UK community resources
Community resources, assets and spaces can be seen as an integral part of community empowerment or agency. The aim of this page is to recognise, celebrate and encourage the self-empowerment of community agency networks (CANs) and community groups' activism towards ensuring a richness and diversity of community resources owned or managed by the community to meet their self identified needs and priorities and serve the well-being and social interest of the local community.
News
Empowering local people to bring community spaces back into community ownership, consult.defra.gov.uk, (consultation document, p.26) (Jan 31, 2025) — The UK government says that through the English Devolution Bill, it will introduce a strong new ‘right to buy’ for valued community assets, such as empty shops, pubs and community spaces. "Community Right to Buy will help local people acquire valued community spaces if they come up for sale, keeping these assets in the hands of the community."- ‘People feel a sense of ownership’: the growth of community composting, theguardian.com (Jan 23, 2025) — residents of an English village build their own composting site
- Frome residents win five-year battle for community-led housing project, theguardian.com (Jan 23, 2025) — “What’s really exciting for me is that it’s not actually about the amount of commercial space or the affordable housing it will provide – it’s about the sense of confidence and agency and possibility that I think it will give us as a community.” Fiona Barrows, Frome town councillor
- From Asphalt to Inspiration: The Student-Led Transformation of America’s Schoolyards, reasonstobecheerful.world (Oct 04, 2024)
- The idea of a "public diner" has much historical precedent - and leads the way to a better food culture for the future, Daily Alternative (Aug 29, 2024)
- Hurricane blackouts: New Orleans' 'lighthouse' solution to keep the power on through floods and high winds, bbc.co.uk (Aug 07, 2024)
Video
Events
Networks
- Community Matters, nationwide federation of community organizations
- Community Media Association, UK membership association for community broadcasting. The CMA is a non-profit making organisation, supporting Community Radio, Television and community-based Internet projects.
- Community Land Trust Network, link checked 09:30, 16 November 2023 (UTC). Video: Community Land Trust Network on youtube.com
- Seeds For Change, network of non-profit training and support co-operatives which help people organise for action and positive social change. "We concentrate on working with grassroots environmental and social justice activists to help increase their effectiveness in campaigning and bringing about lasting positive change." Briefings and guides are @nti-copyright. "Please feel free to copy, adapt and distribute them as long as the final work remains @nti-copyright."
Other resources
- My Community, website run by Locality with support from several partner organisations. Video: My Community on youtube.com
- Community Assets Transfer, information from locality.org.uk
- Common Libraries, Resources
- Community Assets, information from Locality
- Community-owned pubs: A quick guide to saving your local (PDF)
- Community Pubs Kit My Community
- Space Generators, "The establishment of empty buildings as inspirational community hubs for the benefit of people and planet." added 16:24, 20 August 2020 (UTC)
- Common Libraries, "Prototyping the Library of the Future - today..."
- Community Development Foundation
- Pub is The Hub
- somewhereto, programme which gives 16 to 25 year olds the support to access spaces they need, to do the things they love doing
Quotes
One day soon, our high streets, parks, libraries, housing hubs, train stations, and cafes will become spaces for us to meet, repair, make, borrow, lend, grow, bake, reflect, care, and eat together." Rebecca Trevalyan FRSA, RSA
Most people participate in their communities not as part of organised groups, but in doing acts of kindness" Professor Carolyn Kagan, Professor of Community Social Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Funding
- Community Ownership Fund, Policy paper, Mar 3...gov.uk. From summer 2021 community groups will be able to bid for up to £250,000 matched-funding to help them buy or take over local community assets at risk of being lost, to run as community-owned businesses. The first bidding round for the Community Ownership Fund will open by June 2021.
- Community Shares, information from uk.coop, link checked 10:31, 16 November 2023 (UTC)
Research
- Space to thrive, Locality, research into the role of community spaces in supporting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people, added 12:19, 31 March 2023 (UTC)
Community action projects
Climate emergency centres
Climate emergency centres are about a coming together and building of relationships in a common space, sharing resources, skills and ideas to build community resilience and adaption to multiple social and environmental crises.
Library of things
Campaigns
We're Right Here
"We want to tell a different story about power, control and influence. Because you don't just find these in Westminster, you find them in every neighbourhood.
Nineteen local changemakers drive forward our campaign for community power, and 100s more support it.
Three of them feature in our new film. Meet Andy from Sheffield, Hannah from Plymouth and Josiah from Bradford. Between them they are taking over vacant buildings and green spaces, providing health and social services and revitalising local economies and pride.
To remove the barriers in their way, we’re calling on politicians to give us communities real power to make our places better."
- We’re Right Here, Video: We're Right Here on vimeo.com
- Save a space in your local area, locality.org.uk
local information can be found, or shared, via our many UK location pages
References