Designing sustainable support for and with the grassroots sector
This report describes the collaborative, co-produced approach undertaken as part of Community Southwark’s Grassroots Project 2023/24, to design a form of support for grassroots groups that responds to their needs.
The grassroots sector is large and varied with a considerable number of small groups assumed to operate ’under the radar’. In the initial development phase of the Grassroots Project, which ran from October 2023 to June 2024, we engaged with 94 people through the Grassroots Project Survey, representing 89 groups who self-identify as grassroots. Following the survey, we held three Grassroots Working Group meetings with a total of 47 participants from the surveyed groups to co-produce a plan for the first year. Through these meetings, participants provided a range of suggestions on how best to support small and grassroots groups, culminating in a 14-month plan.