ℹ️ About Community Building ℹ️

Want to learn more about Community Building? Check out these pages!

💪 Processes of Community Building We Do Well! 💪

Community Building is something each of us already does, in our teams, our Local Groups and beyond. You should be able to recognise yourself and those you know in the processes laid out here.

Key Processes of Community Building

The following 13 Processes of Community Building were identified in the research stage of the 2025 Strategy Process. Each can be clearly seen across a variety of spaces in XR and all of them come together to create our collective community.

  1. Trust Building & Mending
  2. Clear Communication
  3. Connection Building
  4. Creating Permeable Boundaries
  5. Shared Purpose
  6. Creating Safe Spaces
  7. Inclusive Decision Making
  8. Creative Expression
  9. Sharing Ideas and Skills
  10. Building Common Culture
  11. Wellbeing and Rest
  12. Negotiating Effectiveness
  13. Celebration and Acknowledgement

We will look at these processes each in turn, exploring where we do them for ourselves within XR, where we do them to bridge and build community externally, and what we can do to strengthen that which we already do.

1. Trust Building & Mending

We build trust between each other, within our structure, between XR and our allies, and we build an external sense of trust in the movement. Communities are built at the speed of trust!

This Can Look Like:

And Externally:

When we are in community with people there are always going to be mistakes made and moments where trust is broken. How we come together after these missteps is so important, suggestions below:

❓ Questions

2. Clear Communication

Figuring out how to communicate clearly is challenging, especially in large, diverse groups, especially in spaces where participation and membership fluctuates.

Too many methods of communication creates confusion and with too few people don't know what is going on.

XR uses a variety of structures and processes to communicate internally and externally. When these work well the work of activism is easier. However, when these miss the mark trust erodes and confusion/misinformation spreads.

It's a balance! We need enough clear communication channels but not too many as to overwhelm people!

This Can Look Like:

And Externally:

Remember listening is also a part of clear communication.

❓ Questions

3. Connection Building

Connection to people, an organisation, or an idea comes before trust. This happens person to person and at a human scale.

Connection is also how people maintain trust between each other and this works best through face to face time spent together and shared experience. Connection can also be the practical links between circles and out to the wider world.

It all starts with curiosity!

This Can Look Like:

And Externally:

A good starting place is to hold a Gift Circle.

❓ Questions

4. Creating Permeable Boundaries

The boundary of any group or community should be permeable, that is it should be easy to join, leave, and return. This creates a welcoming space for new people, acknowledges the complexities in our lives, and allows the sharing of skills, experiences and talents. Also, the boundaries that create the group identity should be clear, that is if there are reasons for denying access or behaviours the group will not accept that needs to be well communicated. We welcome everyone, and every part of everyone, but not every behaviour.

Considering group boundaries, and how people experience them, is key to creating an accessible and welcoming space. Some people may have more barriers to participation than others and if a group is homogeneous then someone entering who does not fit that description will face challenges the group cannot see.

This Can Look Like:

And Externally:

By opening our arms wide and building connection and trust with our local communities and other communities of Identity, Interest, Practice, Place and Action we start to create that cultural momentum!

❓ Questions

5. Shared Purpose

Our communities are typically Communities of Action, it is our shared sense of purpose that ties us together. This shared purpose is held between our Demands, Principles & Values and Strategy, and the details shift with campaigns, localities and time. Purpose can also be smaller and more goal focused and co-created by a group.

In XRUK circles this shared purpose is consensually distributed by mandates through the organism using our Self Organising System. This allows rebels working in seemingly distant parts of the movement to know that they are all pushing in the same direction.

We can see the same distribution of roles towards a common goal in our Local Groups, although this is usually more fluid as local campaigns ebb and flow.

This Can Look Like:

And Externally:

By finding where purpose overlaps we can find fertile ground to build community and co-create actions with other groups.

❓ Questions

6. Creating Safe Spaces

Different people have different ideas of what a Safe Space looks like. The process of negotiating, adapting, and creating such spaces generates understanding of each other and community care.

We aim to create spaces where it is safe to share our ideas, to be authentic, and also to disagree with each other. We also interact in various different spaces: In meetings, socially, online, in action etc. In each of these contexts safety can mean different things.

This Can Look Like:

And Externally:

Noting also that safety doesn't mean free from discomfort. We look to challenge but to do so with kindness, compassion and understanding.

❓ Questions

7. Inclusive Decision Making

Communities and individuals within them make decisions all the time, about what they care about and how they act. These can be made in hundreds of different ways.

For a community to be inclusive, decision making processes need to be too. Being part of a community with strong inclusive decision making practices supports individuals to make more communal and less individualised decisions in general.

How our decision making processes adapt and change to the needs of the community participating in them is important.

This Can Look Like:

And Externally:

Decision making in the everyday life of a community can be seen as co-creating democracy for each other all the time.

❓ Questions

8. Creative Expression

The ability to be creative is important for any community. Creativity is integral to expressing culture, generating ideas, interest and engagement, as well as self expression and imagining the future.

Creativity is not just about artistic expression but creativity in expression of views and ways of thinking. Creativity can be found in how we plan, how we choose targets, and how inventive we are with our tactics.

Part of creative expression is self expression too. Holding a variety of ways to express creativity can make a community more inclusive and allow space for sharing and experimenting with ideas.

This Can Look Like:

And Externally:

It is only through our creativity that we will survive.

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9. Sharing Ideas and Skills

When someone joins a community they bring their skills and ideas with them whether they choose to share them or not. People do not arrive as blank slates to be moulded into rebels.

Sharing skills and ideas is a form of power sharing in communities. The ability to do so with respect and trust that they will not be misused is important in mitigating power. The more our skills, tasks and knowledge is shared between people the stronger and more resilient our communities become.

