Blog
#CheersTo the community pub!
From Monday 21st October – Friday 1st November, Power to Change will be hosting a community pub craw...
Putting community business in the spotlight for party conference season
It has been a busy party conference season at Power To Change. Our CEO, Vidhya Alakeson, Ailbhe McNa...
Working with local government - a guide for community businesses
A new guide and webinar, designed to help community businesses understand and work with local govern...
Cheers to the success of the More than a Pub programme!
In Communities Week it’s nice to celebrate success stories, and there’s much to give us cheer in a n...
Communities Week 2019 - celebrating the people making their communities better
Community business is at the heart of local change and this Communities Week, Power to Change are sh...
Communities taking the lead in health through space, time, power and a good brew
What it takes for communities to be in the lead of their own health
Community-led markets can make community-led high streets
As high streets continue to struggle, we need to look at alternative ways to ensure they return to b...
By deeds and their results: promising government approach to communities
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has released a new framework that sets ho...
Sustainable Development and Social Business in Jamaica
Yvonne Field, Founder and Director of the Ubele Initiative, recently shared her learnings at the Jam...
A Better Stronger Towns Fund
A IPPR North/Power to Change long blog by Vidhya Alakeson and Jack Hunter
The cycle of the empowering leader
Discover BUD's steps in the cycle to become an empowering leader
2019 Community Business Weekend flourishes
The fourth edition of Community Business Weekend took place this month from 16-19 May.
Work at our level, don’t ask us to work at yours
Giles Piercy, who is part of Power to Change’s Community of Practice looking at health and social ca...
Open to all: Research to benefit community businesses
Suzanne Perry, Power to Change Research Officer and Hanan Farah, CharityWorks Taster Associate
Does your community business need a boost?
As Community Business Weekend approaches (16-19 May), Alice Wharton from Co-operatives UK reflects o...
Creating a more inclusive economy involves joining up economic and social policy
Inspired by last week's event which launched the recent report published by Power to Change by the H...
Power up North West
Guest blogger Nina Edge, an artist and campaigner from Liverpool 8 reflects on the Power to Change g...
Valentines Day with social value
Some of the best romantic gifts and Valentine’s Day activities community businesses have to offer
How do community businesses tackle rural isolation?
Community businesses met up to discuss a challenge they face every day
Social Prescribing - two good and two bad
Community business leader Bill Graham explores various views on social prescribing
Join the social radicals in Bradford
Bradford and Power to Change are celebrating their first TEDx together this week on 16th of January....
A peek into the Booster Programme Panel
Co-operatives' Booster Programme Manager, Alice Wharton, explains the methodology behind looking thr...
A community-led vision for our high streets
What role can community business play in reimagining the high street? Vidhya Alakeson explores
The Community Business Market in 2018 - top five things you need to know
The top five learnings from our recent state of the community business market report!
The community business movement: Taking on Liverpool's high streets brick by brick
The community business movement in Liverpool is taking root, supporting positive change all over the...
Top tips for community cafes
Read some top tips on setting up a successful community cafe from a successful community cafe in Bri...
M&S Community Business Challenge Liverpool film
Want to know more about the M&S Community Business Challenge? Watch this film to get insights from t...
An alternative future in Health and Social Care
Taking responsibility for how we can do things differently in health and social care
A vision for a people powered Northern Powerhouse
Some conclusions on the recent People's Powerhouse Conference in Bradford
M&S on the Community Business Challenge, Liverpool
Pete Swallow, Head of Merseyside, Isle of Man and North Wales Region of M&S discusses how the import...
Community as remedy: How B Inspired tackles health and social care
B Inspired in Leicester is a community business working to change Braunstone in Leicester for the be...
Catalyst for Change by Anya Hobbs
Anya Hobbs from Marsh Farm Futures
Top tips for High Streets
Hannah Sloggett's top tips to breathe new life into the high street
A postcard from Marsh Farm by Anya Hobbs
Some thoughts from Anya Hobbs on the potential of Marsh Farm Futures in improving the quality of lif...
