Stronger communities
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- Strengthening Communities
We invest in local spaces that bring people together, helping community organisations grow their incomes so they can improve these spaces longer-term. We also help charities and social enterprises use technology to serve their communities in new ways.
Strengthening communities through digital
Our partners
11th Folkestone Scouts
Our funding is supporting improvements to the scout hall so they can offer better facilities to young people and more opportunities for the community to use and enjoy the building.
2Faced Dance Company Limited
Will hold conversations and consultation events with local experts to seek a solution to the lack of artistic and creative spaces within their community.
3VA
Will hold public conversations through events and social media to capture the local community’s views and ideas for an under-utilised park. They will support local people to identify solutions, test ideas, and build a longer-term business case.
Acumen Community Buildings
Plan to consult more than 100 people through workshops and engagement days to discuss how best to use the Old Rectory and Rectory Park, in Houghton-le-Spring, as community spaces.
African Health Policy Network
Fortnightly sessions in community hubs will engage BAME groups to decide how to best use local spaces to bring together vulnerable members of the community.
Age UK East London
Will host a series of workshops within the local community hub to determine what local residents and young people would like to see in their area. The team will then link up with experts to help put this into practice.
Amber Valley CVS
Community engagement events and activities will explore ideas for the use of an outdoor space. A local fete will ascertain the community’s hopes and expectations of the group.
Arts at The Mill CIC
Will run community consultations to identify activity for four under-used spaces in Wigan, ensuring local people can access arts and heritage.
Ballymacash Sports Academy
Our funding is supporting the first community-run sports academy in Northern Ireland to provide sporting and community facilities that give people opportunities to socialise and get active.
Bangladeshi Women’s Association Limited
Holding a series of workshops to explore what activities and resources are available in the local community. This will help to identify how best two spaces can bring residents together.
Barnet Community Projects
Running engagement and consultation with residents to shape plans for the future of the group’s community centre, which is being relocated.
Beavers Arts Ltd
Will bring communities and organisations together via discussion groups and community meals. They will establish an advisory group that will help tailor the needs of local people.
Bestwood Village Parish Council School Heritage Working
A campaign will help members of the community to establish new connections and explore how best to repurpose a local school as a multifunctional hub of community activity.
Bickershaw Village Community Club
Plans to carry out activities and events to consult local people on making better use of the space in the community club.
Birmingham Settlement
Uses workshops and activities to engage local people and develop an action plan that will improve the organisation’s community and youth centre.
Blackburn with Darwen Healthy Living
Plans to consult a group of residents and stakeholders to produce a set of recommendations to make better use of spaces within their community.
Bromley by Bow Centre
Our grant provides infrastructure support to develop sustainability across the centre’s community spaces as part of their timebanking and skill-swap projects.
Campire Enterprise
Offers forest school and outdoor play training to parents, young people and volunteers to raise sustainable income for its green community space.
Centre4
Local anchor organisation that runs a mixed-use community hub on a housing estate. We are supporting the development of a new ‘first floor’ space to help incubate community businesses and facilitate skills sharing.
Charles Burrell Centre
A community hub based in a former school building will use its Space to Connect grant to increase activities and use of its community cafe.
Cheshire, Halton and Warrington Race and Equality Centre
Our grant will improve facilities at the centre, create a booking system, and fund staff at a multicultural hub.
Chichester Community Development Trust
Community consultation and feedback surveys will help determine how a local building could be used to meet the needs of the community.
Coeden Fach CIC
Bringing an unused green space to life and opening it up to the local community. Growing native trees and planting an orchard, wild flowers and forest and herb gardens with help from local volunteers.
Colebridge Trust
A mapping exercise will identify under-used communal spaces. The community will then be engaged to decide how best to use these spaces.
Creative Sustainability CIC
Facilitated workshops will help the group develop recommendations for seven identified local hubs, and propose solutions on best practice to establish community-led spaces.
Cumbria Action for Sustainability
Will carry out workshops, events and training of local people to facilitate conversations on how spaces could be better used to address the needs of the community.
Easton and Lawrence Hill Neighbourhood Management
Creative engagement methods will be used to map the needs of local, diverse communities in Bristol. This will increase the benefit provided by two much-loved community spaces, ensuring they are sustainable for future generations.
Energise Sussex Coast
Will map potential community spaces in their local area and hold meetings with stakeholders to explore possible ventures. They will use community surveys, consultations and workshops to develop a business case for a Green Hub.
Exeter Community Centre Trust Ltd
Grant helps to refurbish and revamp the top floor of their community centre.
Fir Tree Community Association
Carrying out ecological and topographical surveys and completing groundworks to develop a nature-based community space and adventure playground for local people.
