Over the next few weeks we’ll have blog posts from a number of this year’s Jellicoe Interns.  Ian Vijay Bhullar begins the series.  As he explains, it’s not always easy to give a quick answer to the question ‘what do you do as a Jellicoe intern?’…

As a Jellicoe Community intern, I aim to engage the members of the St. Mary’s church, Cable Street, in community organising; I volunteer at events (like the 2000-strong London Citizens assembly at the Barbican); and I have chosen to conduct political research and attract supporters for the Sanctuary Pledge campaign with London Citizens’ Citizens for Sanctuary team.

But what does community organising actually aim to do? This was the question that really puzzled me during my earliest weeks here. What I’ve learned is that it actually can’t be defined by what it seeks to achieve: community organising is a process-of bringing people together so that they can actually develop the power necessary to achieving a wide variety of ends, most of which will only be fully conceived once we’re all together and able to discuss our interests. But in being a process without intrinsic ends, it’s by no means empty. Most importantly, it’s about empowering people, by bringing them and their broad networks and communities to campaign together, to deal with the challenges they face on a daily basis. Secondly, and very significantly in a city as diverse as London, it helps to bring people who otherwise wouldn’t meet into situations where they proudly cooperate for shared goods. In doing these two things, the process of community organising helps members to make massive leaps in campaigns like those for a living wage, affordable housing, financial literacy and city safe-havens.

I’ll be keeping you updated with my work as a Jellicoe Community intern, as it progresses.