Reading Type: Community Voices

Five brilliant examples of what communities can achieve when money and decision-making power are in their hands.

Built on the power of relationships, this project brought together local residents with lived experience of poverty and key decision makers in the public, private and third sectors to identify solutions to poverty in Trafford.

New Local Network and Events Officer Stephanie Riches explains how the pandemic has changed how she views her own identity and illustrated the importance of taking pride in your area – wherever you are from.   Before the pandemic...

Once described as the 'scrag-end' of Kingston-upon-Thames, Tolworth was less a destination, more a place to pass through or avoid completely. That was until a group of local residents decided to add a bit of colour, playfulness and plastic...

A quarter of the buildings on Plymouth's Union Street were standing empty until local residents decided to do something about it. Now they've taken over four - bringing hope, jobs, money and fun to an area that felt the...

Mark Pepper was born and bred in Lawrence Weston, an historically neglected estate on the outskirts of Bristol. After one of the area’s last public spaces was closed, Mark and residents decided they needed to take control of the...

Why do we keep sending people back to the conditions that have made them ill in the first place? This question is at the core of GP Dr Mark Spencer’s radical new approach to health care in Fleetwood, Lancashire,...

Jaiden, 19, is a trustee at Rekindle School - the South Manchester-based supplementary school where everything - from the curriculum, to safeguarding, to funding, will be youth-led. Before speaking at this year's Stronger Things event, Jaiden reflects on the...

Built in the 1930s, the Grade II-listed Bryne Avenue Baths had fallen into a state of disrepair when the council made plans to knock the building down. That was until a group of local residents started a four-year battle...