ARK Academy

Download as a PDF

• Headlines from the project
• About their approach
• Challenges
• What's changed?
• What's next?

"Its about building a committed community alliance of diverse organisations, ethnic and religious groups of active citizens that provide leadership development and work together on common issues and campaigns for the benefit of the community within Brent. Ark is at the hub of this alliance...."(North London Citizens Community Organiser at Ark Academy) 

"It has gotten the school a more recognised voice in the community. The school got a positive image due to the contribution made by us" (Year 10 student at Crest Academy)

Ark Academy, a newly established school in Brent, used community organising as a way of embedding citizenship within school life and not just confining it to citizenship classes. The work was driven by a full-time community organiser from North London Citizens who focused on the development of the students so that they could be actively involved in influencing the issues and concerns of their local community.    

Ark Academy also acted as a hub for community organising in the wider community of Brent, one of the most ethnically diverse boroughs of London. Eight other community-based organisations including local schools and Muslim, Christian and Jewish faith groups joined with Ark Academy to form "Brent Citizens"; this in turn is part of "North London Citizens", an independent alliance of forty member organisations.  The project used listening campaigns within each member organisation and held meetings and assemblies through which it identified three key issues for people in Brent; 1: opportunities for young people; 2: safer streets and transport; 3: building community relationships and respect. Having agreed these priorities together, Brent Citizens has sought to influence politicians and decision makers so that they respond positively to the concerns of local people.  

As a way of developing new ideas and engaging new people, Ark Academy and Brent Citizens also ran a £20,000 Challenge Prize. This provided both the school's students and local organisations and groups with an opportunity to propose innovative projects, ideas and solutions that address the key issues identified by local people themselves. 

Some headline messages from the project

All the Neighbourhood Challenge projects offered rich opportunities for learning. We have picked out just a few specific insights from this project below:

• The project has been successful in building relationships between people from very different ethnic and religious backgrounds, with the realisation that they share many of the same issues and concerns and can work together to tackle these.
• The project showed that community leaders can be identified and trained at any age.
• The relationships that have been formed have been the basis for developing an alliance of local community-based organisations, which has identified key community needs and is beginning to influence politicians and decision makers.
• Community organising represents an innovative approach to working with young people in a school setting. It places good citizenship at the heart of school life and develops individual skills and confidence. It has shown how school students can make a significant and positive contribution to their communities.

About their approach

Finding out what people's concerns and issues are is key to community organising, and to be good at this you need to first learn how to really listen.  The next stage was to build alliances around common interests through informal gatherings and then through larger assemblies and meetings. 

1. Learning to listen - gathering ideas

"Having one-to-one conversations between people of different faiths and backgrounds, sharing issues and empowering people to have a voice, is very much what the project is about." (Teacher in member organisation, Al-Zahra school /Al-Khoei Foundation)

"So we are all listening and we're listening to what each other are saying....everyone had the right to put what they wanted to put."(Pastor, of local member church)

"It's made me into a more confident speaker with a wider view of the community and the issues there" (Year 10 student Crest Academy)

The listening campaign training delivered within the school and with member organisations was a real success. Students and member organisations learned how to build relationships through following a process of one-to-one conversations and then running smaller groups to discuss and develop ideas. These ideas were then progressed to still larger meetings and assemblies where a wide range of people from very different backgrounds were involved. Importantly this approach entailed listening with a purpose to identify, through a democratic process, the issues that are most important to the community.  It also encouraged many small conversations which sparked new relationships.

Within Ark Academy a core group of 30 students were trained in how to run a listening campaign. They found out from the other 180 students in the school that street safety and problems with public transport were particular concerns. They also undertook a 'community walk' speaking with local shoppers, residents and shop staff. 

Outside of Ark Academy other listening campaigns were led by community based organisations. Students from Crest Academy and Al-Sadiq and Al-Zahra schools listened to the concerns of their fellow students, whilst local leaders from faith based organisations spoke to over 700 people in their respective communities. The ripple effect of systematic listening and conversations meant the project reached out beyond the school gates into the wider, diverse community of Brent.

This demonstrated that community leaders can be identified and trained at any age. It showed that when young people are given access to training, delivered well and in the right way, that they themselves can become more confident and able to listen to, motivate, and inspire others. 

