Community Assembly Hubs are safe havens where local people can join together to create central meeting points and services designed to meet the needs of local people - and where like-minded people can work together to find the best ways to live in peace and harmony for the highest good of all.

What is a Community Assembly Hub?

A 'hub' is defined as the effective centre of an activity, region, or network. This is an excellent description of what a Community Assembly Hub is designed to be in terms of providing a central location or meeting point where people can get together, discuss ideas and make plans to develop and deliver services that meet the needs of local Community Assembly members.

This is outlined in A Community Perspective which looks at a recent report on a community survey carried out by the Coop resulting in '10 top reasons why communities are in decline.'  This has been turned around to create '10 top reasons why to rebuild our communities' based on needs identified in the survey.

This is where we have proposed a new definition for 'community' which we have sent out in our updates for feedback so please feel free to contact us with any suggestions.

What is the purpose of a Community Assembly Hub?

Community Assembly Hubs start out as meeting places where people meet up to talk about ideas and set up a Community Assembly in their area. From there, members of the Community Assembly work together to establish a hub or hubs that will provide the services needed to support local people and look after the local environment.

This often begins with a few committed local residents or 'Founding Facilitators' who are invited to become members of the Community Assembly of the British Isles (CABI) for support, knowledge, advice on governance and other queries, together with regular updates and newsletters.

This means that committed facilitators have a point of contact to send and receive information from the network which they can relay to and from their Community Assembly members. By being 'plugged in' to the 'knowledge-flow' in this way, members are able to ask questions, make suggestions and put forward ideas with the team at the Community Assembly of the British isles (CABI) and other members. This helps Community Assemblies to grow in the best way possible while supporting each other to do so.

What is involved in setting up a Community Assembly Hub?

As soon as we are able to gain access to land and property, central onsite Community Assembly Hubs will be set up to provide the premises and facilities required for the administration, governance and running of the associated Community Assembly or Community Assemblies. General services can then be established for the benefit of members of the local community as a whole.

A central Community Assembly Hub (and smaller 'satalite' hubs) will accommodate shared offices, workshops, utilities, Community Law Courts, healing practices, herbal remedies, market gardening, repairs, maintenance and so on.

What is the best way to get started?

While a large central hub is an ideal goal to have in mind in order to explore and identify opportunities, Community Assembly Hubs start small with meetings at one or more locations to begin with.

Creating a small group with people who have similar interests and a general concern for the direction of travel in our society at the moment is a great place to start. Common interests could be gardening, walking, rock climbing or baking (for example). It could be an existing group or one created for the dual-purpose of enjoying an activity with like-minded people and meeting up to talk about ideas and how to take action. 

Members of the group can then set up a Community Assembly for their local area by selecting a minimum of 3 Founding Facilitators who are invited to join the Community Assembly of the British Isles. This provides a range of benefits such as weekly 'boots on the ground' information from across the British Isles, telephone and email support, regular newsletters and the opportunity to feedback and feed information into the 'knowledge-flow' network.

Much work has been done over many years to understand how we can best become independent sovereigns away from the current system and take back control of our lives. It's a big challenge which is why being part of CABI is so important for the support we can provide and coordinate for everyone's benefit.

It means we don't each have to keep reinventing the wheel, we can share invaluable information with each other and forming strong and lasting relationships with members of the community and the wider Community Assembly network here and overseas.

Further information

If you are interested in setting up a Community Assembly or Community Assembly Hub we are here to talk things through with you. This is why CABI is here - to provide the support and information you need to get things moving - on your own terms and in your own way.

If you have any questions, send us a message and we will be delighted to get back to you.

There is no time like the present as we encourage each other to start making a difference today.

Sue Cartwright AInstAM

Community Assembly of the British Isles

Editor