You’ve got your leaflets, what next?
We can help you set up a campaign targeting your local water company by sharing tips we’ve learnt from previous campaigns we’ve run, and providing you with campaigning resources such as templates, free leaflets and stickers. We can also help to connect you with other activists in your local area and beyond, so that you can share ideas and begin organising with each other.
Don’t do it alone
Recent polling shows that 1 in 4 people are considering not paying their water bills. This means that even if you live in a rural area, or an area not known for political or environmental activism, other people in your community will care about taking back water, and at least a few will be up for organising with you — it’s just a case of finding them.
Join our Community Organising Network to connect with other organisers
That’s where our Community Organising Network comes in. It provides a platform for you to meet other people from your area and connect with people who are being billed by the same water company as you. The network is over 100 strong and growing fast. A few days after you pledge to strike, you’ll receive an email with an invite for the network’s WhatsApp group. We’ll ask you to complete a brief survey on where you’re based, your capacity to get involved, how much responsibility you’d like to take on, and any other areas of the campaign you’re interested in helping out with.
The group is for active organisers who have committed to either build or join a local Take Back Water group, and plan actions to persuade their communities to pledge to strike. If you just want to keep up to date with the campaign, your best bet is our mailing list. You can join the mailing list by pledging, as well as by following us on Facebook, Instagram, X, Tiktok or Bluesky.
Existing local groups
Local people are currently setting up local groups in the Bristol Water, Thames Water and United Utilities regions. Watch this space for more details and look out for emails, WhatsApp Announcements and social media posts when the groups are launched.
Build alliances by mapping your area
Once you’ve found a few locals who are up for organising, map your area or water company region by creating a spreadsheet listing (template coming soon, watch this space!). A Google MyMap is another good option, as it allows you to visually grasp the terrain you’ve mapped out.
- Organisations and initiatives to ally with:
- Civil society
If you’re unlucky and for now are struggling to find anyone in the Community Organising Network who lives near you, you can take these first steps alone. It will give you ideas for how to find people who may want to establish a local group with you.
Make a plan for your first action
Once you and a few other people in your area or water company region have agreed to set up a local campaign, come up with an idea for your first community organising action. Don’t over-think this, but do take the time to pick an activity and location you think is suited to your community. Use your map and your knowledge of your community to aid this process. Below are a few ideas, but bear in mind that you will know what works best for your area.
- If you live on the coast, leaflet a popular beach on a sunny day or set up a stall in its car park
- If you live near a publicly accessible river, leaflet popular wild swimming or fishing spots, or set up a stall where people access the river
- We recently ran a stall and distributed 1000 leaflets at a left wing summit in London, attended by 2000 people. So, if you live in a city, leaflet at one of the political or environmental events you identified when you mapped your area — the bigger the better. If it’s going to feature stalls, contact the organisers to ask if you can run one (we may be able to help with making the initial connection). Can’t find a suitable event? Why not run a stall somewhere people linger, like a market, square or high street?
Tips for devising a clear plan to ensure the action is successful:
- Assign tasks and roles to ensure you all know what you need to do and everyone feels involved. Give people who are new to activism or campaigning small tasks that suit their skill-set, to help build confidence
- Don’t rush to meet an unachievable deadline. Instead, give yourself enough time to prepare thoroughly and make sure it can fit around your other responsibilities
- Think about the time of day and day of the week that the action would be most suited to, and check the weather forecast if you’ll be outside — nobody will want to stop and chat if you’re running a stall during a rainstorm!
- Make sure you have all the equipment you’ll need on the day. Consider every angle — bring a tablet or laptop, for example, so people you leaflet can pledge on the spot
- Don’t own everything you need for your action? Then borrow stuff from your neighbours or community — perhaps your local pub or community centre will be happy to lend a gazebo or trestle table for a stall
What to do next
Celebrate the success of your first action and get together to plan your next steps!
Grow your local group
- If people you spoke to at your first action seemed particularly keen, float the idea to them about joining your group. A big part of organising involves being forward about asking people to step up and get involved
- If you haven’t already, go through the list you created from your map, contacting people and organisations to ask them to pledge and explain how they can get involved
- Keep plugging away by dropping mentions of your group into conversation with your community and encouraging them to pledge
- Be aware of your own capacity. It’s easy to get absorbed in a campaign but don’t overdo it, and make sure everyone is sharing the workload and feels capable of stepping back temporarily if they need to, in order to avoid the risk of burnout
Cement the structures of your local group
- As your group grows, have a think about how it could be structured. For example, would it be helpful if certain people lead specific areas like community organising and leafleting, comms and media, and building alliances with local political/environmental groups and organisations?
- We can create groups in the Take Back Water WhatsApp Community for different aspects of your local group
- Keep checking here for more structural ideas, which we’ll be adding soon
- In the meantime, if you want advice on how to structure your group, feel free to ask us via the Community Organising Network
Publicise the campaign by stickering your local area
Get your stickers here, or contact us through the Community Organising Network to request some free ones.
Stick them at eye level where people stop, sit or linger. For added visibility, apply a few stickers of different types in the same location. Here are some ideas:
- Stickers at pedestrian crossings on main roads are highly visible. Apply your sticker above the push button. The busier the road, the more frequently it is inspected by the council. This increases the chance of removal, but many more people will have seen the sticker before this happens than if you’d applied it to a lamppost on a quiet street.
- Popular stretches of river, lakes and beaches attract people passionate about taking back water. Even in rural areas, there should be signposts or other hard surfaces, such as litter bins, to apply stickers to.
- Hospitality venues with outdoor seating are also good spots. There will usually be a lamppost or signpost within easy view of the seating area. Don’t stick it to the venue’s property, as it will likely be removed almost immediately.
- Outside primary school gates is another good location, as parents/carers wait or stop and chat at drop off and pick up times. Again, avoid school property. Outside places of worship, community centres and stations, and bus stops work for similar reasons.
- Use Causeway one.network to find roadworks caused by water companies. On the website, zoom in to your local area until the coloured circles turn into icons and look for the tap symbol. Apply your stickers to signs providing information on the works. Also check online for any nearby water treatment plants in high footfall locations.
Create your own leaflets, stickers and comms materials
Want to print campaign materials yourself in bulk? Here are high-res originals of our leaflet you can send to a printers. Print24 do fast turnaround and are reasonably priced. Happy with lower quality materials? Just print them from your home printer.
If you’re making leaflets, stickers or posters for your local group or content for social media, you probably want the look to fit the wider campaign. Don’t feel too constrained by this - do your own thing - but check back soon for some resources that might be helpful to riff off.
Document your actions
Document your actions by recording yourself distributing leaflets, journaling your progress and posting on the WhatsApp group!
Make connections with local media
- Write a press release about your first action and some key facts about the national campaign, as well as achievements to date. Send it to local news sites and blogs, or other websites within your community
- If you’re lucky you may live in an area served by an alternative media organisation, like The Bristol Cable, or The Mill in Manchester, as well as other sites across the country
- Tell us before you do any media so that we can give you free spokesperson training
And finally…
Don’t burn yourself out. Campaigning isn’t always easy, so make sure you look after your mental health by resting, sharing your thoughts and feelings with trustworthy friends, and allowing yourself time to relax and disconnect.
Have we missed something?
If you’ve got advice on community organising or would like to suggest additional resources we should produce for local groups, tell us via the Community Organising Network. All ideas welcome!