Final report "Working with people for change" - Manchester 2022

Working with people for change
Christian engagement for a just society

15. – 18. November 2022
Luther King House, Manchester, Great Brittain

This report aims to present some of the important themes and concepts which form the narrative of this special kind of seminar. The key feature of the seminar was that there were no ‘expert speakers’, rather the experts were the participants and the local work they are doing. Therefore this report is an open-ended narrative based on the contributions of the people doing local work in the five different countries who were present in Manchester.

Seminar Reports
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What happened before the seminar took place? 

The Manchester Seminar was a collaborative initiative of the Cardijn Association, based in Linz, Austria and Church Action on Poverty, a UK wide organisation, based in Manchester. The seminar was organised by national coordinators in five countries - Austria, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. It offered a space and opportunity for participants to reflect on their own practice in context and to develop new working practices for themselves and other in their contexts.
The invitation was sent via national coordinators to people involved in working directly with local groups. The basic criteria, which we shared by the coordinators, were that participants should be:

  1. committed to working with people to create alternatives and work politically for transformation,
  2. searching for new ways of Christian presence and church engagement which is close to everyday life and the concerns of people living on the margins,
  3. ready to explore new forms of professionalism which reflect the idea of presence with people and an open, receptive and inductive approach to activities for change.

Seminar goals

Building on the diverse contexts practice of participants, the seminar aimed to develop community-based practice which is based on affirming and supporting:

  1. the dignity of people living on the margins,
  2. peoples’ capacity to develop new self-organised actions for sustainable community and to work for political change,
  3. a church which is committed to being with people on the margins.

To achieve these aims, the three objectives of the seminar each of which was the focus of a full day of sharing experience, discussion and reflection:

  1. to share and reflect on the working practices which are already being used in different contexts as the basis for mutual learning,
  2. clarify models of the church which are effective for change in communities which are on the margins,
  3. share experiences of learning programmes for both ‘professionals’ and thosewith whom they work which lead to strengthening the peoples’ active engagement for change.