Our final newsletter of the year includes news of a visit to Parliament by students from Djanogly City Academy to press home how hate crime affects the lives of young people in Nottingham, plus we welcome new member organisations to our alliance and schedule the first of our action group meetings in 2019 that will progress our campaign priorities for the months ahead.

Read the Nottingham Citizens December 2018 newsletter now.

Hamsa from SAAFI, a member of Brent Citizens, reflects on the recent Assembly with London Mayor Sadiq Khan and calls on members across London Citizens to stand in solidarity with young leaders like him who are taking action to build and improve trust between BME communities and the capital's Met Police.

Join us on Wednesday 19 December for our action when we will be delivering a Christmas list of shared values that both we as civil society and the police can commit to. 

On Friday, over 60 of our Croydon leaders performed a huge nativity play outside Croydon Council. The leaders asked their local councillor, Cllr Allison Butler, if there’s “room at the inn” for genuinely affordable homes to be in built in the borough.

The nativity performance comes after years of campaigning from Croydon Citizens to see Community Land Trusts built in the borough - specifically in the north where the majority of member institutions are based. In 2014, and again earlier this year at the local election assembly, leader of Croydon Council Cllr Tony Newman promised a site for 20 homes. However, despite working closely and productively with the group, the council still hasn’t agreed a site.

Tyne and Wear Citizens have run a Citizens Commission on Mental Health in the North East that produced a powerful report entitled 'Living Well'. The report covers stories of pain and of hope, full of testimony about our mental health issues, services and challenges. And recommendations for action by people with the power to improve our services. Read further to find out which commitments we have secured from key decision makers.

• London Citizens Assembly last night held an accountability assembly to follow through on a powerful agenda for change that was set with Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, back in 2016
• Over 1200 citizens packed Southwark Cathedral for a night of celebration and accountability with the Mayor which spanned Living Wage, Housing, Citizenship and social integration to knife crime and community safety.
• The room heard of the confirmation of the first-ever London Community Land Trust homes to be built on the Olympic Site and a new £10m revolving fund for community-led housing. 
• Schools and University leaders received backing from Mayor Sadiq Khan to support a loan scheme for children born in Britain but unable to afford Citizenship fees.
• The Mayor made commitments to work with Citizens UK on Knife Crime and Community Safety and a candlelit vigil was held by mothers and young people affected by violence.

After 15 years of successful Living Wage campaigning, low pay continues to be an important issue for our members. In fact, the interest among our membership to tackle this and other issues in the workplace has only grown. 

Today members of Tyne and Wear Citizens, part of national community organising alliance Citizens UK, launched a powerful report 'Living Well'. Stories of pain and of hope, full of testimony about our mental health issues, services and challenges. And recommendations for action by people with the power to improve our services. 

This Commission has held a listening campaign that received over 300 testimonies about mental wellbeing and public life across the North East. Having analysed these testimonies and identified common issues such as early intervention, systems and choice over treatment, the Commission has produced a report with concrete proposals for much-needed change.

We are delighted to announce that Citizens UK's Founding Director, Neil Jameson CBE, has been awarded the Albert Medal by the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (RSA).

Over the past four months, people from across the local community in Mansfield have been coming together to create something new for our community, organised by Maun Valley Citizens and as part of Civil Society Futures — and now it’s really turning into something.

Today Civil Society Futures, have launched their report about the current state of civil society in England and future opportunities. Citizens UK have been involved in the inquiry that has informed this report. We are delighted that this report is about putting recommendations into practice - and holding ourselves accountable.

Read this blog by our Executive Director, Matthew Bolton, to find out how we plan to take on the PACT challenge, both internally and in our external work of community organising.