Foreword

Power to Change is the independent trust that strengthens communities through community business.  We use our experience to bring partners together to fund, grow and back community business to make places thrive. We are curious and rigorous; we do, test and learn. And we are here to support community business, whatever the challenge.

We know community business works to create thriving places when local people take ownership over spaces that matter and deliver services that communities need.  Our 2021-26 strategy sets out how, using strategic funding, trusted partnerships, rigorous research, policy insight, and a strong network of remarkable community businesses we will back the sector, creating the ideas, evidence, and exemplars that make the case for others to back them too. Ultimately, we will amplify the efforts of community businesses and put them at the heart of a fairer economy. 

The community business movement is characterised by ongoing questions of ownership and power. This has been exemplified through history with mediaeval guilds, Victorian co-operatives, the community pub movement, and more recently, community-owned renewable energy enterprises. Local people questioning the status quo and taking control of their own destinies is the common thread.  Thinking about what is best for them and where they live, and making it happen. 

Today is no different. Bricks and mortar remain essential for maintaining our social fabric. Yet it is impossible to escape the impact digital technologies have on our lives. Tech has affected the places we live in by being a large contributor to declining high streets and regional imbalances in skills and investments. Surveillance, polarisation and the growing monopoly power of Big Tech platforms create further questions about who owns the future. Something must change.

This series of essays is a deep exploration into these uncertain times, and beyond. Drawing from a range of community leaders, it showcases the many ways communities across the UK and around the world are proving there is a different way to use technology. One that puts it in the service of people and place. 

Power to Change is proud to be supporting the community business movement as it responds to these 21st century challenges. Together with Promising Trouble, we have identified an impressive range of early community tech adopters. They show how the resilience and autonomy that results from developing their own tech aligns with their values and contributes to achieving positive change for their communities. These are exemplars of what communities can do given the power and resources. Their insights are essential for policymakers and funders seeking to support communities to adapt to and thrive.