In April 2018 a group of 39 St John Fisher parishioners & Bishop John Sherrington went to the Harrow Citizens Founding Assembly at St John ‘s Church in Harrow. Other founding members of the alliance were 2 Anglican churches, 2 synagogues, 2 mosques and a secondary school. At the time Harrow Citizens was the newest chapter on North London Citizens and Citizens UK, which organises communities to act together for social justice and the common good.
Leaders of Harrow Citizens chapter made the decision to close in 2023 for a number of reasons, including the disruption caused by Covid, the move of key leaders away from Harrow, competing financial priorities and workload of institutional leaders & the lack of active participants able to take on more responsibility.
However, the short life of Harrow Citizens has led to some long- lasting practical outcomes:
Supporting refugees
Following considerable work by the refugee action team, led by members of Kol Chai synagogue, Harrow Council agreed to support 2 (later 3) Syrian refugee families arriving in the UK through the Government’s resettlement programme. Housing was provided by one of the Harrow Citizens institutions. Decorating the houses, providing goods and ongoing support by the refugee action group has helped the families to settle & feel welcome. Joint working between Harrow Council and the action group has helped to support up to 30 Afghan refugee families. The inter-faith group will continue to work with refugee families in the Borough.
https://www.harrow-welcomes-refugees.org/
Mental Health
The action group produced a directory of mental health services providing useful signposts to sources of help. The listing is online and was distributed to local GPs, libraries and faith groups. The driving force in this action were the students of Northwood School & a version of the directory for young people was sent to every local school.
A campaign for a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all the health & support needs of the homeless & vulnerable is progressing and work continues.
Housing
The action group responded to consultations, lobbying for a high proportion of ‘affordable’ properties in new developments. In consultation with Harrow Council, a leaflet for tenants giving clear advice on how to complain about poor conditions in private rented homes was distributed in selected parts of Harrow.
From 2020 the group focussed on establishing supported accommodation for eight homeless single people. Harrow Council identified a potential site & a homeless charity agreed to manage and support tenants after the Harrow Salvation Army decided not to continue. Unfortunately the site was technically unsuitable for the modular homes so this project may not come to fruition.
Wealdstone Baby Bank wasan initiative of Harrow Citizens. They provide families in need with donated clothing and baby equipment. No referral is needed and the Baby Bank is open to all at Wealdstone Methodist Church on Friday mornings.
St John Fisher ‘Welcome’ group – helped by the local Citizens organiser, a group of parishioners put together a series of 4 Zoom sessions during Covid. Neville Ransley summarised and explained Pope Francis’ Fratelli Tutti encyclical while other sessions reflected on the experience of the church for people of different ages, cultures and backgrounds. Although sessions were online there was a chance for parishioners to start having conversations in small groups with people they did not know well.
The final session agreed that the priority was to make the post-lockdown parish more welcoming to new (and long-standing) parishioners. The small group that formed have run social events to help build community, re-started the welcome to mass rota, revised the way new parishioners are welcomed & continue in this work.
‘Softer’ outcomes
- Building relationships The Citizens UK model of having one to one conversations with others with a focus on listening carefully to each other helps build relationships and understanding what is important to others.
- Cross-community working. By working with people of other denominations and faiths action groups were strengthened, friendships developed across boundaries & the impact of the action group on people in power increased. One example was the refugee project with a Jewish community (inspired by past family experience of being refugees) working with members of a mosque who could provide support needed by Muslim families. Relationships between leaders were also strengthened.
- Power & leadership. A number of St John Fisher parishioners attended short training sessions on how to make change happen. The broad group of institutions in Harrow Citizens increased the influence it had with local decision makers &, before elections, candidates were asked to commit to action publicly.
Some of the outcomes of membership of Harrow Citizens are clear, others are emerging and will continue to do so.
‘When it comes to social change my money is firmly on the tortoise rather than the hare’ (Bruce Kent)
