Citizens Action Networks (my experience so far)

Hey all! Just thought I should start this by apologising for pulling out of the call last minute.

Here are the points I wanted to bring up during the call. I originally soft-launched Co-Create Sheppey, a CAN on the Isle of Sheppey in May of this year. However not everything went to plan, I lost motivation for the project and have not updated the few people who were interested in the project for months now. I thought I should share what I thought went right, what went wrong and my plans for the relaunch of Co-Create Sheppey. I will also try and give a few pointers and explain what I'm willing to provide others who also want to launch their own local CAN's in the future.

What went right?

Co-Create Sheppey looked promising. Mostly because I was willing to invest time and money into the project. I promoted transparency and made sure anything that people wanted to know was easily accessible. And from feedback, people liked the branding (apart from the name). I do wish this section could be a bit longer...

What went wrong?

I also wish this section could have been shorter... The main problem I had was getting people involved. There was a ton of issues that played into this, be it the "current global situation", my lack of confidence to host/ promote events, or even people just unfortunately not caring along with many other factors lead to issues. I think the main issue was however my own personal desire for things to be perfect. I didn't feel comfortable posting my own content till the time was right to do so, or I was perfectly happy with the design. This worrying stopped me from the important part of actually doing. This was a hard lesson to learn but one I hope I can take on board and remember that while plans are great, the important thing is to be doing and making change.

Another issue I had was what I viewed as transparency, other organisations took as me taking advantage of their more established names in the community. I need to remember that while I know that I'm here to promote good, others don't, I need to prove that.

After this push back from other local groups, I lost a lot of motivation and didn't want to pick up the project again... but recently that changed. I made a plan of action and here is what I want to do with not just my own CAN but the support I'm willing to provide other CANs.

My Plans for Co-Create Sheppey

• Re-Brand as "Sheppey is ours!"

  This new brand has a bit more urgency to it. Along with that, I will be reworking the founding document to promote this change, focusing more on creating change, away from the political establishment and showing people that the power belongs to them.

• Actually have meetings

  Turns out it's hard to build an ambitious movement when you don't actually engage anyone... Who knew??? I will be planning online meetings to actually start getting the values of Sheppey is Ours and the larger Alternative UK across. It will also be useful to start getting more people involved in projects as I can only get things so far by myself.

• Launch "England in Common"

  Turns out I'm not content in creating just overly ambitious project. I want England in Common to be another national grouping like the Alternative UK. EIC with is there for the promotion of democracy, evidence-based policy and unity amongst social progressives. To massively oversimplify the role of EIC: a more ideologically focused, England based version of A/UK

• Both SiO and EIC will Promote the key Ideas and values of A/UK.

What I want to do for others

I have access to the pro version of Canva. I am willing to create graphics for use by CAN's or similar groupings who are part of the A/UK if they need help.

EIC will happily back and support any local CAN.

I will also make a list of generic, evidence-based ideas that any community can do as part of their own CAN's in order to start bringing power back into the hands of the people.

To end this post

Apologies for this being a bit rambly. I do think I'm missing some bits but they will come up in some posts to here I have planned for the near future. A more detailed plan for both SiO and EIC. Advice for those looking to make their own CAN's. I might also look at the possibility of creating starter kits for new CAN's in order to make their launch easier (please do let me know if this is of interest).

A big thank you for reading this mess of a post and I hope that we can keep making more happen together.