Tyne & Wear Citizens Founded in December 2015.

Following a listening campaign engaging with 1000s of people in face to face conversations across Tyne & Wear, a Launch Assembly took place in November 2017, with a radical plan for action.

Tyne & Wear Citizens members voted to focus action in three key areas: Poverty, Mental Health & Safer Cities.

We are currently taking action in those areas with four action teams and have so far:

• Trebled number of Living Wage Employers in region from 30 to over 90.
• Negotiated four schools to re-model and operate a Fair Change System, bringing over £60, 000 back to young people in receipt of Free School Meals.
• Took public action to ‘Reclaim The Metro’ and won a Hate Crime Charter on Public Transport – jointly signed by Nexus, Arriva, Stagecoach & Go-North East. The charter includes a commitment to train transport staff in Hate Crime as well as a commitment to build confidence amongst communities to challenge and report hate crime.
• Took action against hatred forming a Human Chain around Newcastle Central Mosque.
• Launched a Citizens Commission on Mental Health which has involved 700 people; including holding three public hearings in Sunderland, Durham and Newcastle; Launched the report Living Well: Mental Wellbeing and Public Life in the North East; Held a Mental Health Assembly with 450 people. You can read about the committments we won here.

Our Tyne and Wear Citizens Organiser is Sara Bryson. Contact her at sara.bryson@citizensuk.org