Community business case studies
COMMUNITY BUSINESS WORKS
357
We have helped move lots of community projects from idea to inspiration in the last 12 months.
One goal
Strengthen communities through community business.
280,570
local people benefited from the community businesses we support
£3m
in total grants to community businesses
Region
Sheffield-based charity, The Heeley Trust, owns and manages multiple community-owned spaces across Heeley and Meersbrook as well as community bike shop, A Different Gear.
Community anchor organisation in Birmingham, providing over 200 affordable homes for local residents. They transformed derelict land into useable green space and turned the old park keepers cottage into an eco community facility, reducing energy costs by 55%
England's first community-owned, chemical-free farm in Shropshire. Educates on sustainable farming and supports local communities.
Electric car club in County Durham tackling rural isolation and environmental issues
Anchor community organisation tackling climate change and socio-economic issues in a deprived area of Bristol
England's largest community-owned wind turbine powering over 3,000 homes in Lawrence Weston.
Once a derelict pub, repurposed by residents into a thriving youth centre, community hub and library
In 2018, Power to Change joined forces with Bristol and Bath Regional Capital, Big Society Capital, and Bristol City Council to create and co-fund a first-of-its-kind blended fund for Bristol.
Empowering Places was a unique five-year programme designed by Power to Change to explore ways in which ‘locally rooted’ anchor organisations, operating in areas of high deprivation, could be supported to ‘catalyse’ new community businesses. The programme hypothesised that this, in turn, would contribute to an overarching vision of more prosperous places, with more jobs and opportunities for local people.
In 2019, we teamed up with Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and local social economy leaders to form Kindred, an independent CIC providing repayable, interest-free money to STOs.
In November 2020, Kindred developed the Black and Brown-led Social Traders (BlaST) Network. Its mission is to increase social impact and help accelerate change to address inequalities in the Liverpool City Region.
Former working men’s club turned proud community hub.
Bustling arts centre in building that stretches back to 1839.
Despite being located in a rural community with just 4800 people, The Fieldgate Centre, provides a diverse and fundamental service to the local community.
Providing toys and play to the children of north-east London for nearly 50 years.
Media by, and for the local community.
A platform for delivery riders, society, and the environment.
Facilitating creative programmes to infrastructurally support local need.
Supporting community health outcomes and strengthening community cohesion.
Empowering people and enriching lives by providing activities and services to support health and wellbeing.
Providing organic fruit and veg, as well as paint and crafts, to the people of Bradford.
A community business for young people, designed by young people. Revved Up provides employment opportunities alongside engaging activities for local young people.
Ridgehill Enterprises are regenerating the local area for the benefit of the community.
After a devastating fire in 2018, this long-established arts organisation came back stronger than ever to establish the Northern Carnival Centre of Excellence.
“Levelling the playing field” by offering free resource packs for positive thinking, this community business is now trying to place town centre buildings in the hands of Coalville’s community.
A community arts venue putting Bristol on the map and keeping community at its heart.
A collection, regeneration and delivery service for Frome’s food waste.
Blackfen Community Library is a community hub in Sidcup offering valuable services for local children and young people to improve their wellbeing and confidence.
Founded on an ethos of radical inclusivity and responsibility, Kitty's Laundrette enables its young co-operative members to take control of both their and their organisation's work.
Harnessing the power of film to tell hidden stories, Kirklees Local TV is an internet-based TV station that provides a platform for young people to grow their confidence and agency.
Intergenerational and intersectional values are the driving ethos behind LifeAfterHummus, a community benefit society combating food poverty and food waste in central London.
Founded in the 1970s, radical co-operative bookshop, October Books in Southampton has expanded its reach to a new generation of young members and leaders.
Being led by local young people's ideas and experiences is foundational to how Odd Arts uses theatre to transform lives in Moss Side, Manchester, and beyond.
As a space for community connection, The Platform Café in London provides a patient and understanding place for its young staff to grow.
Projekts MCR is a community space in Manchester for young people and their families to skate, learn new skills and socialise.
Empowering young Londoners through renewable energy projects, Repowering London puts all generations and communities at the heart of our energy system.
