Building power and capacity at the heart of communities

WHY WE EXIST

The Gateshead Community Bridgebuilders want local people to have the opportunities, skills, and confidence to engage in making decisions that are going to improve their lives now and in the future.

We know that current structures inherently exclude and marginalise whole swathes of people. We are building new participative models of community decision-making and supporting local people to feel confident enough to be part of them.

We are changing and extending who gets to participate in decision-making, and changing the ways in which decisions are made and power is exercised.

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In order for this work to be genuinely community-led, we’ve built a team drawn from, embedded in, and trusted by diverse, marginalised communities across Gateshead. These are our Bridgebuilders.

These individuals have paid positions and form a decision-making body, holding power in the shape of access to a devolved pot of funding. This group uses their community connections and their lived experience insight to make good things happen locally.

MEET OUR BRIDGEBUILDERS

Zahra Bazarganianpour

Community Bridgebuilder, GemArts
Vikas Kumar, MBE

Organiser, GemArts
RICH GIBBONS

Organiser, Clear Signal
Paul Kerr

Community Bridgebuilder, Gateshead FC Foundation
Hakan Akarli

Community Bridgebuilder, The Comfrey Project
Fozia Haider

Community Bridgebuilder
Eric Bamela

Community Bridgebuilder, The Comfrey Project
CHRISTINE FRAZER

Organiser, Bensham Grove Community Centre
ANDY CROSBIE

Organiser, Collective Impact Agency CIC
Afroz Qureshi

Community Bridgebuilder, Bensham Grove Community Centre

Meet Our Bridgebuilders

THE STRENGTH OF THIS WORK LIES IN ITS CONNECTIONS

The Gateshead Community Bridgebuilders are a network that sits across many VCSE organisations in the area. A lot of our work is done in collaboration with local charities and socially-minded organisations, some of whom employ Bridgebuilders (or Peer Enablers). We call organisations who help make this work happen ‘keystone organisations’ – because the keystone of a bridge is the part that makes it truly strong.