2. Building alliances around common interests  

"Establishing friendships with other communities, particularly people of the Jewish faith" (Year 11 student of Al-Zahra, on what she most liked about being involved in the project)

"You've got like I said the Jewish community, the Islamic community and the Christian community...so if you can get these three communities to sit down and say right actually our common interests are opportunities for young people and safer streets, its just amazing, and that agenda doesn't come out of Christian ideology, or Jewish or Muslim ideology, it just comes out of the need for our community to be better." (Pastor, of local member church)

"I feel we have built a powerful alliance and it's powerful because it has developed the leadership of a diverse group of people, different ages, religions and so on." (North London Citizens Community Organiser at Ark Academy)

Building alliances between community-based organisations in an area of such diverse ethnic and cultural differences would seem a particularly difficult challenge, and yet this is something that the project excelled at. The forming of relationships between people of very different backgrounds led to the realisation that they share many of the same issues and concerns for their communities. 

School students played an important part in building community relationships: Al-Sadiq and Al-Zahra schools took the opportunity of the Muslim festival of Eid to make and give Eid Mubarak (Blessed Eid) cards to the schools neighbours; the local church reciprocated with Christmas cards. The Al-Khoei Foundation hosted a community Iftar during Ramadan, attended by over 60 different member groups of North London Citizens, invited to breakfast at sunset and to discuss how the London riots had affected their communities. Ark Academy students hosted a summer party which over 85 people attended, with again a mixture of different faith and ethnic groups, ages and backgrounds. 

The relationships developed through informal gatherings like these, made it easier to build alliances at the meetings and assemblies of Brent Citizens and North London Citizens. This in turn contributed to strengthening the relationships already formed as well as helping forge new relationships. Through a process of discussion at meeting and assemblies of Brent Citizens, common themes were explored. Eventually there was agreement on the top three priorities for Brent Citizens - all of which were considered to be 'worthwhile and winnable'.

What's been challenging?

Being a new school, currently with only a year 7 intake, meant that the students required additional time and support because of their age. Having an experienced Community Organiser to lead on work with the students was important, because she was able to form different and less formal relationships with them than a teacher would, while at the same time reducing the time demands on the school project lead. 

Brent had no previous experience of community organising and this was also a part of London that was new to the Community Organiser. This meant the process of making initial contacts and developing relationships with organisations took longer than anticipated. As a result eight member organisations were recruited to Brent Citizens over the year, rather than the ten it had been hoped for.

Important social issues were prioritised by Brent Citizens (opportunities for young people; street safety; community relationships and respect).  Achieving the change the community wants to see will take time and will need the engagement of influential people and institutions. 'Quick wins' were therefore important and this was achieved by smaller local led initiatives such as street clean ups. The Challenge Prize also contributed to this; awards were made to an initiative to engage parents, focusing on children's safety on buses, the development of a girl's youth club at the Al-Khoei Foundation and a youth hub to involve young people in community organising. 

What's changed?

"I feel more responsible and also feel like a good citizen because I am helping the community" (Year 8 student Ark Academy)

"After me being in this project I have started caring about the world and I have gained confidence." (Year 8 student Ark Academy) 

"I feel I am part of something important to the community." (Year 10 student Crest Academy) 

Relationship built and alliances formed

• An alliance of eight diverse community-based organisations has been formed, with Ark Academy playing a central role.
• Community issues in Brent have been identified through a democratic and consensual process and priorities agreed collectively.
• Brent Citizens is now an active part of North London Citizens which has 40 member organisations and is part of the much larger London Citizens alliance of community-based organisations.

School students are active in Brent Citizens and in their local communities

• Crest Academy, Al-Sadiq and Al-Zahra schools in Brent have followed Ark Academy in employing community organising methods, while other schools across North London are learning from the Ark Academy model.
• Students have run listening campaigns and been involved in community activities including researching street safety, undertaking street clean-ups and leafleting to encourage voting in the local elections. 
• The views of young people are being heard both within the local community and beyond.

Abilities and ambitions have grown

• Community members have undertaken community organising training and developed their leadership skills and confidence; they have been able to influence change within their own organisations and begun to influence what happens in the wider community.
• Students in all the schools report having grown in confidence and gained new skills, including speaking in public; one student chaired a North London Citizens meeting of over 500 people.

What's next?

"It's made more awareness in the community with the positive effects mainly still to come" (Year 11 student  Al-Zahra).

The model of community organising pioneered by Ark Academy working with citizens UK has been picked up by other schools across London. There has been interest from as far as Boston in America, resulting in the school project lead and community organiser participating at a conference at Harvard University, where they shared their learning. The community organiser will continue to work with Ark Academy and other schools in Brent and will support Brent Citizens to build its membership and develop its work. 

As part of its work to make streets safe, Brent Citizens will be taking part in the '100 days of Peace' to make the City a safer place in the run up to the London Olympics. Linked to this a leadership programme for young people from Muslim, Jewish and Christian backgrounds is planned that aims at building better relationships through joint action over the summer.

Read the ARK Academy blog

Return to top of page