LCC Community Skills Summit, 18 Nov

Do you want to make your neighbourhood nicer and safer for active travel but don’t know where to begin? Or have you just gotten involved with a campaign group, but want to learn the basics? This session will cover the basics you need to know when getting started in campaigning including an explanation of political will, LCC’s Pathway Approach and first steps you can take.

The future of active travel campaigning isn’t kerb splays and signal phases. Building from the plenary session, this workshop will offer practical exercises to winning hearts and minds of those in your borough using emotion and telling stories. This will include coming up with emotional campaigning aims and how to tie those to more concrete asks, as well as ‘storytelling’ hooks and how to persuade politicians and the public using them.

Everyone in London should feel able to cycle and the people who do cycle should be representative of London. But just as cycling in your area is likely OK for you, while your group may feel good for you, it may not be for everyone. This session is about making sure your group is genuinely representative of your area – and how that’ll help your campaigning and ensure your group gets more done, as well as how to talk to other communities, build coalitions, and campaign for accessible infrastructure.

From the point when your council starts delivering schemes, there’s every chance the two things you’ll need to focus on are improving pace of delivery and quality. Officers will need to be brought round, you’ll need to be able to counter ‘computer says no’ mentalities and you’ll need to be able to win over councillors to do more, potentially with very little funding. But how do to do this best? ‘Critical friend’ campaigning can be the toughest balancing test campaigners face.

It can feel like it’s you against the world when your group is tiny. This session is to help you get more people involved with your group and show you how to reach out to other groups and communities in the borough and make links, as well as how to make meetings not just welcoming, but enticing. Because the more people you can attract to engage with you, the easier campaigning gets.

While intended for campaigners in councils on Stage 1 of our Pathway Approach, this session will be helpful for anyone that needs more volunteers to help with their campaigning.

The key to getting your council to act on active travel is to get your council leader (and portfolio holder) on board. This session will lead participants live through researching and building up a strategy on a council leader as well as when to look beyond the leader.

This session is particularly for campaigners in councils on Stage 2 of our Pathway Approach, though is also recommended for those on Stage 3 that could do some more work to really cement political support.

Two steps forward are great, but that one back can be brutal. Even councils that have delivered schemes face a risk of backsliding, especially when councils face opposition or have done too much too fast. This session will cover what leads to ‘wobbles’ and setbacks and how best to respond when your council gets them. We’ll cover building trust, informal communications, when to back off and when to push, triangulation and more.

This session is aimed at campaigners whose councils are on Stage 3 of our Pathway Approach, though Stage 4 groups may also find their council wobbling at times.

Our Pathway Approach is all about getting councils to have the political will to deliver a coherent network of cycle routes. But once you’ve got that, even before, alongside it, there’s clear and good reasons to embrace other activities. This session will cover both rolling out cycling beyond your core town centres and areas but also what else you can do once infrastructure is in and before to diversify and spread cycling – building coalitions, talking to new communities, cargo bike loans and more.

This session is mostly aimed at campaigners whose councils are on Stage 4 of our Pathway Approach, but others interested in ‘storytelling’ and ‘soft measures’, indeed most people, should find it useful.

Kids love cycling, and politicians hate looking mean to kids. Organising family rides, events and campaigning tactics is a great way to engage with people in your borough and win over politicians. Kids can show your council the suppressed demand for cycling, and really bring to the forefront issues with weak infrastructure. This session will cover safely organising family rides even in areas without much infrastructure, as well as bike buses, safeguarding issues and media consent, and how to integrate kids voices into your campaigning.

The future of active travel campaigning isn’t kerb splays and signal phases. Building from the plenary session, this workshop will offer practical exercises to winning hearts and minds of those in your borough using emotion and telling stories. This will include coming up with emotional campaigning aims and how to tie those to more concrete asks, as well as ‘storytelling’ hooks and how to persuade politicians and the public using them.

Everyone in London should feel able to cycle and the people who do cycle should be representative of London. But just as cycling in your area is likely OK for you, while your group may feel good for you, it may not be for everyone. This session is about making sure your group is genuinely representative of your area – and how that’ll help your campaigning and ensure your group gets more done, as well as how to talk to other communities, build coalitions, and campaign for accessible infrastructure.

Outer London boroughs face unique challenges as they are typically car dominated with high levels of ownership and motor vehicle mode share, lower public transport density and active travel levels, and the issues these all bring. If we can’t crack outer London for active travel though, we’re all doomed. So what techniques are working and how should we apply them?

It can feel like it’s you against the world when your group is tiny. This session is to help you get more people involved with your group and show you how to reach out to other groups and communities in the borough and make links, as well as how to make meetings not just welcoming, but enticing. Because the more people you can attract to engage with you, the easier campaigning gets.

While intended for campaigners in councils on Stage 1 of our Pathway Approach, this session will be helpful for anyone that needs more volunteers to help with their campaigning.

The key to getting your council to act on active travel is to get your council leader (and portfolio holder) on board. This session will lead participants live through researching and building up a strategy on a council leader as well as when to look beyond the leader.

This session is particularly for campaigners in councils on Stage 2 of our Pathway Approach, though is also recommended for those on Stage 3 that could do some more work to really cement political support.

How you communicate to your members and supporters, to residents in your borough, to key stakeholders and politicians can either grow support for your cause and get schemes in or see you struggling to be heard. A masterclass on both positive and negative comms.

Featuring:

• Mike van Erp, better known as Cycling Mikey, YouTuber and cycling activist
• Harry Gray from Walk Ride Greater Manchester, campaigner, TikToker and small business owner
• Melanie Etherton, LCC’s social media guru

Outer London boroughs face unique challenges as they are typically car dominated with high levels of ownership and motor vehicle mode share, lower public transport density and active travel levels, and the issues these all bring. If we can’t crack outer London for active travel though, we’re all doomed. So what techniques are working and how should we apply them?