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Community action/Yorkshire and the Humber

From Appropedia
Yorkshire country side, May 2009. Attribution: Gpmg
Community action has a lot to offer. See it, celebrate it and sample it. Through community we can do so much more than we think we can.

The gift of climate and ecological emergency is that we all get to work together. Ordinary citizens and community groups naturally share what they learn, and what they know of what helps. Everyone can help, everyone has something to offer, everyone is welcome. We all need to design, make and grow a better future for ourselves, our communities and our world. Together we CAN. Yes we CAN.

The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism across Yorkshire and the Humber. It's an introduction to local networks, groups, events, community resources and assets.

Yorkshire and the Humber
UK
Europe
Cosmolocal
  • News What if we stopped treating social care like a service? A small village community in Yorkshire showed me another way, theconversation.com (Aug 20, 2026)
  • News West Yorkshire moor brought under community ownership, thenews.coop (Oct 30, 2025) — Bridestones Moor, near Todmorden, will be managed by a CIC led by local ecologists, naturalists and residents
  • News Campaign launched to buy waterfall beauty spot, BBC News (Jul 17, 2025) — Campaigners say the community is ready to take responsibility for the future of the ancient woodland and waterfall
Read more
  • News Half a million trees to be planted in England in three years, says government, theguardian.com (Sep 30, 2026)
  • News The Space Time Continuum, Alternative Editorial (Sep 27, 2026) — Empty spaces will be put back into use, Andy Burnham said, turning them into "community hubs, health centres, shared workspaces, cafés and the local services that people actually want to see.”
  • News UK shares findings of damning climate crisis national security report suppressed under Starmer, theguardian.com (Sep 23, 2026) — El Niño poses critical threat to nations’ defences, says Ed Miliband in presentation to global foreign ministers
  • News Citizens need to power Europe's future, demnext.substack.com (Oct 02, 2026) — The EU can enable new democratic institutions: in European countries; with a European Citizens’ Assembly as a 4th branch of government, and by legally enforcing the Global Citizens’ Assembly on AI, Claudia Chwalisz and Another Democratic Future
  • News Reclaiming the streets: the architects clawing back Europe’s car-centric spaces, theguardian.com (Sep 09, 2026) — The European Prize for Urban Public Space’s shortlist highlights projects helping people cope with climate crisis
  • News We’re the mayors of Paris, Milan and Phoenix. The heat crisis has us all facing the same question, Emmanuel Grégoire, Giuseppe Sala and Kate Gallego, theguardian.com (Sep 07, 2026) — Our three cities are learning from each other about how to protect residents. These climate policies are also public health measures
  • News Citizens need to power Europe's future, demnext.substack.com (Oct 02, 2026) — The EU can enable new democratic institutions: in European countries; with a European Citizens’ Assembly as a 4th branch of government, and by legally enforcing the Global Citizens’ Assembly on AI, Claudia Chwalisz and Another Democratic Future
  • News Fifty Billion Seedlings: Can Ethiopia Replant Its Ravaged Forests?, e360.yale.edu (Oct 01, 2026)
  • News Want solar but don’t own a roof? California just legalized plug-in panels, no permission required, latimes.com (Sep 30, 2026)

Networks and sustainability initiatives

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CDC videos

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Cosmolocal discovery club

Each week 3 different short videos from across the UK or world.

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The Route Forward
Authors: Cycling UK, 6.13 mins.
Date: 2026-09-22
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We are Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
Authors: Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, 3.06 mins.
Date: 2022-01-04
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The Dorset Peat Partnership
Authors: Forestry England - South District, 6.27 mins.
Date: 2024-03-21

Community action/Dorset, Community action/Gloucestershire, Community action/United Kingdom/Cycling activism / ...This week's featured Global videos / ... read more about Cosmolocalism

Yorkshire and the Humber video

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What's working well when it comes to food in Yorkshire?
Authors: Food, Farming and Countryside Commission, 3.30 mins.
Date: 2026-02-26
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Bridestones Rewilded CIC
Authors: HSS, 2.37 mins.
Date: 2025-09-08
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'Our Future' - a poem by Lisa February
Authors: Our Future, 2.09 mins.
Date: 2024-08-09
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The Way We Do Things Around Here
Authors: Kirklees Democracy, Jul 5, 2022
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East Marsh Community
Authors: Ethex, Mar 8, 2022
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We Make Our Places What They Are
Authors: Kirklees Democracy, 2.20 mins.
Date: 2021-10-13

UK and international events

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UK events

  • Event Sep 7 - 11, 2026 (Mon-Fri) — Zero Waste Week, zerowasteweek.co.uk
  • Event Sep 11 - 20, 2026 (Fri-Sun) — Heritage Open Days, celebrating our fantastic history and culture. Your chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences – all of which are FREE to explore, heritageopendays.org.uk
  • Event Sep 18 - 27, 2026 (Fri-Sun) — Great British Beach Clean, mcsuk.org