FISCUS North Limited
Grant will enable a mapping exercise of local needs and priorities, support staff costs, and explore plans for a health and well-being space in a shipping container.
Forest Voluntary Action Forum
The group will research challenges faced by the local community and identify under-used spaces to meet these needs. They will work with stakeholders to develop strategic plans and turn their research into reality.
Friends of Derby Arboretum
Up to 24 weekly workshops will help local people decide what they would like to see happen to several buildings that would make ideal community spaces.
Friends of KGV Prescot (Browns Field) & Carr Lane Woods
Plans to improve facilities and increase community activity in their local park, aiming to gain Green Flag status. The award will enable the group to run an effective and inclusive community consultation on what local people would like to see in an improvement plan.
Friends of Stretford Public Hall
Runs Stretford Public Hall as a community facility offering activities and a co-working space for local social enterprises. Our funding supports salary costs of two employees who work to boost financial sustainability, community engagement and volunteering.
Full Circle
Engaging 10 local schools to discuss ways to open up school spaces for the benefit of the wider community.
Future Regeneration of Grangetown (FROG)
A neighbourhood development organisation. We are supporting start-up costs to bring a recently-refurbished former social club back to life as a mixed-use community facility.
Future Wolverton
We helped Future Wolverton bring the Old School back to life as a community facility. Our funding supported the building of a small guest house and cafe that will provide a sustainable income. A partnership with a neighbouring SEN school provides work experience to students.
Garage Trust
Our grant supports weekly art classes in a community building dedicated to improving people’s lives through art.
Gascoyne & Morningside Youth Clubs Ltd
Aims to turn three under-used community centres into vibrant community hubs for local people. Conversations, consultations and planning exercises will ensure the spaces work for all.
Global Gardens Project
Developing a range of accessible community courses in sustainable skills that can raise income for their allotment-based growing project.
Granby 4 Streets
A community-led housing organisation that has been working to regenerate its neighbourhood into a vibrant, thriving community. We are supporting the build costs of the Winter Gardens and Four Corners development, a mixed-use space for socialising, community retail and flats.
Green Squirrel
Turning a derelict site into an urban garden where people can learn to grow food and socialise. Also setting up shipping container studio space for rent by social enterprises.
Groundwork Oldham & Rochdale
Interactive and inclusive events will help collect views on the best use of a local nature reserve. The group will use home visits to reach people who cannot attend community events.
Halifax Opportunities Trust
Will carry out consultation events and produce a plan to redevelop a local centre that is currently dilapidated. Conversations will feed into architectural feasibility and design work.
Heeley Trust
Heeley Trust runs Heeley People’s Park for the community to use and enjoy. Our funding is supporting some immediate park maintenance, and the refurbishment of a bike recycling workshop that will generate profits to support the park long-term.
Helix Arts
Will work with local people and artists to run creative workshops and co-produce consultancy events. These will explore how they can make better use of spaces to meet cultural, health and well-being needs.
Holbeck Elderly Aid
Will redevelop a church building to create a community hub that meets local needs. The group plans to facilitate local people to take the project forward by developing their skills and taking on leadership roles.
Hulme Community Garden Centre
A garden centre that sells organic plants and other ethical goods, and offers events, activities and training to local people. Our funding is supporting the build of a new office space and shop that will help boost income as well as some core costs for community engagement and outreach.
Hurst Farm Social Club
Supports community engagement and youth activities. Developing an older people’s café to reduce isolation and increase income at their social club.
Independent Arts
Will hold a series of creative and accessible community consultations with current and potential stakeholders to help guide their work on under-used spaces.
Inspired Steps CIC
Identifies potential spaces in the area and engages local groups through workshops and community events. They aim to speak to landlords, local authorities and architects about acquiring the spaces for community use.
iSpace5
Questionnaires and meetings with local stakeholders will encourage different groups of the community to work together. They will host events, meetings and activities to support the use of the community spaces.
Jubilee Co-op
The first community-owned agriculture organisation in Northern Ireland. We have supported the purchase of the land and farmhouse where they can offer volunteering opportunities, and farming and skills sessions for asylum seekers.
Jubilee Pool Penzance
Community organisation that manages Jubilee Pool lido. We are supporting costs for the lido’s new community space that has a focus on health and wellbeing. A geothermal well is also being drilled to provide a year-round offer for the community.
Juice Community Project CIC
Running focus groups to develop a central hub, and make the local area more visually appealing.
Liverpool and Merseyside Theatres Trust
Our grant will support increased opening hours so the community has greater access to the theatre. Funding will also enable a partnership to develop with a health provider that offers social prescribing.
Llyn Parc Mawr Community Woodland Group
Piloting the development of woodland-related products for sale. Engaging communities in woodland management workshops with a focus on sustainable trade.
