Resources

If there are any useful resources we have missed off this list please let us know and we can add them in. Email info@leedsforchange.org.uk

 Starting a Community Project or Residents Group

• How to get a community group started: (organising initial meetings, aims, roles in the group)
• How to incorporate and which legal structure to pick (e.g. so your community group or campaign can open a Bank Account and start fundraising)
• How to write a constitution (for an Unincorporated Association)
• How to set up a Bank Account (for a Community, Voluntary Group or Campaign group)
• How to manage your Accounts: West Yorkshire Community Accounting Service: help small community and tenants groups to set up straightforward and easy to use finance systems. They also offer Free Training Bursaries for groups with little or no income. See their List of Courses, and contact them to request a bursary form.

Ideas and inspiration for Community Projects

• Food Projects – Guide and tools for Community Kitchens and Food Growing Projects
• Set up a Real Junk Food Cafe in your community – email therealjunkfoodproject@outlook.com and ask for a starter pack.
• Starting a Community Newsletter Guide
• Organising Community Events Guide: Includes working with Children, sports groups, neighborhood activities, planning day trips etc.
• Managing a Community Building Guide includes: health and safety, risk assessments, insurance guidance.

Funding the Left

• Edge Fund support Grassroots groups working for Justice and Equality
• Network for Social Change fund grassroots and charitable progressive social change, particularly in the areas of justice, peace and the environment.
• Solidfund: A workers coop solidarity fund that supports education and training for worker co-operators, the independence of worker co-operatives and promotes worker co-op organisation and culture.
• LUSH Charity Pot offers grants and funding to small, grassroots charities and campaign groups that struggle to find funding elsewhere, and work in the areas of animal protection, the environment and human rights.
• Sources of Funding for Voluntary and Community groups in Leeds
• More Funders for Charitable Organisations working towards social and environmental justice
• Current Grant Opportunities for Community and Charitable Organisations in Leeds (via Leeds Community Foundation).
• Leeds Grant Funding Search for voluntary, social enterprise, and community sectors
• Wade’s Charity offer grants to charities in Leeds, if you meet their criteria
• Contact Voluntary Action Leeds Fundraising Worker for advice on your application.

For Campaigning

• • Beautiful Trouble’s ‘Toolbox for Revolution’: Contains listing of tactics, principles, theories, case studies and practitioners for inspiring creative direct action.
  • This Changes Everything’s ‘Beautiful Solutions’: Contains values, stories, solutions and theories to tackle the climate crisis.
  • Beautiful Rising: A database of stories, tactics, principles, theories and methods for campaigning.
  • Friends of the Earth Campaigning Resources: Resources and information for campaigning on environmental issues.
  • NEON Resources: Training modules looking at Systems and Power, Leadership, Campaigns, Organisations, and Movements.

For Researching & Lobbying your City

• They Work For You: use to find out what your MP, MSP or MLA is doing in your name, read debates, written answers, see what’s coming up in Parliament, and sign up for email alerts when there’s past or future activity on someone or something you’re interested in.
• Companies House: use to find company accounts, multiple board holdings of directors, private sector networks.
• Your Local Councillors: find out contact details and information on your local councillors
• Leeds City Council’s Current Committees: find minutes and agendas for the various council committees.
• Challenging your Council’s spending decisions: Debt Resistance UK have a great Residents guide for reclaiming local democracy
• Getting information from Local Councils and Public Bodies: Freedom of Information Request Guide and Database by What Do They Know

Facilitating Workshops and Meetings

• Training for Change: Training tools used in popular/direct education. Specifically for Diversity and Anti Oppression, Team Building, Organising and Strategy, Meeting Facilitation, Nonviolent Action and Intervention.
• The Art of Hosting: Facilitating conversations that harness collective wisdom of a group.
• 350.org Trainings: A bank of tools for running trainings, workshops, meetings, organising, and strategizing.
• Seeds for Change have excellent guides on Consensus Decision Making, Facilitation, for Group Work, Co-ops and Running Workshops.

Access & Inclusion

• Leeds For Change Access and Inclusion Guide: A guide for activists and organisers to make their movements, events and campaigns as accessible and inclusive as possible.

