ABOVE...

...AND BEYOND

How charities, social enterprises and community groups are delivering public services and meeting local challenges.

SIR STEPHEN BUBB, CHAIR, THE SOCIAL INVESTMENT BUSINESS

Charities, social enterprises and community groups are already transforming communities across the UK. Here we present a snapshot of organisations that we have supported and who are delivering vital services in their local areas. They are going ‘above and beyond’ that rather old fashioned view of what our sector can do; providing public services, contracting with local government and health service commissioners and taking on ex-council owned facilities and making them profitable.

Each of these organisations has worked hard to get to the position they are in now, and there are many more doing similar good work. They are run by committed, passionate people, dedicated to establishing financially sustainable organisations that deliver fantastic social good. It is vital to ensure they can continue to prosper and support more people despite the current tough economic climate. To do this they will need support, access to funding and business expertise which will help them scale up and compete for larger contracts. Efforts to engage with commissioners need to continue – showing them the benefits of working with our sector and proving the value that can be delivered to communities.

Here we show what some sector organisations are already achieving; changing peoples’ lives and changing how public services are delivered. Imagine how different society could be if there were more of them and they had more investment, more resource, and the opportunity to make a bigger impact. I’m proud to be the Chair of an organisation which has supported these organisations and hope we can support many more to achieve similar impact.

BURTON STREET FOUNDATIONThe Burton Street Foundation is a community organisation which specialises in supporting adults and older children with learning and physical disabilities and provides a wide range of other activities for the community.

Originally formed to save the Victorian Board School building from demolition, the now refurbished and reopened centre provides day support for 180 adults with learning difficulties and employs 60 people. Over 1500 people use the centre each week.

The services provided by the community facilities include; dance, drama, music, sport, education, conferences, meetings, social functions and business. Burton Street operates a cafe, restaurant, fully licenced bar and has over 20 business tenants including a beauty salon, hairdressers, boxing gym, youth offending team, software companies, accountants, a glassmaker, recruitment agency, events company and a number of small charities and social enterprises.

By providing a central location where many groups in the community can gather, the Burton Street Foundation has not only saved and given a sustainable future to a great set of well-loved and architecturally important buildings, but also provided the community with a focal point to call home.

Burton Street Foundation

PAM BAILEY, CHAIR, BURTON STREET FOUNDATION

“The buildings the foundation occupies have been serving the local community for over 100 years. We are now planning the next 100.”

Hebden Bridge Community Association is a democratically run community-based charity, which has taken over responsibility for managing and developing the Town Hall under an asset transfer agreement with its local council, Calderdale. Hebden Bridge is one of the first towns in Britain where the Town Hall is community-owned in this way.

The Community Association has worked hard to breathe new life into the building, making it once again the centre of civic and community life. With funding from Communitybuilders and ERDF, a major extension is now being built, which will provide among other things a new public hall and function room, new meeting rooms, exhibition space and enterprise units for start-ups and developing businesses.

HEBDEN BRIDGE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

Hebden Bridge Community Association

“The asset transfer of Hebden Bridge Town Hall from our local council into the hands of a community-run charitable trust in 2010 has been the key which will breathe new life into a landmark building, which in recent years had lost its role and was down-at-heel. We’ve already been able to extend considerably the community facilities we’re able to offer at the Town Hall, including for the first time providing a venue in our town for civil weddings and partnerships. Now, with investments from Communitybuilders and European funds, we are engaging in a major capital build programme, which will provide additional community and enterprise facilities for our town.”

ANDREW BIBBY, TRUSTEE, HEBDEN BRIDGE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

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