help and support each other and after a few hours, stand back, look at what we’ve done and can see a real difference. Not just with the gardening group but also with the cafe and all the other groups who use the park, there’s a real sense of community, pulling together and looking out for each other:) It’s that sense of achievement and bonding that empowers people
I was chatting with one of my fellow gardeners today and she remarked there’s a growing trend of people pulling together on various neighbourhood and community projects. We agreed that it’s not just about making a physical difference – it’s also about making friends, supporting each other and building a sense of community.
To conclude, if we want to make the world a better place, this is where we have to start. In our neighbourhoods where we live. Not just for political reasons but because we genuinely care about the community we live in and want to do what we can to build a sense of solidarity and make it a better place to live in.
Community projects that build community cohesion 6.3.19
Back in our Independent Working Class Association days in 2007 and 2008 when I stood as a candidate in the local elections in the Stanford East & Corringham Town ward, the then dire state of Hardie Park in Stanford-le-Hope was frequently raised on the doorstep. Back then, it was a bleak, litter strewn no go area that few people visited. Fast forward to the present and the park is now a much loved community asset. What happened in between is a story that we hope will go on to inspire other people.
Things started to change when a few residents fed up with the neglect of the park and no longer wishing to have an eyesore on their doorstep, decided to take matters into their own hands. They started out doing the simple things such as litter picking. Even something as straightforward as this sends out a signal that some kind of change is in the air because it’s ordinary people volunteering to do the litter picking as opposed to the occasional sighting of a council worker.
Basically, it snowballed from there and eventually, the residents formed Friends of Hardie Park and started organising community activities in the park. Things really started to gain momentum when they obtained a portable building, dug the foundations, started to erect it, got round to asking the council for permission and ended up with a building that now functions as a cafe, meeting place and community hub. There’s a gardening group we volunteer with who develop and maintain the gardens in the park.
Inevitably there were detractors. At the start, they said that we would be defeated by the vandals and the yobs who would force us out. Well, vandalism is pretty much non-existent. Which is quite an achievement when back in the 2000s, Hardie Park was a magnet for anti-social behaviour and vandalism. So, what’s the secret?
One factor is the sheer number of volunteers from the local community who put in time and effort to keep the park running ranging from the cafe/community hub, through the events team and onto the gardening group. Any act of vandalism in the park is also an act of aggression against all of the residents who volunteer at the park. That’s a lot of people to rile. Word get around and that’s enough of a deterrent to any would be vandal.
Another factor is the sheer range of events and activities centred around the park and the cafe/community hub. These range from festivals and activities for kids through to the Men in Sheds project and the Hardie Gardeners. The festivals provide an inexpensive local day out and a chance for the community to come together and enjoy themselves. Activity groups such as Men in Sheds and the Hardie Gardeners give people a sense of purpose and achievement as well as providing some great company. They perform a valuable therapeutic role. Residents of Stanford-le-Hope see this and are buying into the vision of what the project is setting out to achieve.
The project at Hardie Park succeeds because it’s about a lot more than the park. Sure, the volunteers have done an amazing job in physically transforming the park but that’s only part of the story. The interesting part of the project is the role it plays in building community solidarity and cohesion. In an increasingly troubled and volatile 2019, a project that can bring a diverse range of people together to work with one common aim has an invaluable role to play in building a real sense of community and togetherness. Let’s hope that this example inspires other to do the same across the region.