Stories and initiatives from the Stir To Action's Playground for a New Economy event. Vigour from the ground-up

The Stretford Public Hall

We couldn’t make it this year, but Stir To Action’s Playground for a New Economy event is always a great convocation of folks trying to be creative - but also practical - about a ground-up, community-driven economics. We’ve had a scan at the plan for this years event in Manchester, and dug out a few initiatives and players;

The New Town Hall: A Story of Regeneration in Stretford

From STA:

Stretford Public Hall is a grade-II listed building built by local philanthropist John Rylands in 1878. Over the years, its had numerous uses, from public library to swimming baths, theatre and council offices.

However, in 2014, the building fell into disrepair and faced closure until local residents stepped in and brought about its transfer into community ownership. Established as a member-owned charitable organisation, Friends of Stretford Public Hall have since raised and invested over £1m to refurbish and transform the space into an active community and arts hub.

Ecological Land Cooperative, DEVON and SusSEX

From their About page:

ELC’s first site in Greenham Reach, Devon

The Ecological Land Cooperative develops affordable, low impact, smallholdings for ecological agriculture.

The high costs of land and rural housing make it nearly impossible for new entrants to farming to establish a farm business. By providing affordable and secure smallholdings, we are helping to address this crisis.

Determined to turn good ideas into reality, to have a positive influence and to give hope to those choosing to live sustainably, we have designed a model for creating affordable, ecological smallholdings. Having successfully developed our first cluster of farms in Mid Devon, we have begun work on our second site in East Sussex and purchased our third site on the Gower.

We show that small-scale ecological farming CAN work in today’s economy. Sustainably managed smallholdings provide low-impact livelihoods, regenerate land and produce good, healthy food for local communities, increasing sustainability and resilience, and improving ecology and biodiversity for future generations.

By supporting new entrants into ecological agriculture we help revitalise rural communities. We want to see a living, working countryside where land is valued as a way to enhance the good of communities and the natural world.

Skittles to Skate Parks: The Fall & Rise of Social Infrastructure

From STA:

The last 25 years has seen a well-documented decline in traditional Victorian and post-war social infrastructure in the UK, such as community centres, pubs, bingo halls, skittle alleys and libraries. But alongside this, we have also seen a less well understood emergence of various new places for social interaction, such as soft play centres, nail salons, gyms and skateparks.

Dan Gregory of Common Capital and Social Enterprise UK has undertaken research for Local Trust on this shifting landscape. With his guests he will explore the role of old and new spaces and places that can foster social connections and build social capital, the pros and cons of various forms, and the role of communities, funders and policymakers in shaping the future of our social infrastructure.

COMMUNITY, YES WE CAN, SOCIO-POLITICS, REGEN ECONOMIES, 4TH SECTOR, NEW ECONOMICSpat kanestir to action, community wealth buildingComment