Furniture reuse organisation, Storeroom2010 offers much-needed training and employment opportunities for local young people on the Isle of Wight.
A Birmingham-based organisation that bridges the gap between hip hop and therapy.
Community-owned pub The Thorold in rural Lincolnshire is acting as an entry point into work for a new generation of young residents.
Founded by a group of young radicals in Hull in the 1980s, Giroscope’s self-help housing is regenerating the neighbourhood with a new generation of young people.
BlueJam Arts is a dynamic hub for intergenerational music and arts in rural Cumbria which puts young people in the lead of its programmes and operations, and their own creative potential.
Accessible, affordable, and inclusive, Bristol Co-operative Gym is founded by millennials, run by its members, and designed to strengthen everyone in the community.
Coexist Community Kitchen offers a vibrant, welcoming space in central Bristol for people of all ages to find dignity and confidence through cooking.
The young women on a mission to establish Lewisham’s first community owned live music venue.
From a living room meet up to plans to take over a five-story building, People Dem Collective are proudly taking up space in Margate.
A strong community standing up to save threatened LGBTQ+ spaces in Tower Hamlets, London.
A brand new community venue in one of the country’s most deprived wards exists as a template for how contemporary music venues can be run while proudly proclaiming: The Future is Birkenhead.
From hosting free rugby camps to thousands of children every year to offering disability teams, this foundation is aiming to serve everyone in its community.
White Rock Neighbourhood Ventures are transforming derelict buildings in Hastings.
Breathing new life into an old market town.
Restoring a Victorian grade II listed ballroom for community use.
The Anglers Rest was saved from closure in 2011, when 300 people from the rural Bamford community pooled their money to buy it. Now, it’s an invaluable hub that offers vital amenities and services.
Villagers in rural West Berkshire raised funds through donations, grants and a community share offer to open a community shop.
An old train station connecting communities once again
A seaside hub bringing great ideas to life
A historic building turned cultural facility drawing visitors to the high street.
Improving health and regenerating a former mining community.
Saving the local high street and supporting local people.
A Turner Prize-winning housing and regeneration project in Liverpool.
Homebaked Community Land Trust is building affordable housing, brick by brick.
A community nursery and garden centre training vulnerable young people.
Local library opened by Mark Twain reopened in community hands
A vibrant and enterprising community pub for villagers with a café, shop, playground and a range of community activities
A railway refurbishment over 40 years in the making.
Supporting local young people to become independent.
A community hub serving one the most diverse communities in England
Neglected bombsite becomes inclusive community farm.
Nurturing the neighbourhood, loaf by loaf.
Restoring a Victorian railway pier for community use.
A community digital media centre giving a platform to Sheffield voices.
Putting the heart back into a divided community.
Investing in community-owned solar panels to tackle energy poverty.
Cuckmere Buses: transporting the local community with its fleet of eight minibuses.
Transforming a grade II listed school house into a community hub for a commuter town.
Pollenize uses the power of community and science to fight against pollinator decline.
Residents of Banister House turned disillusion into the UK's largest community-owned solar energy project on social housing.
Having successfully established a community football club for young people on disused parkland, Huyton Juniors then turned its attention to regenerating the space into a permanent community asset.
In 2014, Wellingborough Council decided it couldn’t afford to keep a day centre for the elderly open so residents, left reeling by its closure, stepped up and took it on.
A new hub in South Norwood will bring together a diverse and vibrant neighbourhood where inequality and a lack of cohesion is threatening to splinter the community.
Once a school caretaker’s bungalow, Hale Community Centre now takes care of a whole community often overlooked in an otherwise prosperous town.
Over the last year, Whitley Bay Big Local has changed how it has done many things. It’s organised itself differently. It’s changed how staff and members communicate.
Chilli Studios wants to get closer to its members, and it is implementing a series of digital innovations to help it do just that.
Like many other organisations, the team from Queen’s Mill in Castleford has been wrestling with the question of how to reach the whole of the community.
Myatt’s Fields Park in south London is one of the smallest parks in the city. But you wouldn't know it from the diversity of activity taking place.
Fordhall Farm has found the last year easier than some other community businesses. Its activities are outdoor, and many have been less affected by lockdown. As a result, people have flocked to enjoy what it has to offer.
