The potential for community action at the grassroots has never been greater

"At a time of massive cuts 'community resilience' is what will determine how well local people will survive". This is how we started our recent CSC publication 'unleashed: the potential for community action at the grassroots' http://www.communitysectorcoalition.org.uk/policy

I think we were and are saying something no one else is and it feels good to hear from a range of people, Ed Mayo from Co-ops UK http://www.cooperatives-uk.coop/live/cme0.htm emailed and was very positive, Joe taylor from North West Community Activists Network http://nwcan.org/ likewise, Professor John Dimoand from Edgehill College http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/clps/ , Mandy Wilson from COGs http://www.cogs.uk.net/ and many others have kindly welcomed our celebration of the community sector

And in a nutshell we were saying some pretty simple stuff but overlooked by many - one is that in terms of sheer numbers most of the voluntary sector is a small unpaid community group; two is that the gap between local groups and more formalised, funded third sector bodies has grown far wider in recent years, i.e. there is an active inequality in the sector whereby the money and power has not trickled down in the way it should; thirdly in the new environment communtiy groups are far and way the best bet to build resilience because in the words of an activist friend of mine, Eileen Conn http://www.peckhamvision.org/wiki/images/2/21/SE15_article.pdf from Peckham, 'start from the propsition of what needs to be don then seek the support and money' - how refreshing it would be to see the wider voluntary sector start to get back to that kind of approach

As I type I hear a clamour of disent and accusation about falling into a trap of legitimising cuts - feel free to call me up on this. I am conscious of important discussions needing to be had with various government departments - not least my own presentation to the DCLG partnership board next week 23/6 - on the role of the sector in deprived neighbourhoods. But I can't help feeling it would be good for the voluntary community sector to go back to the basics of accountability to local communities. The people I speak to who actually have a relationship with residents as opposed to large national charity policy wonks, always seem to get left out of the presentation of 'what the sector thinks' so here's hoping and quite possibly exdpecting some social justice amidst all the austerity