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Coming together. Speaking truth. Building our future.
Across Brixton, Black families are feeling the weight of the cost-of-living crisis in ways that go far beyond rising food bills or heating costs. For many, this moment is not a new emergency— it is the sharpest point of a struggle that has been lived for generations. Work that does not pay enough, insecure housing, poorer health, shrinking services, and a long history of being unheard or overlooked by institutions have shaped daily life for decades.
Yet within our communities, strength has always lived alongside struggle. The skills, creativity, cultural pride, faith, and networks of care that have sustained Black people in Brixton for years are still here. They are powerful — and they are often underused.
Brixton’s Black People’s Assembly is an invitation to come together in this moment.
Not to be consulted. Not to be spoken at. But to speak with each other, listen deeply, organise, and imagine what’s possible when we act collectively.
What the Assembly Is
It’s a community-led gathering where Black residents, organisers, creatives, faith leaders, frontline workers, local groups and partners come together to:
• Share honestly how this crisis is really affecting our lives.
• Build understanding across different experiences and roles.
• Explore what we can do for ourselves — and what we need to demand from institutions.
• Set priorities and take practical steps forward, together.
This won’t be a typical meeting. Think instead of a village-style space — bustling, warm, filled with conversation, culture and connection.
There will be stalls offering real, immediate support: food access, benefits advice, housing help, wellbeing support and more. There will be food, art, music, poetry — the things that bring us joy and remind us who we are. And at the heart of the day, guided discussions where we shape what comes next.
What We Will Ask Together
We will hold a simple but powerful question at the centre:
What kind of borough do we want to live in?
Not as a slogan: but as something real, shaped by our lived experience.
We will explore:
• What dignity, safety and security look like for Black people here.
• How power should be shared between communities, organisations and the council.
• What we need to build for ourselves — and what must change structurally.
Collective Care, Mutual Aid and Shared Power
We know public funding is shrinking. Institutions often move slowly. This is why the Assembly will look honestly at mutual aid: how we support each other sustainably, how we prevent burnout, how faith groups, Black businesses, cultural spaces and community networks can work together in new ways.
Mutual aid isn’t charity.
It is power — shared and rooted in our traditions of solidarity.
A Challenge for All of Us
The Assembly will issue three collective challenges:
To the Council
Use resources better, confront racial inequality, and create a clear, accountable race-equality strategy.
To the Voluntary Sector
Be more coordinated, accessible and trusted. Work with Black communities as partners, not clients.
To Ourselves, the Community
Organise, support one another, rebuild mutual aid — and shape the future rather than simply survive the present.
A Beginning, Not an End
This Assembly is the first step. What emerges will shape future meetings, working groups, local assemblies and long-term community organising.
We are building a Black-led model of people-powered democracy — one that can live and grow beyond Brixton.
The date and venue:
Monday 16th February: Brixton Advocacy Academy
Address: The Liberation Centre, 2 Beehive Pl, London SW9 7QR
Event time slot: 12:30pm – 4:00pm
Reserve your spot here
Disclaimer: Throughout this work, “Black” refers broadly to Black and racialised communities whose experiences of inequality shape the purpose of this Assembly.