Creating a stronger community and stronger local economy through community business.
Making a destination out of an eyesore, with the help of community engagement down the (community-owned) pub.
An organisation evolving to meet the ever changing needs of their community.
Providing opportunities for Hartlepool to do things differently.
Creating a movement in community organising in Wigan.
Real Ideas is many things: social enterprise; catalyst; anchor and enabler, but at its simplest it’s an organisation providing support and space to people in communities with good ideas.
When FC United set up as a supporter-owned football club, they weren’t to know how rewarding their role in the community would come to be.
When a mother’s 13-year-old son was turned away by local football clubs, she decided to take matters into her own hands and set one up herself.
When traditional regeneration initiatives failed to deliver, residents decided to nudge their main street back to life, one building at a time.
Last year, like a lot of community businesses, Upper Norwood Library Trust found itself facing a big problem. It had built all its services around its community hub. Now, suddenly, all those services had to move online.
Making London's South Bank a better place to live, work, visit and study
Providing affordable workspace, enterprise support and training.
Sowing & growing in one of London’s most deprived neighbourhoods
Growing the aspirations of young people in one of the most diverse and disadvantaged places in the country
London’s last working windmill, now its newest education and community space
Supporting women and young adults into arts, culture, education, tech and science
Providing fair, community-owned home care in rural Dartmoor
Building large scale renewable energy systems and using the income raised to fund innovative community projects
Bringing solar farms into community ownership and ploughing a proportion of profits into local community projects
Creating a community space for gardening and wellbeing
A social hub designed to meet the needs of a growing population
A thriving community garden on a disused bowling green
A sports club that is transforming a deprived district of St Helens
A sustainable balanced community that is welcoming and neighbourly.
A Grade I listed church that has been brought back to life with a new cultural centre and café extension
A platform co-operative that brings community together in social care
A food growing hub in the heart of North London promoting education and enterprise
A 100-year-old community owned library launching a network for their peers.
UKs largest salt-water lido serving the community of Penzance and beyond.
A community hub pioneering social prescribing in Gateshead
A homegrown community café tackling poverty through education and training
Transforming a Grade II listed Victorian factory into a community meeting and conference hub
Transforming an Edwardian hospital site to revive a dying rural community
Bringing the less mobile members of the community to a vibrant community centre
Renovating Anstice Memorial Hall, a Victorian working men’s club
A diverse community café and LGBT+ centre uniting residents in an inclusive space
A community minibus service increasing employability and alleviating poverty
A community orchard in Newquay supporting mental health and environmental education
Making a Victorian garden cemetery fit for the future
A community bookshop preserving access to literature for everyone
A community-owned cooperative uniquely combining skateboarding with community development
A community-driven visual arts hub, promoting well-being and enterprise
A community café, shop and exhibition space in Lewisham
Breathing new life into an iconic local heritage asset
Recycling unwanted & unused bikes to benefit marginalised groups in Bristol
A community energy project tackling fuel poverty in Buckinghamshire
A community-led garden centre improving wellbeing and social inclusion
Putting council community centres in Leeds into community hands
Training, education and employment for young people in Tower Hamlets
Harnessing underused school facilities to catalyse community activity
Dynamic social hub made possible by a dedicated and diverse community.
People-powered regeneration to deliver genuinely affordable homes
A community business that develops, funds, builds, owns and operates renewable energy schemes in the Sheffield City region.
Stocksbridge Leisure Centre, closed by the council in 2013, is now running at a surplus by and for the community.
A people powered revolution for genuinely affordable homes in Leeds.
Self-building a community cinema, music and arts hub in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Northumberland Seafood is a community lobster hatchery and seafood centre sustaining fishing heritage and trade in Amble, Northumberland.
Beating the traffic with a 365 day community boat service.
The Bookery: fostering community pride and opportunities through reading and literacy.
The first community owned pub on an estate
Building opportunities for young people and housing for vulnerable adults.
A community business supporting disabled adults into employment.
Upgrading the first community-owned health and wellbeing centre in Leeds.
Providing therapeutic services and cultivating wellbeing in Wigan