Living Rent’s training program: Fighting for the future

In 2020, Living Rent doubled in size with neighbourhood branches organising across Edinburgh and Glasgow and groups forming across Scotland. The year 2021 presents us with great challenges,  notably the combined impact of Brexit and the Covid pandemic on our communities, as well as significant opportunities to fight for the future we deserve and need. Supported by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Living Rent is organising training to support tenants and residents to hone their skills and understandings,  in order to best seize these opportunities.

Training sessions will focus on both strengthening skills to achieve our bread and butter work (member defence, organising) but also preparing ourselves to push the newly elected government around its housing commitments and standing for a socially and environmentally ambitious transition at the COP26 in Glasgow. 

Sessions are open to all, with a focus on supporting Living Rent’s members to feel empowered to take up action in their branches and groups. Training sessions cover introductions to Living Rent for all new members, organisational, campaigning and communications skills, member defence, and political education with a focus on:

• Tenants’ need for reforms in the social and private rented sector
• Linking up housing and climate change, notably around energy efficiency and repairs
• Land developments, understanding community land buyouts, planning regulations and the politics of land 

Each session is independent and geared towards specific skills - you can come to one or to all of them. We strongly encourage branch officers to come to sessions related to their roles. Thorough strategising, organising, effective member defence and clear communications all take practice, more practice and more practice. Come learn with fellow union members!

Each session is between ninety minutes and two hours long with a break included. Some will take place on Zoom, an online conference tool and others locally, in person and outside. Most online sessions will take place on Monday evening, 6:30-8:00pm. Please register for each session on the Living Rent website - links below - and check whether it is online or in person.  If you have any question around registration, the content, how to access these trainings or how to run a branch-specific one, contact Emma at [email protected].

These trainings are supported by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung London Office.