UK community action events

Global or international events

  • Event Sep 15, 2026 (Tue) — Free Money Day, Global invitation for people to explore, in a liberating and fun way, what it might be like if our relationship to money was a little different. Sep 15, annually, freemoneyday.org
  • Event Sep 18, 2026 (Fri) — Park(ing) day, global, public, participatory project where people across the world temporarily repurpose curbside parking spaces and convert them into public parks and social spaces to advocate for safer, greener, and more equitable streets for people, myparkingday.org
  • Event Sep 21-27, 2026 (Mon-Sun) — Global Week Of Action For Peace And Climate Justice, climatemilitarism.org
  • Event Sep 21, 2026 (Mon) — International Day of Peace, Globally shared date, Sep 21 each year for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace, internationaldayofpeace.org

2021-2030, UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, International community action events

Community involvement

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  • Kirklees Democracy Commission, "We're growing a stronger local", democracycommission.org.uk, link checked 17:15, 13 October 2022 (UTC)
  • Heading Upstream Published, Major report outlining Barnsley's success in promoting social justice through citizen and community action, 2017, citizen-network.org, link checked 09:19, 8 February 2025 (UTC)

Localism

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  • Supporting community business in Yorkshire and the Humber, powertochange.org.uk, added 11:45, 13 November 2021 (UTC)
  • Yorkshire Party, building a stronger Yorkshire in a fairer UK

Community and voluntary action

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Hambleton Community Action, Northallerton

Community resources video

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Living in Esk Valley Camphill Community
Authors: Esk Valley Camphill Community, 5.02 mins.
Date: 2023-10-26
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Holmfirth Repair Cafe
Authors: Kirklees Democracy, Nov 8, 2022
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Incredible Edible Todmorden
Authors: Estelle Brown, 11.38 mins.
Date: 2012
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Community woodfuel project
Authors: csebristol, 9.43 mins.
Date: 2011-03-21
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IET on Calendar
Authors: Estelle Brown, 3.20 mins.
Date: 2009-07-26

Food activism

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Land activism

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Social inclusion

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For multiple deprivation in England, measured by the Indices of deprivation 2007, the most deprived council districts in the region are, in descending order – Kingston upon Hull (11th in England), Bradford (32nd), Doncaster (41st), Barnsley (43rd), North East Lincolnshire (49th), Sheffield (63rd), Wakefield (66th), Rotherham (68th), Kirklees (82nd), Leeds (85th), and Scarborough (97th). These areas are mostly represented by Labour MPs, with a few Conservative MPs representing parts of Leeds (with a Lib Dem MP) and North East Lincolnshire, and all of Scarborough. Apart from Scarborough, they are unitary authorities.

The least deprived districts are, in descending order – Harrogate, Hambleton, Richmondshire, Craven, and Selby – all in North Yorkshire. Like all of North Yorkshire, they are represented by Conservative MPs, aside from Selby which elected a Labour MP at the 2023 Selby and Ainsty by-election. At county level, the least deprived areas are, in descending order – North Yorkshire, York and the East Riding of Yorkshire which all have roughly the same level of deprivation, and lower than the majority of England, including Cheshire and Northamptonshire.

The region as a whole is one of the more deprived in England, measured by having far more Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) in the 20% most deprived districts than the 20% least deprived districts.

Kingston upon Hull has the highest proportion of people not in education, employment or training NEETs in the region (and fairly high for the UK – 10.6%). This is another demographic extreme it shares with Knowsley in Merseyside.

In March 2011 the region had the third highest overall unemployment claimant count in England with 4.4%. For the region, Hull has the highest rate with 7.8% which is the highest for any English district; North East Lincolnshire is next with 6.4%, and Doncaster has 5.2%. Richmondshire has the lowest rate with 1.8% and Harrogate is next lowest with 1.9%. W

Social care

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Community resources

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Citizens data initiative

Who Owns My Neighbourhood?, Kirklees land ownership data

Commons

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Reduce, reuse, repair and recycle

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About Yorkshire and the Humber

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Past events

  • May 5 Calder Bootstrap 2017, "a group of entrepreneurs, co-operators, activists and changemakers, looking to engage our community to co-create our next economy."

Campaigns

Yorkshire and the Humber is one of the nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. It is one of the three regions covering Northern England, alongside the North West England and North East England regions, and covers the historic and cultural Yorkshire area.

Near you

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Hull - Leeds - Sheffield

Page data
Keywords English region
SDG SDG11 Sustainable cities and communities
Authors Phil Green
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Language English (en)
Related 1 subpages, 3 pages link here
Redirects Yorkshire and the Humber, Yorkshire and the Humber community action
Views 173 page views (analytics)
Created June 7, 2014 by Phil Green
Last edit September 16, 2026 by Felipe Schenone
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