Made in Manningham – Empowering Places.
Participate delivered the Power to Change – Empowering Places programme in Manningham between 2021 and 2023.
The programme focused on strengthening communities by promoting the growth of new community businesses. Our Made in Manningham project was one of six Empowering Places Catalyst areas that received resources from Power to Change and its partners, including specialist advisors, grant funding, and the ability to provide seed grants to emerging community businesses in their locality.
The Empowering Places programme enabled Participate, through the Made in Manningham team, to support a wide range of community businesses in Manningham. Support included
- providing £50,000 of Seed funding to existing and new community businesses.
- offering specialist skills and support to help community businesses adopt appropriate legal structures, develop business planning and overcome emerging challenges
- training and workshops specific to the community
- establishing the Manningham Mills Enterprise Hub and supporting the set up of the community café
- delivery of the Women’s Enterprise Networks
- delivery of Social Venture Schools to establish new social ventures in Manningham
Being part of the Empowering Places network has built relationships and networks that will continue to deliver benefits for our community for years to come. We hope that the learning from this programme, captured in the Empowering Places Innovation in Business reports, will inform the approach of other funders to invest in place-based interventions in the future.