An essential part of skill and idea sharing is having a safe space to share and learn.

This Can Look Like:

And Externally:

To build power in our communities sharing skills is vital, if only one person knows how something is done that is a clear vulnerability to address.

❓ Questions

10. Building Common Culture

Our culture is the stories we tell, the visual and musical language we share, the behaviours we endorse and exclude, the actions we take, and the visions of the future we share. Belonging is hard to quantify but it is an experience born of participating in and co-creating shared culture. A key part of this are the stories we tell!

These stories can be a shared mythology or memory as well as expectations for behaviour and imagining about the future. The visual, verbal, musical languages a community uses are as important as the stories themselves.

Who has the ability to tell the stories and build them says a lot about the community. As does how people are able to express their individual identity as part of the whole community.

This Can Look Like:

And Externally:

Everyone in our community is involved in creating our common culture and generating a sense of belonging.

❓ Questions

11. Wellbeing and Rest

In extreme weather events such as heatwaves it is the quality of connections that a person has, not their access to services that ensures survival[1]. Joining and being a valued member of a community is not limited to moments of crisis, and communities can in fact build alternatives to crises.

For a community of climate activists the role that communities play in enabling wellbeing and rest for its members has to be taken very seriously. Burnout is a major issue in activism and the activities activism demands of individuals can be very extractive. Being intentional as a community to value wellbeing and rest of members is key.

This Can Look Like:

And Externally:

So much of activism can be framed around sacrifice and heroism, but is this what we want? We can also frame it around joy and rest and giving each other the permission to do things differently, sustainably and regeneratively.

❓ Questions

12. Negotiating Effectiveness

Communities create measures of success for themselves: long and short term goals against which their efforts are measured - success in stories not just numbers.

An action might be considered effective if there is a marked change in activities of the target, or because loads of people turned up, or because it got a lot of press attention, which measure do we choose as the most effective? And who gets to choose which successes are shouted about?

All these measures of effectiveness are negotiated all the time without even realising it.

This Can Look Like:

And Externally:

As communities we get to define what success and effectiveness mean to us. It will look different across the movement but with us all taking positive steps in our shared purpose we will continue to create change toward our collective vision.

❓ Questions

13. Celebration and Acknowledgement

Celebrating and acknowledging the work of members of a group, not just the wins, is an easy way to build community in every circle or group. And beyond this, celebrating the existence of group members regardless of the work they offer.

In doing so people learn from each other and understand each other's strengths, not just the issues they face. This is important as it is often the failures that stick in the mind and define a group. A smooth running experience or process is one that can go unnoticed and therefore it is most important to recognise it: it does so due to the work of others!

This works similarly when connecting with other people and groups outside of XR, appreciating their work or seeking understanding of it is a great way to build connection and community with others.

This Can Look Like:

And Externally:

Each and every one of us on this journey is worth celebrating.

❓ Questions

[1]: "Fatal Isolation: The Devastating Paris Heat Wave of 2003" by Richard C. Keller.

🤝 Community Building / Mobilisation / Alliance Building 🤝

Community Building is one set of tools we can use to engage with people. It is not the only set of tools, it is simply one we have not foregrounded in XR before.

There are different ways for people to make change in the world. Sometimes these seem like they are competing with each other but multiple approaches exist in our society at any one time. These are three approaches that are often present at the same time.

There are a lot of similarities between these approaches but this table is focused on their differences and at the extreme of those differences.

Community Building Mobilising Alliance Building
How do we get people to step into their power to make change together? How do we get as many people on the street as possible for an event? How do we get as many organisations working on this as possible?
How do we get people to act in ways that matter to them? How do we get people to be part of us? How do we get organisations working on the same cause?
Everyone has power to make change when we act together that is amplified. Power and the ability to make change lies with people who have power over us and and we must take it from them to have any of our own. Power is organisational, organisations have power to make change people don’t.
Everyone has answers to this we want to hear yours. We have the answers come with us. Organisations not individuals have the answers.
This issue is really big and scary. How can you help in your own way? This issue is really big and scary we all need to do this thing This issue is really big and scary how do organisations all work on it in their ways?
People act in lots of ways to make a difference on this issue, not all with us. How do we connect. People not acting with us are not taking this issue seriously so must be persuaded to do so. Organisations not acting on this issue do not care how can more organisations take action together to make a difference.
We are co-creators of change. Change happens to us but we can influence it. Change happens to us but organisations can influence it.
Abundance - people have the skills knowledge and experience to make change. Scarcity - why don’t we have enough people to make change. Institutionalisation - institutions have the skills, knowledge and influence to make change.
Be curious about the outsider. Be attractive to the outsider. Be an organisation.
How do we share compelling stories? How do we tell a compelling story? How do organisations tell compelling stories?
How do we share our skills to act in ways that matter to us? How do we upskill people to act? How do we get organisations to act?
How do we build networks? How do we build members? How do we build strong alliances between organisations?
People care about the things that matter to them. People need to be made to care about this issue. Organisations need to care about this issue.
We generate our own power we need to share it to make more. Power is finite and must be taken from others. Organisations hold power to influence bigger institutions.
Start with what’s strong. Start with the problem. Start with structures.
We must go to where people are. People must come to us. It is the known names that count.
How do we care for each other. How do we extract what we can from people. How do we extract from organisations.
Measure of success = connections. Measure of succes = numbers. Measure of success = structure.
Looks for connectors to build connections. Looks for leaders to bring followers. Looks to organisations to build structures.
People in connection = change People = mass = change People in organisations = power = change
People co-create change, democracy, justice, safety and care. Institutions make change and create democracy, justice, safety and care. organisations make change and create democracy, justice, safety and care.
Ecosystem. Our system. Organisational systems.
Local and everywhere. National importance top down. Top down organisation to organisation.