Case studies

The New Leaf Initiative is a Birmingham-based mentoring organisation that supports people with criminal convictions to find work.

It’s 1978 and Glasgow’s Greencity Wholefoods co-operative is formed – born from the local activist movement with moral, ethical and environmental values at its heart.

The Warwick Bridge Preservation Society in Cumbria issued a community share offer to lease and finish the fitting out of the mill and bakery situated in Warwick Bridge Corn Mill. They reached their…

Villagers in Marsden, West Yorkshire wanted to create a shop to benefit the whole community, including residents on lower incomes, vegetarians, vegans and people on special diets who find it hard to…

Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, many co-ops have had to adapt so much of their member engagement, including moving AGMs online. 

After eight years toiling away in London for design agencies Ben Philp was, to put it bluntly, “fed up”. Multi-tiered chains of command, a lack of ethics and long hours for limited reward had all…

In January 2020, October Books, a worker-owned and run community bookshop in Southampton, was on the verge of taking great new strides.

The Meteor is an independent, community‑based media outlet that’s been providing news, features and commentary to the people of Manchester since 2016. In July 2019, it became a co‑op.

“RunFit Hartlepool has created a community of people who are really supportive of each other and the wider town. They do litter picks where they go running – it’s an example of how a community…

Manningham in Bradford is in the bottom 10% of deprived UK neighbourhoods. It has a significantly younger population too, with 31% of people aged below 18 – and with it comes a high rate of youth…

Plymouth is a social enterprise city. It has more than 200 social and community business that employ some 8,000 people...

Braunstone is an edge-of-town council estate in Leicester with 16,500 inhabitants. Some parts of the area fall within the bottom 1% of the 2019 indices of deprivation. Almost entirely residential, for…

Some 15,000 people live in Wigan’s Abram Ward. “It used to be called ‘Giro City’,” says David Baxter, Principal Officer of Made in Wigan – which is tackling social inequality in the area.

“Here, health is an issue. Isolation is an issue. People feeling left out can be an issue,” says Paul Gutherson, Programme Co-ordinator at Centre 4 in Grimsby...

They met through a digital boot camp. Loved working together. And discovered a shared belief in the power of technology as a force for good.

"We know of a deaf man who was in hospital for 21 days without any interpreting support. Global agencies often provide poor sign language services in favour of profit," explains Jen Smith on why…