Community Led Action and Savings Support

Who we are

CLASS (Community Led Action and Savings Support) is a CIO providing professional support to women-led and neighbourhood-based community associations affiliated to the Community Savers network (www.communitysavers.net).

CLASS is led by, for, and with women leaders of the Community Savers network through a combination of joint governance processes.

We are focused on supporting amazing people in areas that have experienced neglect and disinvestment to build power and develop what we call "transformative co-production" partnerships to realise community-led visions for local areas.

We work hard to promote women’s leadership and recognition of community expertise in all that we do.

Our culture and values

Community Savers and CLASS have come a long way since Mums Mart visited the SDI South African Alliance in 2017 (https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/when-you-get-front-door-remember-to-leave-it-open/). That is when Mums Mart pioneered the first Community Savers women-led savings group. They have since mobilised groups across Greater Manchester and Sheffield, with leaders requesting the formation of a support agency in 2019. Since CLASS gained charity registration in March 2020, and despite successive global and national crises, we have built our own effective and impactful ‘alliance’, inspired by SDI community federation-professional support agency alliances across the Global South (www.sdinet.org).

We are a women-led movement for poverty action and urban transformation. Every year we carry out an in-depth evaluation against our Theory of Change; and the Community Savers Leadership engage in strategic review, reflection, and planning. In 2024 we reflected and learned the following -

Women-led neighbourhood transformation: what works, what next?

•       Our approach works because we start with individuals/households and ‘informality’: people are comfortable in our spaces and the way we do things.

•       People love the savings clubs, and this is what brings people together: weekly meetings create the space to build self-esteem, confidence, connectivity, belonging and financial resilience.

•       We are building relationships and understanding in local areas, and at a time of crisis and division. We look after each other and place value in people, relationships and compassion.

•       We are co-governing well, with full transparency over financial resources and decisions.

•       In our relationships with public agencies and authorities we offer solutions, partnerships and investment - not just challenges/demands.

•       We have overcome political resistance with ‘successes’ - like impactful partnerships and bringing large numbers of people together.

Equality, diversity and inclusion policy

CLASS has a robust DEI policy framework which is reviewed at regular intervals by our board of trustees. Building an even stronger approach to DEI is a key strategic priority in our new 2025-2028 strategic plan. Leaders across the Community Savers network have also reflected in depth throughout 2024 and have concluded some of the following points and ways forward:

• Our member surveys and monitoring demonstrate that we are doing ‘OK’ in relation to including people of different ages, ethnic backgrounds, disabilities, differing levels of mental and physical health, and caring responsibilities. There is still more to do.
• This varies across neighbourhoods - sometimes this reflects demographics and that’s OK.
• There is more we can do to improve our diversity and accessibility. Having a greater diversity of social groups in our leadership will enable us to achieve better ‘equity’ in the outcomes and impacts we can achieve in a local area or across a city.
• Our workshops on diverse membership and leadership highlighted groups that leaders think we could be doing better to proactively attract. There are changes we can make to how we run groups or activities to make these more accessible.
• We need to work with our memberships to help them understand what opportunities there are for leadership and what the benefits of leadership are. This is particularly the case for women from minority ethnic backgrounds and women with disabilities.
• Inclusivity should be combined with cohesiveness within a group and particularly within a managing committee. We need shared understanding and commitment to acceptable ways of communicating and working with each other.