How you organise, develop and nurture your community has changed in the last ten years. 

The idea of community has evolved. It's more than just discrete local neighbourhoods, purely online groups or non-networked communities of narrow interest. 

The social, political and organisational contexts around community development continue to shift away from a centralised or top-down model. Leadership is still vital, but community members expect more and are better equipped to do more for themselves. 

The social tools that empower community members and are used to meet the challenges of community management are no longer just emerging. They are established and evolving at a rate that makes more and more 20th century practices obsolete.

How does the 21st Century Community Organiser adapt?

In this workshop, we invite you to define what it means to develop online and real world communities now:

• What does the 21st century Community Organiser do?
• Techniques for managing communities online and in the real world.
• Online and real world crossovers: lessons to learn.
• Mapping social technology tools for community organising.

The context is the rapid rise of social technology, the cutbacks in public sector funding, and the UK government's call for 5000 professional Community Organisers to help make the Big Society a reality. But we're not going to debate ideology. 

At the end of the workshop, we will have started to pull together some practical resources to share:

1. a skillset and role description for the 21st century Community Organiser 
2. a toolkit for the effective 21st century Community Organiser
3. a framework for developing and refining the skillset and toolkit

Should you participate?

• Responsible for community organising/management, either virtually or in the real world?
• Involved in capacity building or skills development?
• Experienced in using social technology for developing networks and communities?
• Committed to defining the agenda for community development in the 21st century?

Yes to any of the above? Get on board. 

This workshop is a collaboration between The GIST Foundation and Big Society in the North. 

The GIST Lab is a community collaboration space operated by The GIST Foundation in partnership with the Showroom Workstation. Find directions here.