Community Tech meets Digital Sustainability: A Green Handbook for Community Tech Practitioners
Today we’re launching a new Green Handbook for community tech practitioners, commissioned by Promising Trouble and Power to Change, and produced by the Green Web Foundation.
Meet the Makers & Maintainers: Tamar Grow Local
Tamar Grow Local is a community interest company based in the Tamar Valley, which includes parts of rural Cornwall and Devon and the City of Plymouth.
Meet the Makers & Maintainers: Friends of Stretford Public Hall
Friends of Stretford Public Hall aims to improve the lives of local residents by providing opportunities for employment, access to arts, local heritage & support services, as well as to enhance opportunities for regeneration through preservation of the Grade-II listed Victorian building.
Meet the Makers & Maintainers: Signalise Co-op
Signalise Co-op is a unique co-operative, owned by Deaf people and providing British Sign Language interpreting services to people living on Merseyside. It is the only service in the UK to have Deaf people as members and co-owners. Currently, Signalise has 80 Deaf user members and 92 worker members.
Meet the Makers & Maintainers: Solidaritech CIC
Established in 2017, Solidaritech is proudly rooted in Bradford and serves communities across Yorkshire and the Humber. Solidaritech refurbishes donated technology - such as laptops, smartphones, tablets and computers – for use by asylum seekers and refugees who are facing digital exclusion.
Meet the Makers & Maintainers: Trinity Community Arts
Trinity Community Arts is an award-winning arts charity established to manage The Trinity Centre. Trinity has a long tradition as a community hub and music venue, using creative participation and cultural engagement as a vehicle for social change.
Meet the Makers & Maintainers: Carbon Co-op
Carbon Co-op is an energy services and advocacy co-operative that helps people and communities to make the radical reductions in home carbon emissions necessary to avoid runaway climate change.
Meet the Makers & Maintainers: Knowle West Media Centre
Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) is an arts and technology collective based in the council-built estate of Knowle West in South Bristol. KWMC started 25 years ago with an artist-in-residence, exploring practice around voice, identity, empowerment through camera technology.
Meet the Makers & Maintainers: Equal Care Co-op
Equal Care Co-op provides care and support at home and in the community, and is on a mission to put power in the hands of people who give and receive care across Calderdale, West Yorkshire.
Meet the Makers & Maintainers: The Bristol Cable
The Bristol Cable started in 2014 as an alternative to corporately-owned local media. It produces online and print journalism, made by and for the residents of Bristol. The Cable is fully owned by its members, over 2000 of them, and is run as a workers’ cooperative.
Meet the Makers & Maintainers: Community TechAid
Community TechAid is one of ten community businesses funded by the Power To Change Makers & Maintainers programme, which supports community businesses who are already on a journey of creating community tech – technology that can meet their specific needs, respects their autonomy and creates value that sticks to places.
Community Tech: Reflections on our first funding round
A total of 39 applications for the first Power to Change community tech funding round were submitted in November last year. Makers & Maintainers is a two-year funding programme to support and grow the community tech sector, helping community businesses to support the maintenance, care and repair of existing community tech.
Call for Expressions of Interest: Community of Practice development for Community Tech
Promising Trouble is looking for a freelance community building specialist to facilitate the creation of a Community Tech community of practice. Expressions of Interest due by 9am GMT, 30 November 2022.
Building Power in Communities
The funding programme is specifically focussed on investing in community organisations who are making and using technologies that generate benefit for and give power to communities.
Call for Expressions of Interest: Strategic Comms and Influencing for Community Tech
Promising Trouble is looking for a freelance strategic comms and influencing specialist to support the development of the Community Tech programme of work. Expressions of Interest due by 9am GMT, Monday 14 November 2022
Community Tech: Evaluation blogpost #1
We’re taking an approach called an ‘embedded’ evaluation: this basically means that rather than commission an external evaluation expert to come and observe and talk to us from time to time, we are collectively responsible for evaluating ourselves. Of course, this comes with risks (what if we just say that we’re great or terrible at everything? How can we be objective?) and doesn’t necessarily come naturally, but we decided that the benefits of being able to continuously learn and then adjust what we do or how we do it were worth it.
The Case for Community Tech
Community tech - technology that gives power and generates benefit for communities – is a vital part of the modern technology ecosystem. We’re launching The Case for Community Tech, which sets out a vision for how hardware and software created by, with and for community organisations.
Community Tech kick-off workshops
Promising Trouble and Power to Change hosted two workshops in May, kicking off our programme looking at Community Tech and shaping a major new funding programme. We got together with around 30 community businesses who are working in areas as diverse as community energy, food production and delivery, and community media.