Repository
A curated and searchable collection of community-related research reports, case studies and publications from the Institute for Community Studies and other organisations.
Green Synergy
Published: 2021
Green Synergy uses community gardening and horticultural therapy to build skills for life and work, improve mental and physical health and educate people about the environment, food and farming. The organisation works in disadvantaged communities and with vulnerable people, including those living with mental health conditions, learning dif…
Financial analysis of the Liverpool City Region community business market
Published: 2021
This study follows on from research conducted on community businesses in the Liverpool City Region in March 2019. The original work aimed to build a detailed evidence base to demonstrate the size and scope of the community business market in the region, and to provide insight into how growth and financial sustainability can be achieved.
T…
Case Study: Windmill Hill City Farm
Published: 2021
Windmill Hill City Farm was set up in the 1970s and is an important community hub in south Bristol. In addition to a community farm, it has a café, day care nursery and outdoor play areas, and an education department to welcome school visits.
Case Study: Target Football
Published: 2021
Target Football is based in Toxteth, Liverpool, and runs sporting programmes and grassroots football across the city. It was set up in 2010 and currently has seven employed staff and about 15 volunteers. Volunteers are integral to Target Football’s continued success, ensuring football coaching and matches take place and pitches and grounds ar…
Case Study: Star and Shadow Cinema
Published: 2021
Star and Shadow Cinema is a community hub in Newcastle upon Tyne set up in 2006. It has multiple facilities including a cinema, music venue, café, bar, meeting rooms, dark room and a community garden. It offers a unique space for grassroots community organisations, independent artists and members of the public to promote cultural ideas through…
Case Study: Seadream Education CIC
Published: 2021
Seadream Education CIC is a not-for-profit organisation based in Devon, delivering science and engineering activities to instil an interest and understanding about the natural world with a particular focus on the marine environment. Its activities include creating and teaching national curriculum-related science resource kits in schools, traini…
Case Study: Hyde Park Source
Published: 2021
Hyde Park Source is a community organisation in Leeds set up in 1998. It runs a range of projects including a Design-and-Build service, Outdoor Education and Community Garden groups. It aims to improve health and wellbeing by working with local communities ‘to help them improve their surroundings, designing and creating attractive, exciting a…
Case Study: ARK at Egwood
Published: 2021
ARK (Acts of Random Kindness) at Egwood is a land-based day facility in South Somerset set up in 2019. It offers therapeutic activities, experiences and support services on 12 acres of land with animals, horticulture and communal buildings to improve people’s health and wellbeing. It has two paid staff and about 35 volunteers who regularly su…
A community response to loneliness
Published: 2021
Social connections are the fabric of our communities. They enable all those day-to-day interactions that provide us with a sense of belonging. And they create the conditions for us to do the things we enjoy and that matter to us most.
This handbook offers a unique insight into how community and resident groups can address loneliness.
You can…
Rapid research COVID-19 Briefing #12: Community responses to COVID-19 – Potential and limits of community power in a pandemic
Published: 2021
New concepts of community power have risen up the policy agenda during COVID-19. Communities have widely been seen as integral to meeting local needs and as having the capacity to respond rapidly to the pandemic. The idea of community power is often assumed, in policy terms, to be a universally beneficial force. However, this fails to address i…
Helping ensure survival: Digitally enhanced advanced services in community businesses
Published: 2021
This research explores how community businesses rapidly adapted to deliver important community services through digitalised means in light of the pandemic.
The research was funded by Power to Change and Digitally Enhanced Advanced Services (DEAS) and carried out by researchers from the University of the West of England. The researchers use dig…
Discomfort, Dissatisfaction & Disconnect: Exploring local economic perceptions through peer research
Published: 2021
This report by the Institute for Community Studies explores local economies from the perspectives of local communities through over fifty in-depth interviews undertaken using peer research, giving a platform to these all-too-often forgotten voices. The authors explore the priorities for transition and transformation in local economies thro…