FINDING YOUR PLACE IN XR
- The Foundation Programme is a Great Place to Start
- Groups, Teams and Roles
- Financial and Legal Services
- Digital and IT Based Roles
- Direct Support For Rebels
- Sustaining and Growing the Movement
- Making Connections - Local, Regional, National and International
- Ongoing and Specific Rebellions
The Foundation Programme is a Great Place to Start
Xr's Foundation Programme offers an excellent grounding for anyone wishing to become more active within the Movement and we have received positive feedback from our students:-
“Very informative and very welcoming”
“I was inspired and motivated by this course”
“I found the course very useful as a grounding to XR ( I wish I had done it earlier, I would have been better prepared for some actions) and to help me find where I could contribute in the working groups.”
“having now started to engage with SOS (Self-Organsing System team), I see that a lot of the training I did has put me in a very good position to understand most of what's going on in meetings”.
The Foundation Programme provides a solid understanding of our work and is useful for anyone simply looking to find out more about XR. It also provides support, personal connections and all the tools you need for a flying start if you are looking to contribute to a local group or move straight into a role with one of our amazing teams anywhere across the movement.
We're working to make XR UK a diverse and inclusive space and we welcome applications from everyone. You can being your studies at any time, choose which topics to study and take as long as you need to finish.
To apply, click here
If you have any questions, please email the Foundation Programme team at xrfoundationprogramme@protonmail.com.
Groups, Teams and Roles
An Overview On Finding Your Ideal Role
Once you’ve completed the Foundation Programme, we hope you will be keen to find a role. We encourage you to join a Local Group first, if possible, to see how we work locally.
You can find your nearest Local Group and contact details on this map
Local groups are free to do what they want as long as they follow our Principles and Values, but we encourage them to follow XR's strategy and to support actions using whatever creative ideas they can.
You may want a ‘behind the scenes’ role with a regional, national or UK team. It’s fine to have more than one role in order to experience different aspects of XR. It’s also ok to leave a role if you find you no longer have capacity, or you would prefer to move to a different role, but please give your team a little notice.
To understand more about how a team should operate, read Healthy Teams
To find all the current vacancies within XR, visit our Volunteer Website
Roles are generally for regional, national or XR UK teams, each with a specific purpose, and this will be described by the team's mandate. If you successfully apply for a role, the team's Integrator will introduce you to the team at their meetings and work with you to agree your induction and training plan. Teams usually hold 1 or 2 Zoom meetings a week at a specific day and time.
Roles advertised on the Volunteer Website can be filtered by 'Role Type' from home (most roles) or in-person (e.g. Production & World Build Team).
You may be unsure what a role involves and the Rebel Pathway team is here to guide you and suggest roles that may suit you. We will help you apply, check that teams are responding to your applications and ask you to feed back with how you get on. We welcome feedback on your experiences as you become integrated. Also, if there's a team that would really suit your skills but isn't currently advertising a role, please let us know. You can contact the Rebel Pathway team here on MatterMost or by emailing integration@rebellion.earth.
Roles may be available in a wide range of groups and circles. Most of these have been grouped on separate pages. See also the XR UK Organism here .
UK Rebel Hive This is the broadest circle and represents rebels within and between the nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the regions in England. The Hive exists to grow and empower XR UK through decentralisation. Most members are external co-ordinators from the regions, nations and immediate sub circles, so UK Rebel Hive may offer only admin roles.
Generic roles Many teams have important administrative or active roles to be filled such as :
Integrator : for recruitment and training of new rebels, a role that itself needs some training and a little knowledge of the team. Find more info here
Secretary : this role requires reasonable keyboard skills and very good listenin skills. The secretary
- arranges meetings and take minutes,
- deals with day to day running of the team,
- ensures that Action p:oints are clesalry communciated to the team
- might act as facilitator if no-one has filled that role (but it is not expected
Facilitator : this role requires considerable training as XR meetings run in a specific way. The facilitator ensures that
- meetings run smoothly according to the group agreement
- every voice is heard
- the Agenda is covered as well as possible
- the meeting does not run over time
Budget holder : a good understanding of figures and banking is required, or a willingness to train. The budget holder
- understands what budget is available to a team and what it must be spent on,
- approves expense claims from receipts for goods and services
- approves VLE (volunteer living expenses).
Tech admin : sets up new group members and updates existing group info on the Hub and Mattermost. This role needs training and some experience in using the Hub and Mattermost. Keeping the group's Hub information up to date is crucial as this is the movement's telephone directory.
Financial and Legal Services
Fundraising
XR operates almost entirely on contibutions from individuals. We never accept corporte sponsorship. Raising enough money for the rebellion to function, to amplify our wider messaging, deepen our relationship with supporters and create powerful content to serve the whole movement is the most crucial aspect of our work. Without it, XR would not exist!
Financial Services
Accounting, bookkeeping; Managing and monitoring expense claims, Volunteer Living Expenses (VLE) claims; Strategic finance, supporting budget preparation, supporting budget holders, reviewing XR's financial and tax status.
Integrated Budget Group (IBG)
This group distributes income raised for XRUK in line with the movement’s strategy. This means responding to requests for a movement budget and to fund rebellions.
