Pay the Living Wage

Sabbatical Day Two: The day started with an inspiring event to celebrate the living wage in MK. We had presentations from the team who have achieved a total of 48 companies and organisations signed up - including Ikea, the OU and Santander. We also had speeches from business leaders and the Council Leader. The highlight was the new song from Summerfield School...


The "action" continued with a visit to the management offices at CMK with an attempt to arrange a meeting with someone to discuss signing the Centre up for Living Wage status...

It was an interesting morning from the perspective of the sabbatical. I found myself thinking about various aspects of Community Organising:




  • Relational Power: The crucial element of building 121 relationships with leaders and power-holders in order to bring change...
  • Achievable Goals: We were reminded of Tim Minchin's statement that "You don't have to have a dream". Big visions are all very well, but if you really want to achieve things it's sometimes better to focus on small steps and do them well! 
  • Action is the Oxygen of Organising: The more you can get people involved in action, the more energised they become. Achieving progress, produces the capacity for more progress...
  • Partnerships: If people are willing to work together and share credit, you can acieve incredible things!

    • It was good to take part in this "action" and I came away inspired and reflective. How can we energise our churches with the same approach? What would it mean if we had "leaders/organisers" who worked this way all the time?

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