Long Wood Community Woodland
Long Wood Community Woodland manages a woodland that the local community can use and enjoy. Our funding has enabled them to purchase a professional saw mill and employ a saw miller to support sustainable woodland management and develop new income streams.
Newhampton Arts Centre
Will explore how their café can be a more inclusive, effective and social space through drop-in events, activities and skills sharing sessions.
Newton Heath Youth Project CIC
Holding weekly drop-in sessions and using the information gathered from conversations with local people to increase community activities and a sense of belonging.
Oban Communities Trust
A community organisation bringing Oban’s former Rockfield Primary School back to life as the Rockfield Centre – the island’s first mixed-use community and arts hub. We are supporting build and refurbishment costs.
Porchlight
Will facilitate discussions with local people on how best to use community spaces and mobilise residents to take action. Plans to establish a steering group and regular meetings, and organise a community mapping walk.
Preston Muslim Forum Limited
Plans to deliver community engagement events, conversations, activities and workshops to reduce social isolation, strengthen relationships and get new ideas and perspectives.
Rotherham Rise
A charity supporting people who have been affected by domestic abuse and sexual violence. We are supporting costs for a café and community space that raises sustainable funds and offers people a chance to meet and socialise.
RUSS
A community-led housing project developing 33 affordable, eco-friendly homes in Lewisham. We support salary and associated costs of an Operations Director who leads on delivering the new development.
Soul Fire
Connecting the community with nature by developing a site for forest schools, community events and activities with young people.
St Werburgh’s City Farm
Our Building Connections Fund Youth strand grant supports a volunteering and enterprise-focused outdoor programme that helps local young people with mental health difficulties building connections and confidence. Space to Connect will help create an online horticultural training programme that can be sold to generate income.
STAA Limited
Aims to run five monthly community consultation days, events and green space tours to develop a greater understanding of what the community needs in relation to its outdoor and green spaces.
Stonegrove Community Trust
Hosting a two-day community workshop to map how local assets might be utilised. Will then organise meetings with stakeholders who can work to make the spaces usable.
Sussex Community Development Association
Supports the refurbishment of a new community centre, completing the transformation from an older people’s day-centre to a multi-purpose community asset.
Sustain Wales – Cannal Cymru
Funding capacity building support to community organisations that benefit the environment in Wales
Thames Chase Trust
Delivers community workshops to map local spaces and assets. Groups discuss how best to use spaces and give them better protection for the future. This project is being delivered by the Land of the Fanns Landscape Partnership Scheme.
The Hive Live Ltd
Will hold workshops, online engagement sessions and events to identify how best to use their community space to combat loneliness, improve health and well-being and boost community cohesion.
Thornton and Allerton Community Association Ltd
Hosting consultation and engagement activities with the local community to better understand loneliness, social isolation and lack of social cohesion between communities. This will support the redevelopment of new local spaces and services.
Trowbridge Town Hall Trust
Funding will help increase the use of the building, improve facilities and boost business sustainability planning to ensure a positive future for an historic community-run asset.
Voluntary Action Camden
Will run focus groups and events to examine how community spaces can be better used. This will lead to the creation of a Local Spaces Network to explore the potential of local spaces in Camden.
Welcome to Our Woods
Manages woodlands and open spaces for the benefit of ecology and local people. We are supporting costs for a new biomass and timber recycling social enterprise that will create sustainable funds for the organisation and help the environment.
West Cumbria Care and Support
Engaging local people through consultation activity to ensure their facilities at a community garden site are accessible and useful for local people.
White Rock Neighbourhood Ventures
A community-focused organisation regenerating the White Rock area of Hastings. We are supporting the refurbishment of the Observer Building that will offer space for community activities, events, leisure and affordable accommodation.
Wild Elements
Creating a wildlife-friendly community garden and developing a new qualification for their training suite, which can be sold to raise income and support skills development.
Wild Kind
Developing short courses and woodworking classes at their green space, and recruiting local nature mentors to deliver environmental activities with children.
Windmill Hill City Farm Ltd
Building a business plan to transform spaces based on conversations with local groups and residents. Plans will be adapted depending on location.
Wolverhampton Voluntary Sector Council
Holds consultation meetings with community groups and voluntary organisations to identify specific needs they have around community venues, and learn how to remove barriers to engagement.
Young Barnet Foundation
Will hold six meetings across three hubs to explore opportunities for utilising spaces and collaborative working. Opportunities will be taken forward with local stakeholders to widen provision in the spaces.
Contact us
Email foundation@coop.co.uk if you have a question or comment for us. Our emails are monitored Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
If you have a media enquiry, please email foundation.media@coop.co.uk.
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