Lewisham Citizens' leaders and campaigners have submitted plans for the first ever permanently affordable homes in the Borough to their local Council.

Members of Lewisham Citizens met and thanked Damien Egan, the new Mayor of Lewisham, for pledging to build 200 Community Land Trust homes over the next four years.

A new action plan released by the Living Wage Foundation calls on Government and charities to work together to tackle endemic low pay among workers in the charity sector.

Isla Horton got angry when a change to the pricing system at leisure centres in Cardiff threatened her daughter's opportunities to do the activities she loved.  Her local church is part of the Llandaff Area Deanery, a member institution of Citizens Cymru Wales.  Here Isla tells the story of her campaign for affordable leisure for her children and thousands of others in the capital, and how community organising helped her get around the table to negotiate with decision-makers. 

Photo: Lily Horton outside Western Leisure Centre, Ely

Cardiff Citizens Hit the Headlines with Living Wage Action at Cardiff City Football Club

by Jonathan Cox

Photo: Ali Abdi and Richard Weaver (now Community Organisers with Citizens Cymru Wales) were both involved as leaders in the original Cardiff City FC Living Wage campaign in 2015.

We were all delighted to see Cardiff City get promoted to the Premier League.  We all know that football players earn high wages, and that winning promotion is a huge deal for the Club (who could benefit to the tune of £170 million), but what about the stewards and hospitality staff who make each matchday run smoothly - would they benefit from the Club's financial success?  There are growing number of accredited Living Wage football clubs in the Premier League - Cardiff are joining the footballing elite, but would they join an elite group of clubs (including Everton, West Ham and Chelsea) committed to the Living Wage? A team from Cardiff Citizens weren't prepared to leave it to chance...

‘A Place to Pee’ – Improving Public Toilet Provision in Pontypridd

Rev Peter Lewis, Pontypridd Area Deanery

This campaign came from my experience as a street pastor in Pontypridd town centre and seeing the problems caused during the night times at weekends when people have nowhere to go when they need to go! There are problems in terms of the welfare and security of people, and particularly for women. There is pollution and degradation of the environment, and there is pain and frustration for people in not being able to find anywhere to go.

Jonathan Cox
Lead Organiser, Citizens Cymru Wales

Just before Easter I was invited on a 'Knowledge Exchange' visit to a community-owned renewable energy project on the western end of the Brecon Beacons near Gwaun Cae Gurwen.  The most exciting bit was the chance to see a working wind turbine up close - and to go inside it!  The wind turbine itself was majestic and hypnotic - but the inspiring stories I was told about community ownership of renewable energy sources in Wales made me think if this was something our member organisations in Wales might want to explore. We have shown how we can apply our community organising method to sponsoring refugees - why not to generating renewable energy and tackling fuel poverty? We are gathering some Citizens leaders to have an initial discussion with Community Energy Wales soon, so if you are interested, let me know on jonathan.cox@citizenswales.org.uk.  In the meantime, hope you enjoy the following article.

Welcoming a new refugee family through community sponsorship

Siôn Meredith, Aberaid

Photo - Siôn and members of the team of volunteers at the airport to welcome a family from Syria

Aberaid is a group of concerned people in Aberystwyth who formed in response to the refugee crisis and who came together to sponsor a refugee family to come and live in our community.

Photo - Jeff and members of the team at the airport to welcome a family from Syria

Welcoming a new family through Community Sponsorship

Jeff Britten, Croeso Hwlffordd

Croeso Hwlffordd came about as a result of me meeting people involved in community sponsorship in Narberth and Fishguard. I felt ashamed that there was nothing happening in Haverfordwest, the much bigger county town, and I saw that community sponsorship was a practical way for us to do something to respond to the suffering of people in Syria.

Citizens Cymru Wales is a Chapter of Citizens UK.  We are entitled to send up to 8 leaders from Wales to represent us at the Citizens UK Council, which deals with political and campaign issues at UK level.  Alan Twelvetrees from Swansea is a co-opted member of the Citizens Cymru Wales Leadership Team, and one of our representatives on the Citizens UK Council.  Here Alan briefs us on recent developments...

Citizens UK Council Issues

Neil Jameson is stepping down from his role as Executive Director of Citizens UK in August this year. There has been much consultation with council members as to the best process to use to appoint a successor. Those who wanted to have a say have been able to make a contribution. Matthew Bolton, currently one of two Deputy Directors, was recently appointed to be the new Executive Director.

Citizens UK institutions and leaders, as well as 'refugees welcome' groups across the country, were instrumental in ensuring that in 2015 the Government introduced its Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme (VPRS) to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees to the UK by 2020. 

The Home Office is currently reviewing the future of refugee resettlement beyond 2020. There is a risk that the Home Office will decide to scale down - or even stop altogether - the resettlement of vulnerable refugees.