Owned by Oxford: Our Latest News

Addressing Wealth Inequality through Community Wealth Building

Contents
About Owned by Oxford
Centering the Voices of Marginalised Communities in Local Economic Development
Distributing leadership within our partnership
Building Capacity in Community Anchor Organisations
Examples of Social Enterprises and Community Projects Supported
Widening Access to Grant Funding
Developing Community Informed Interventions through Community Research

Owned by Oxford is a strategic partnership between grassroots community organisations, infrastructure organisations, and the Local Authority.

We came together in 2021 because we were concerned about the stark inequality in our city. There’s no shortage of money in our city, it’s just not fairly distributed: Oxford is the second most unequal urban area in the UK in terms of income, housing affordability, and life expectancy.

Our vision is for a fair, democratic and sustainable economy in Oxford, an economy owned and controlled by its community, and that puts people, planet and wellbeing before profit.

We’re using an approach to local economic development called Community Wealth Building. We are working to:

Shift power and financial resources to people on lower incomes and Black and Minoritised communities that have been marginalised by the mainstream economy.
Shift perceptions. Communities experiencing structural disadvantage are experts by experience in their own circumstances. They should play a leading role in shaping interventions aimed at alleviating poverty and inequality.

“Nothing about us, without us”

Give communities more control over the local economy, by bringing wealth, buildings and assets into community ownership.
Support the emergence and resilience of Social Enterprises that prioritise delivering social and environmental value over maximising profits for shareholders.

Since completing our pilot in April 2023 and launching our Impact Report, we were delighted to secure a further £320,000 from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Friends Provident Foundation. Here’s a glimpse into what we’ve been doing since then…

Centering the Voices of Marginalised Communities in Local Economic Development

We have been participating in local economic forums aiming to address inequality, such as the Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Partnership (OIEP). We are encouraging them to have greater leadership from the marginalised communities they are seeking to benefit.

Firstly, by building in mechanisms for participatory governance, transparency and accountability to underserved communities.

Secondly, by building relationships with community organisations who are doing Community Wealth Building at the grassroots, and using their institutional wealth and influence to build capacity in these organisations.

Late last year, our partners African Families in the UK and CAG Oxfordshire attended an event convened by Oxford University Hospitals (OUH). They delivered a presentation to key decision makers from a number of local anchor institutions sharing recommendations for how anchor institutions can work with marginalised communities in a dialogue of equals.

Distributing leadership within our partnership

Owned by Oxford started out as a partnership led by organisations that were primarily white-led and relatively well-resourced. We’re on a journey to address this, and have been working to shift the balance of power and funding in our partnership towards organisations embedded within Black and Minoritised communities.

Our recent funding has enabled us to trial a more distributed leadership model, by funding Partnership Co-coordination posts in two Black-led community organisations: Oxford Community Action and African Families in the UK (AFiUK), to work alongside our CAG Coordinator.

Building Capacity in Community Anchor Organisations

Community Anchors are community-led organisations that are embedded within and trusted by communities and play a pivotal role in shaping outcomes for those communities. Local examples include African Families in the UK (AFiUK) and Oxford Community Action (OCA) who are working to incubate new community projects and Social Enterprises that build economic resilience and meet local needs, support emerging community leaders, and act as bridges between community members and local organizations and services.

For Black and Minoritised communities, the growth and resilience of Community Anchors and Social Enterprises has been limited due to structural inequalities in access to support, training, resources and funding.

Owned by Oxford has worked to address this by funding four part-time Development Worker positions within AFiUK and OCA to help them formalize and develop in their activities. Development Workers focus on internal organizational development, and provide training and support to emerging community leaders – Community Ambassadors – to develop their own community projects and Social Enterprises. These Ambassadors receive stipends, enabling them to have the time and freedom to focus on their projects.

AFiUK has been providing support and business coaching to Bee Empowered, a child inclusive exercise group for mothers, and Taiwil Fashion, a Social Enterprise selling African fashion, beauty accessories and house decor. The enterprise generates income for its community project, the African Caribbean Autism Family Support Group (ACAFSG) that bridges the gap between migrant families living with autism and essential services in Education, Health and Social Care, as well as running a family support group.

OCA has continued to operate and expand the OCA Kitchen, which delivers a café and catering service run by a community of multi-ethnic chefs.

This summer, the OCA Kitchen celebrated opening their new community café in the new NHS Keystone Hub, in a prime location on Cowley Road in East Oxford. All profits from the OCA Kitchen support their wider community work with Black and Minoritised communities, which include nature hikes, camping retreats, cycling activities, surplus food redistribution to hundreds of families each week, and holiday activities for children and young people. OCA has also been incubating a new enterprise offering security services for events.

Widening Access to Grant Funding

OCA has worked with two local funders, OCVA and Community First Oxfordshire, to support six community groups in their network to apply to the ‘Well Together’ grants programme, to deliver community-based projects supporting health and wellbeing and addressing health inequalities. All six groups were successful in their applications. Among them are Nigerian Community Oxford, Proud To Be Me and Oxford Swahili Women’s Community.

Developing Community-Informed Interventions through Community Research

Research designing interventions to address inequalities has often been done on communities rather than with communities. OCA has been working to disrupt this dynamic, training up Community Researchers in Community Participatory Action Research (CPAR) methods, so as to enable communities to become equal partners in research initiatives.

OCA are working towards training a further 20 Community Researchers, and are playing an active role in supporting the development of the Oxfordshire Community Research Network (CRN). The Oxfordshire CRN has brought together Community Researchers, local councils, academic institutions and health services to work together to address health and other structural inequalities.

Their Community Researchers Hassan Sabrie and Mujahid Hamidi recently supported the delivery of a research project with 166 residents, aiming to shine light on the challenges their communities face in terms of the impact of the cost of living and to identify solutions to help improve support, the findings of which are summarised in this report. Hassan and Mujahid also worked with local film-maker Nicola Josse to produce this short film about their work:

Development Worker Nigel Carter recently contributed to a Healthwatch Oxfordshire report outlining the importance of community-led research, which OCA and Healthwatch Oxfordshire co-presented at the recent launch of the Local Policy Lab.

Thanks for Reading – Subscribe for Further Updates

Thank you for reading and sharing in our journey as we enter an exciting new phase of the project. We’ll be in touch with more updates soon about the activities of our other partners soon. Do subscribe to our blog for future updates in our mission to create a fairer, more inclusive economy for Oxford.

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Get in touch: info@ownedbyoxford.org.uk

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