In the face of rising insecurity, displacement, and violence in Nigeria, PSJ UK is scaling up one of our most impactful grassroots initiatives — the PSJUK Grassroots Coordinators Network (GCN).

This growing network is the heartbeat of our work on the ground, operating in some of the most affected and hard-to-reach regions in the country. It’s our way of ensuring that no community is left behind, and that we’re building lasting peace not just from the top down, but from the ground up.

How It Works: A Two-Tier Structure

Our GCN model includes State Coordinators and Local Government Area Coordinators working in close partnership.

• State Coordinators serve as regional leads. They help us track and coordinate everything happening across their respective states — from liaising with communities and local area coordinators to leading key engagements and ensuring support reaches the areas where it’s needed most.

• Local Govt. Area Coordinators are the eyes, ears, and hands of PSJ UK on the ground. Often trusted community leaders, pastors, youth leaders or civic actors, these individuals provide:

  • Real-time security updates on attacks, displacement, or brewing tensions

  • Direct support to victims, including displaced families and orphaned children

  • Community resilience building, helping locals rebuild trust, safety, and shared hope

Many of these individuals have already been doing the work informally — risking their lives to care for their neighbours, document injustices, and stand in the gap. Our job is to strengthen their hands.

Why It Matters

Peacebuilding doesn’t happen by accident. It takes presence, consistency, and trust. And you can’t build that kind of trust by parachuting into a community only when crisis strikes.

Our Local Area Coordinators are deeply rooted. They know the terrain, the languages, the local dynamics.

With your support, we are:

• Equipping LACs with mobile phones, data, and stipends so they can report threats in real time

• Training coordinators in trauma support, advocacy, and basic safeguarding

• Developing early warning and response systems to alert authorities and humanitarian responders before violence spirals out of control

• Creating pathways for displaced and traumatised families to access long-term care and dignity

What’s Next

This network is already active in some of the conflict-ridden states, with plans to expand to full coverage in 2025 and 2026. As insecurity spreads and humanitarian needs grow, so does the urgency of building up this grassroots infrastructure.

Our dream is to see a trained, trusted coordinator in every hotspot community — someone who can be a voice for the voiceless, a bridge between victims and justice, and a signal of hope that help is on the way.

How You Can Support

If you're reading this and wondering how to help — this is it.

We need a monthly fund pot of £1000 to sustain this network.

Your support can help us:

• Train more coordinators in high-risk areas

• Provide small monthly stipends where required so personnel can carry out their work with dignity

• Cover expenses like transport costs, data usage, stationery etc

• Ensure rapid, verified updates from crisis zones to inform our advocacy and humanitarian response

• Offer follow-up support to the most vulnerable — from food and clothing to trauma care and relocation

This is a frontline that isn’t in the news every day, but it's where peace begins.

Join us in standing with Nigeria’s unseen heroes. Let’s build peace from the grassroots up.