Citizens UK

St Mary’s is one of the founding members of Waltham Forest Citizens, which is our local Citizens UK alliance of faith communities, schools, colleges and community groups in our borough of London.

Local institutions listen to each other and to our community about the things people are concerned about. Using the principles of community organising, we act to win changes on the issues we care about, seeking the Common Good and holding our political leaders to account while working with them to make positive changes.

Through our community organising work, we have developed new leaders in our congregation, including our young people, giving them a voice in the wider community and teaching them how to live their faith in the world.

Community organising is issues-based, not partisan; through it, we learn how to be engaged citizens and how to win change for the good of all (as Christians, we see this as fulfilling the command to love our neighbours). Waltham Forest Citizens has led on two of the most important issues locally: increasing the amount of affordable housing and reducing youth violence and anti-social behaviour. 

In Spring 2018, we helped organise a Citizens’ Accountability Assembly in Walthamstow Village with over 600 people in attendance – the largest Citizens’ assembly in London; there, the two candidates for leader of the Council – Cllr Siggers and Cllr Coghill – made public commitments to key requests in our manifesto around truly affordable housing and youth provision. Some of these promises Cllr Coghill and the Council are beginning to deliver on; we continue to hold them to account on others.

Over 600 people attended our Waltham Forest Citizens’ Accountability Assembly in 2018, more than any other Citizens’ assembly in London. 

In Autumn 2018, St Mary’s launched a local campaign to make Walthamstow Village a Living Wage Zone, with at least half of all employers paying the real London Living Wage, which is significantly above the government minimum wage, and which has been shown to lift people out of poverty while improving employee retention and productivity. We’ve accredited several businesses through the Living Wage Foundation and are hoping to accredit many more in the months and years to come. 

TRAP, which sells cider in the Ravenswood Industrial Estate in Walthamstow Village, became an accredited Living Wage employer in 2018. We celebrated at a St Mary’s-sponsored Living Wage Breakfast. 

In late 2019, St Mary’s helped launch a campaign to make London carbon-neutral by 2030, which has evolved into our ‘Just Transition’ campaign and a call for 100,000 fuel-poor homes to be retrofitted in London and for the Mayor to work with us to create 60,000 good green jobs and apprenticeships.

If you are interested in getting involved in our Citizens’ work – or in attending free two-day or six-day training in community organising – please get in touch with Revd Vanessa Conant (vanessa@stmaryswalthamstow.org).