How to run community-led, power-with assemblies

Mainstream politics happens on the terms of those with power and is clearly making things worse rather than better. But what can we do about it?

Are there other ways to make our collective decisions that bring out the best of our human nature rather than the worst? What if we started from the ground of community, and co-created a new culture and politics of being together that values listening, openness, honesty and vulnerability? What kinds of decisions might we make together if we made them through deep listening, and how might they begin to transform us, our communities, our collective politics and our world?

Members of Grassroots to Global / Open Source will share our experience of working with communities in Scotland and East Africa to create assembly processes that attempt to embody a power-with approach and take you step by step through the theory and practice of how to set up and run your own community-led Assembly - and how we can connect these to build a different politics.

This weekly course begins in 21st February 2024 and runs over 11 evening sessions. These will be from 6.30-8.30pm on Wednesday evenings until 15th May (excluding 3rd and 10th April for holidays).

Course Plan: The first two sessions (21st and 28th Feb) are an introduction to assemblies. The following nine sessions will dive deeper into the details of how to set up and run an assembly in your community. If you're planning to run an assembly in your community it is recommended that you attend all the sessions, but there are additional resources that can help you catch up if you miss one or two.

Accessibility: All the sessions will be hosted on Zoom - you’ll get a link closer to the time. Sessions will include a 10 minute break around half way.

Recording: Sessions will be recorded and made available via the SCCAN and Grassroots to Global Youtube channels.

The course will be followed by a twice monthly online support session with others from around Scotland who are at different stages of thinking about, acting on and following up after community-led assemblies.

If you have any questions, please contact Eva: evaschonveld@gmail.com