7 reasons why you should attend Locality Convention ‘18
Here's why you should head to Bristol next week!
Budget brings welcome news for saving our high streets: communities need to be in the driving seat
Vidhya Alakeson on what the Budget announcements mean for saving our high streets
‘Bigging Up’ our local areas – how storytelling can create change
Anne Short from B Inspired Leicester discusses the second Power to Change grantee event
Top Tips for Community Shares
Charlotte Hollins from Fordhall Community Land Initiative shares her three top tips for launching a ...
Can our main political parties get behind community businesses?
Our CEO, Vidhya Alakeson asks the question this party conference season
‘This is our building and we want it to work for us!’ - a first-hand account of community asset transfer
Angie Wright shares with us her experience of taking the Braunstone Grove into community hands.
Why investors should choose community-led housing
Ahead of her talk at the FT's Investment for Good conference, Vidhya Alakeson sets out the case for ...
Three steps to work more closely with communities
Our CEO, Vidhya Alakeson highlights how we can work closer with communities this Communities Week
The Community Business Fix: Community pub special
Why we've launched a podcast
Community-led social care: A long term solution
What role can community business play in delivering sustainable social care?
Power Up Bristol: Talkin' Power, Perception & Professionalism
A review of the Power Up! grantee event for community businesses.
The Civil Society Strategy – what will it mean for you?
What the Civil Society Strategy will mean for community businesses.
Make the case for community business in the rural economy
Submit your evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on the rural economy!
Launching the first BME community business toolkit
A new toolkit to meet the challenges of BME-led community organisations.
Community-led Housing: the beginning of a movement
The story of a quiet revolution in housing taking place in the unexpected town of Keswick.
The case for community renewables
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has announced it intends to abolish subs...
Ensuring there's a future for communities
Our Research Officer, Suzanne, attended the launch of Local Trust's latest research
Death of the high street?
Why community businesses have a role to play in keeping high streets alive
Why does Power to Change support community pubs?
Our Director of Programmes explains why Power to Change is backing community-run pubs.
Why #PrideMatters to community business
Happy Pride from everyone at Power to Change!
Peer Power – lessons from a peer networking project
Jodie Giles from community energy business Regen explains her four lessons from peer networking
Power to Change invested £23 million in community businesses in 2017
Today we are publishing our 2017 annual report.
Community Business Weekend 2018 attracts over 17,000 visitors
With 225 events held, a massive 55% increase from last year, more people are finding out how they ca...
Raise a Glass to Community Pubs
Raise a glass and say #CheersToBeer this Beer Day at your local community pub!
Tips for young community businesses
Useful dos and don’ts for community businesses who are starting out.
A vision for the future of community business – what you said
A consortium of organisations has been working with community businesses to define a positive, inspi...
Community business: the future of the Church of England?
There is money to be made from all that heritage, reflects our Director of Communications and Partne...
How community-led health can go mainstream
How can we make people-powered health the mainstream? Vidhya Alakeson explores...
Learning to let go – the case for community control
A podcast exploring some of the ways local people have taken local power by running community busine...
Save lives, save money, save time and get real...
The benefits of communities taking responsibility for their health and wellbeing
How to change power in health?
How can we change power dynamics in the health sector? Halima Khan explores...
LALA Land?
Do community businesses need a stronger relationship with councils?
What is Community Business Weekend and how can I take part?
Join 500 community businesses in England to celebrate community business
Gorgeous Goulash gets GCDA on the menu
Delicious meals with a social justice purpose
Community businesses can step in where Carillion fears to tread
Human interaction and emotion will be key to moving beyond a corporate capitalism.
Are you a community business leader?
Why people get involved with community businesses
What are the differences between community businesses in England, the Netherlands and Sweden?
A comparative study of community businesses
Why is Liverpool the location of the week?