A movement budget comprises regular costs such as VLE, rent, software licences, tax, accountancy etc. A budget holder for a rebellion or specific action can ask for funding, which is typically for equipment, travel, accommodation and subsistence. For more info visit IBG.
The challenge is there is never enough money to go round and IBG has to see how a request aligns with our strategy by supporting one or more of these criteria
-fundraising
-mobilisation (growing the movement)
-providing critical funcionality (VLE to support NVDA, software licences, warehouse rent, rebellion equipment)
engaging with cultural influencers (VIPs, celebrities, public figures)
NVDA.
Arrestee and Legal Support (ALS)
Certain roles may be for trained legal professionals, others for rebels who will be given all necessary training to provide support:
briefing rebels who may be arrested
observing at actions
supporting rebels who are arrested through legal advice and / or emotional support
providing legal advice to any group before they consider an action, event or campaign
Digital and IT Based Roles
Digital (UK Tech) Our computer services and technical team support and develop the following:-
our websites
email campaigns and newsletters using the Action Network application
messaging systems such as MatterMost and social media
the Hub, which holds data about XR UK groups and the roles held in them
the Cloud where each group holds its documents
GDPR and Security
platforms and networks where these services run
Digital is responsible only for the platforms holding these applications and ensuring they are available and free of bugs. It also provides help and training on how to use the applications. Other circles are responsible for the content, but Digital welcomes requests for advice on best practice.
Messaging and Media Writing for newsletters, social media, film, Rebel Radio, leaflets, posters; reading or reviewing externa media and making contact with the press/other media.
Direct Support For Rebels
Local Group Support
This circle supports XR groups across the UK, brought together by community, location or other affinity and includes teams such as
Local Group Development
3.5 Campaign
Rebel Toolkit
Gardeners - helping goups at the local/regional level, to recruit and grow
(that leaves Reactive, Disabled Rebels Network, Connecting Communities )
Pathways
This circle helps to bring people into the movement ... and keep them! It includes teams like
Talks & Training
Rebellion Academy
Rebel Ringers
Relationships Facilitates and nurtures our relationships with movements outside of XR whose objectives overlap with ours, in order to increase collective pressure on the UK Government to meet XR’s Three Demands. These movements must be Nonviolent and may not use Direct Action.
Feedback and Learning Seeks feedback from rebels and groups to learn and improve, by running, analysing and publishing surveys.
Sustaining and Growing the Movement
Regenerative Cultures This is about creating a self-perpetuating system grown through community, ferocious love and genuine courage which sustains the understanding, exploration, development, training and sharing of regenerative practices.
UK Justice Steering Group (JSG) This group strives to bring in and amplify the unheard and silenced voices of historically and currently marginalised groups and to advocate that the movement becomes, and remains, radically diverse, equal and accessible for all through transformative and restorative justice.
Self Organising Systems (SOS)
Provides governance by supporting teams on how to be self-organising, decentralised and non-hierarchical, by reference to the XR UK constitution and its principles of holacracy. You don't need to read the constitution thoroughly but do use it as a reference point.
SOS will help a group/team/circle to write their mandate, which describes their purpose and accountabilities and by which they should abide. Roles within a group can also have a mandate, which then becomes a role description and some types of role must have one. SOS can also be asked to conduct a "health check" on a group and then give advice. There are many types of groups and they need to decide which one is most appropriate. Here are the types of groups and how they work (Link to be added).
Guardianship and Visioning (G&V) This team helps rebels and groups to follow the XR UK vision, Principles & Values when acting on behalf of XRUK or taking part in any of its actions.
Making Connections - Local, Regional, National and International
Nations and Regions
Roles may be for Scotland, Cymru Wales and Northern Ireland or for one of the UK regions - North East and Cumbria, North, Midlands, East of England, South West, South East, Bristol or London. You can find these roles quickly on the Volunteer Website by using the filter UK Region/Nation.
The role of Gardeners is to support the growth of new groups.
Global Support This is a worldwide network of rebels who help XR chapters grow and this is their website Extinction Rebellion Global
International Solidarity Network (ISN) Its purpose is to foster mutually respectful, co-operative and beneficial connections with people from existing grassroots communities of resistance on the front lines of the climate & ecological crises in both the Global South & Global North who are working on environmental justice.
Ongoing and Specific Rebellions
Money Rebellion This exposes the economic systems that help to destroy life on earth and offer a path back to a regenerative economy. Its targets are organisations who support, develop or fund fossil fuels or other activities which damage the environment such as deforestation, flooding and pollution.
Digital Rebellion
This takes action using social media, emailing or phoning campaigns to target specific organisations, eg fossil fuel companies or the financial institutions that finance fossil fuel extraction and use.
Political Lobbying Monitoring the activities of MPs, political parties, unions and Local Authorities, monitoring procedures and bills in Parliament.
Action and outreach campaign groups with an action strategy can generally use some extra hands e.g. Deepwater. These are promoted on Mattermost's Rebellion Broadcast channel and other social media.
Action planning, creative, production or wellbeing These groups plan and support specific actions and rebellions which need UK-wide involvement. Normally you would have some experience already through your local group since you will be in a position of trust. In some cases, your actual presence would be required on the spot eg to help build stages for an action, or act as a steward or provide wellbeing on a march.