Media Contacts

Follow link to the Leeds for Change Press Office Contacts spreadsheet for regional & national; TV, radio and print contacts to ring or send your press releases to.

Mediation, Accountability & Conflict Resolution

• Accountability Handbook & How-to Guide by DIY Space for London
• Reading on Conflict Resolution for Groups by Seeds for Change
• New Resources on Conflict Resolution and Mediation by Rhizome
• Community Accountability and Transformative Justice resources by SALVAGE: a small UK-based network of women, transgender and non-binary people who have experienced gender-based oppression, violence, abuse and harm in activist communities to share resources and build communities of belief, support and action.
• Activist Mediation Network: a network of mediators based around the UK who support groups working for social change to navigate through conflict and develop their own capacity to handle conflict.

Online Organising and Project Management

• Trello, Basecamp, Asana and Slack: free project management tools for teams, with boards, projects and lists to organise team tasks collaboratively
• Loomio: a free online tool for collaborative decision making, built and run by a workers co-op.

Online Tools for Sanctuary & Wellbeing

• Help in Leeds: an interactive online directory of organisations that help those seeking asylum or refugee, and volunteering opportunities within them. Directory has built in Map and Translation options.
• Refugee Aid App: mobile app shows those seeking asylum/refuge and volunteers services closest to them on a map.

Online Security

• Riseup: Riseup is a volunteer-run collective providing secure email account, email list, VPN, online chat, and other online services.
• Aktivix: non-profit secure email, newsletter and VPN provider for communities of resistance.
• Crabgrass: A secure group decision, discussion and management tool provided by Riseup.
• Signal: Android, Iphone and desktop App for end-to-end encrypted messages, calls and videos, with disappearing message time settings.
• Pirate Pad: online collaborative document editor, allows authors to simultaneously edit a text document, and to see participants’ edits in real-time.
• Etherpad: is a web application that allows for real-time group collaboration of text documents. Riseup does not store IP addresses, and pads are automatically destroyed after 30 days of inactivity.
• ProtonMail: email service with built-in end-to-end encryption.
• Guide to setting up PGP Email encryption for existing email providers by Life Hacker

Legal Support

• Leeds Green and Black Cross: Email via: gbclegal@riseup.net if you’ve witnessed arrests or police misconduct at a protest, or for advice on your rights if attending or planning an action.
• Harrison Bundey: Leeds-based Criminal Solicitors that will defend you if arrested / charged by the police.
• Green and Black Cross Guides: Legal Observing, Arrestee Support, Being Arrested, Know Your Rights
• Netpol (The Network for Police Monitoring) Guides on Policing and Law for Anti-Frackers : including resisting surveillance and understanding laws and offences
• Manuel Bravo is a charitable organisation based in Leeds that aims to help asylum seekers who are unable to find adequate legal representation.
• Leeds No Borders provide a list of good immigration solicitors in Leeds

Reading Lists

• What is Neoliberalism? By New Economics Organisers Network (NEON)
• Systems of Oppression (sections on: Class, Gender, Whiteness and Race) by NEON
• Understanding Social Movements by NEON
• Anti-racism and Black Feminism by Decolonise All Things

Independent Media

• Everyday Feminism: is an intersectional feminist online magazine that features articles on gender, race, religion, sex, health, and class.
• Open Democracy: Independent global media platform that seeks to challenge power and encourage democratic debate across the world.
• Red Pepper: Independent magazine of the green and radical left.
• Gal-Dem online magazine written by women of colour.
• STRIKE! Magazine: is a platform for those involved in grassroots resistance, anti-oppression politics, and the philosophies and creative expressions surrounding these movements.
• New Internationalist: leading independent publisher of magazines and books on politics, global justice and equality.
• Novara Media: an independent media organisation addressing the issues – from a crisis of capitalism to racism and climate change – that are set to define the 21st century.
• STIR Magazine: a quarterly print magazine for the new economy.
• Ceasefire Magazine: independent political and cultural quarterly publication providing thought-provoking discussion and analysis on politics, art and activism.
• Real Media: a cooperative of journalists dedicated to public interest journalism and challenging mass media distortion.
• Jacobin: a left wing magazine offering socialist perspectives on politics, economics, and culture.
• Films For Action: A catalogue of videos and articles covering how to make a more just and sustainable word.