Community-led housing in the spotlight
Say it with pies, pier rum, oysters or even a pub!
Valentine’s gifts with heart
Why communities matter to the future of social care
Vidhya Alakeson looks at the role of communities in creating social infrastructure for a stronger #s...
Now we are three
On the occasion of their third birthday, Vidhya Alakeson reflects on the three things she has been m...
How councils could support more intergenerational households through community-led housing
Community-led housing can bring so many benefits
Above all, breathe.
Tips learnt from the Wavelength Conference which all community business leaders should aim to rememb...
What do you buy a community activist or social entrepreneur for Christmas?
The history of community business, of course.
A community energy hat-trick
Community energy groups cleaned up at the Green Energy Awards 2017.
Hope for Housing
Highlights from the first ever community-led housing conference
The birth of the tiny house movement in Bristol
More and more people are opting for tiny homes with lower-running costs, lower ecological footprint ...
Over 30 years of community-led housing in Hull
Local people building their own homes and reinvesting profits into local training and employment.
Budget 2017: Getting the economy moving means shifting power to local neighbourhoods
Why we need Localism to get the economy moving
12 questions to explore community accountability
What questions should we be asking about community accountability?
How SITR could cause more of a stir
Ged Devlin reflects on the SITR stats
Land and data for the common good
How can civic trusts help to reform data governance, 800 years after the Charter of the Forest.
'The best networks are like family': The value of community business networks
Bill Graham shares why he values local, city-wide and national community business networks.
Travel through time at Locality Convention ‘17 with the launch of ‘A History of Community Business’
For the third year in a row, Power to Change are sponsoring the Locality Convention
What is benchmarking... and why should we care?
We benchmark all the time. It is just that we tend not to call it that.
What is a weekend?
Last weekend saw 200+ community business opened their doors for #CBwkd17
Warm words and concrete policy
Party conference season is a good time to take the temperature of what different parties are thinkin...
How to support work/life balance for part-time workers
Part-time workers have different needs. It's important for organisations to support them.
'Tooling up' to address the housing crisis
What do communities need if they are to build their own homes?
Barnstorms – what community businesses can learn from political campaigning
What do the Labour party, Bernie Sanders and The Bristol Cable, a community-owned newspaper, have in...
Top 5 tips for window art: Why all community businesses should be doing it
Why doodling on your windows is a trick not to miss for community businesses
How funding rejection can motivate success
Bill Graham reflects on his own successful and unsuccessful moments as the leader of a community bus...
9 tips to put your community business on the map
9 tips, gleaned from community businesses themselves, to get yourself on the map.
Opening up our data
Why Power to Change is opening up its grants data
'More importantly we were smiling’: how volunteering at my local community business supported me as a trans-woman
Victoria shares her experience coming out and the support on offer at her local community business
Known knowns in social investment
We need better data on social investment – and we need to make better use of what we have.
After the NHS – a CHS?
A new social care system is a prize worth fighting for
Making a reality of the 'shared society'
Is Theresa May prepared to give away power?
Community housing: More than a stair-cleaning rota
People want good homes in the areas they love. Communities can lead the way.
Night thoughts on members
We want to be able to set out the principles for meaningful involvement of members.
What is up for grabs at the General Election?
Politicians are in election mode. We must tell them what we care about
3 tips for community decision making
Tips and tools from social movement makers at Marmalade '17
Flaunting your assets
Public assets are on the frontline when we decide what we want our communities to look like
Five ways you can change where you live for the better
How to join people all over the country who are stepping up to help their communities
Nuns, courtesans and the funding of community business
Power to Change explores community shares and the long history of social lending
After the budget: What next for our towns and neighbourhoods?
It is time for the government to change its role in local communities
Why shared society is exactly what we need
More and more it is up to community businesses and voluntary organisations to deliver social change...
Meaning business – Power to Change turns two
Community businesses give back control to local people
Alternative routes to improving mental health
How community business supports mental wellbeing
