WHAT TO EXPECT
MAKING OUR COLLECTIVE STRENGTH VISIBLE
Individually, we know organisations across our communities are doing extraordinary work. What we don’t see clearly enough is their collective strength.
How many people do our organisations employ? How many volunteers give their time? How many buildings and community assets do we collectively own or manage? How much economic activity do we generate? What skills, knowledge and resources could we share?
And what might become possible if these organisations were better connected?
One purpose of the Assembly is to begin making visible the people, knowledge, assets, institutions and economic power that already exist across our communities – and to ask what we could build together that none of us can build alone.
MEET THE CONTRIBUTORS
People doing the work
Redhills Assembly will bring together people who are putting these ideas into practice
Our contributors will include community organisers, trade unionists, co-operators, campaigners, cultural organisations, community businesses, people developing new approaches to ownership and finance, and people creating change within Coalfield communities.
Local experience will be at the heart of the Assembly, alongside selected contributors from elsewhere in Britain and internationally who can bring useful ideas, practical methods and inspiration.
Their contributions won’t be conventional keynote speeches. They are there to ignite the room: to bring an experience, example, argument or challenging idea that gives participants something to talk about, think about and respond to.
FRIDAY 2 OCTOBER
Huffty McHugh
West End Women and Girls Centre, Newcastle
Huffty McHugh was the Centre Coordinator at West End Women and Girls Centre from 1985 to 2024. A visionary and inspirational leader, she has devoted more than 40 years to supporting and empowering women and girls and has made an outstanding contribution to community work across Newcastle and the wider region.
Under Huffty’s leadership, the Centre became a vital and welcoming space in Newcastle’s West End, providing support, opportunities and a strong voice for women and girls. Her passion, innovation and dedication have inspired generations and earned her a leading reputation in the North East and beyond.
Jess Steele OBE
Hastings Commons
Dr Jess Steele OBE is Commoner-at-Large at Hastings Commons and has more than thirty years’ experience as a community activist and social entrepreneur. Her work has helped develop community-led approaches to neighbourhood development, workspace, heritage and permanently affordable homes, with ownership and local control at their core.
Grace Harrison
Kitty’s Laundrette
Grace Harrison founded Kitty’s Laundrette in North Liverpool. Kitty’s is a worker-community co-operative combining an affordable, environmentally conscious laundry with a social and cultural community space, using co-operative ownership and inclusive employment to build local relationships and resilience.
Andrew Beattie
Kindred
Andrew Beattie is Assistant Director for Operations and Engagement at Kindred, the Liverpool City Region organisation supporting socially trading organisations. His work sits within an approach to building a kinder, fairer local economy through enterprise, investment and collaboration.
Nathan Hopkins
Woodshed Workshop
Nathan Hopkins is contributing to the Solidarity Economy strand through Woodshed Workshop, with a focus on building stronger local economies and keeping money within communities.
Woodshed Workshop promotes practical, community-led approaches to creating local value, sharing skills and strengthening connections between people and place. Nathan’s session will explore how local economic activity can help circulate wealth within communities, support local livelihoods and prevent money and resources from leaking out of the local economy.
Barbara and Hedley
Durham Energy Council
Barbara and Hedley are contributing on behalf of Durham Energy Council. Their session will bring practical experience into the Taking Back Control strand, connecting local energy questions with community agency, ownership and decision-making. Full names and individual biographies to be confirmed.
Ali Turner
Horden Heat
Ali Turner is involved with Horden Heat, a Coalfield-based initiative exploring community responses to energy and heat. The Assembly contribution will connect practical local work with the wider question of how communities gain greater agency over the systems that shape everyday life.
Tom Johnston
Communities CAN
Tom Johnston is a Director of Communities CAN and formerly served as its Community Led Housing Coordinator. He previously led Glendale Gateway Trust for more than twenty years, developing community enterprise and ownership projects including housing, retail units and community assets in Northumberland.
Dawn Felicia Knox
Star and Shadow
Dawn Felicia Knox is an artist whose practice explores place, memory, hidden histories and the structures through which people create belonging. Her work has included projects connected with Newcastle’s Star and Shadow Cinema and wider artist-led cultural spaces.
SATURDAY 3 OCTOBER
Nick Malyan
Sunderland Culture
Nick Malyan is Chief Executive of Sunderland Culture, where he leads cultural programmes across Sunderland’s venues and communities. He previously served as Chief Executive of Redhills Durham Miners Hall and has worked extensively at the intersection of arts, heritage, place and community participation.
Jacob Polley
Poet / writer
Jacob Polley is an award-winning poet and novelist from the North East of England. His work is known for its attention to place, memory, landscape and language, making his contribution particularly relevant to the Assembly’s exploration of inherited and living culture.
Maeve Cohen
Our North East
Maeve Cohen is contributing through Our North East. Her Assembly session, Revealing Root Causes, sits within the Educate strand and will help participants look beyond symptoms to the systems, ownership, economic forces and decisions that shape outcomes in North East communities.
Sea Change Hartlepool
This session will bring experience from Hartlepool into the Assembly’s discussion about understanding root causes, systems and the conditions needed for communities to build power.
Auburn Langley
Sunderland Lit & Phil
Auburn Langley is contributing through Sunderland Lit & Phil. The session sits within the Educate strand and will bring experience of a local civic institution into the discussion about shared knowledge, learning and the practical capability communities need to act together.
Olly Armstrong
Contributor
Olly Armstrong is contributing the session Difficult Conversations within the Educate strand. The contribution will explore the role of dialogue, understanding and practical capability in helping communities engage with difficult issues and build collective action. Organisation / fuller biography to be confirmed.
Ben Sellers
The Democracy Collaborative
Ben Sellers is associated with The Democracy Collaborative and works on questions of democratic power, community organising and economic democracy. His Assembly contribution focuses on how communities build institutions capable of turning participation into lasting democratic power.
Sara Bryson
Tyne & Wear Citizens / Citizens UK
Sara Bryson is Assistant Director, North at Citizens UK and Lead Organiser with Tyne & Wear Citizens. She has more than twenty-five years’ experience working with children, young people and communities, and has led organising and anti-poverty work across the North East.
Adam Cooper
Threads in the Ground
Adam Cooper is Director of Threads in the Ground, where his work connects climate action, creativity, education and community-led change. He previously worked in the oil industry and later spent a decade in the cultural sector as a senior leader and consultant.
Nia Evans
Ujima Project
Nia Evans is contributing through the Ujima Project. Her session sits within the Capitalise strand and will bring practical experience to the question of how resources, enterprise and investment can be put to work for lasting community benefit. Fuller biography to be confirmed.
Erika Rushton
Kindred
Erika Rushton is Strategy Director at Kindred in Liverpool City Region. She works on community and socially trading economies, supporting approaches to investment and enterprise that retain wealth locally and strengthen community ownership.
Stephen Guy
Durham Miners Association
Stephen Guy is Chair of the Durham Miners Association. A former miner at Woodside and Middridge Drift collieries, he has served the DMA in branch and regional roles for more than three decades and continues to support the Durham Miners’ Gala, former miners and the future of Redhills.
Andrew Forsey OBE
Feeding Britain
Andrew Forsey OBE is National Director of Feeding Britain, a national charity working with local partners to tackle hunger and improve access to affordable, nutritious food. His contribution brings experience of connecting local action into wider networks and shared infrastructure.