Growing locally led, Community Owned Businesses
Owned by Oxford is all about redirecting wealth back into the local economy, under community control and for community benefit.
Owned by Oxford is a partnership between African Families in the UK, Aspire, CAG Oxfordshire, Oxford Community Action, Oxford City Council, Makespace Oxford, Mothers 4 Justice Ubuntu, Solidarity Economy Association, Syrian Sisters and Damascus Rose Kitchen, Transition Lighthouse and Cooperative Futures.
We are using grass-roots Community Wealth Building to address our City’s inequality.
Community Wealth Building is a people centred approach to local economic development. It reorganises local economies to be fairer. It stops wealth flowing out of our communities, towns and cities. Instead, it places control of this wealth into the hands of local people.
At Owned by Oxford, we support locally led, community owned businesses that meet local needs and tackle Oxford’s inequalities.
We do this by integrating community led economic development with the purchasing power and assets of larger organisations. We have an Assets Based Community Development approach, the focus is on relationship building and authentic community engagement.
Our Oxford communities are already buzzing with ideas, skills and passion. Owned by Oxford is all about being led by the community – so we go where the energy is. We’re collaborating with a range of grass-roots projects, bringing investment, resources and development support where needed. We’re really excited by cooperative business models and growing the coop sector in Oxford.
Right now we are supporting enterprises in Blackbird Leys and Barton and those led by Black and Minoritised communities. The projects are all different – ranging from a pop-up market to a home energy retrofit project – but they all share some common commitments to be:
- community owned and community run
- delivering local solutions for local issues
- regenerative businesses that respect and benefit the environment
- creating good jobs paid at the Oxford Living Wage
Meet the team
Anaïs Bozetine (she/her), Owned by Oxford Coordinator
Anaïs works for Community Action Groups Oxfordshire and coordinates the Owned by Oxford project. She supports the team and is the main point of contact for partners and supporters. If you have any questions, get in touch with her: anais@cagoxfordshire.org.uk
Anna Thorne, Fundraising and Mapping
Anna was part of setting up the Owned by Oxford partnership, and coordinated the project from its inception until December 2022. Anna now leads on monitoring and evaluation and fundraising for the partnership, as well as working on the development of the Owned by Oxford map.
Jabu Nala – Hartley, Communities Advocate
Jabu is an ambassador for Community Wealth Building in the city. Her focus is on relationship building, advocacy and support for grassroots and community enterprises across the City with a particular focus on the Barton area.
Dianne Regisford, Communities Advocate
Dianne is also an ambassador for Community Wealth Building. As part of the Makespace Oxford team, she has a remit to support access to spaces and property for community enterprises. She is particularly focused on the Blackbird Leys area.
Simon Grove-White, Community Wealth Building Officer
Simon is a Principal Economic Development Officer at Oxford City Council and leads on the council’s work within the ObO project. He is particularly involved with sharing models of Community Wealth Building practice and exploring how this can inform policy and practice development for Anchor Institutions locally.
Nigel Carter, Enterprise Development
Nigel is a researcher and a co-founder of Oxford Community Action (OCA), a Multi-Ethnic community-based network which is part of the Owned by Oxford Initiative. His role is focussed on building OCA’s capacity and their support for new, community enterprise ideas.
Jacqui Gitau, Enterprise Development
Jacqui is the Director and co-founder of African Families in the UK (AFiUK), supporting families of African and other ethnic minority origin. Part of the Owned by Oxford initiative, Jacqui and her AFiUK colleagues mentor and incubate community businesses.
Alice Hemming, Co-operative Development
Alice is a Co-operative Development Worker at Co-operative Futures. Alice offers start-up support for new community businesses and co-operatives, as well as facilitating networking and peer-learning for the co-operative sector. Based in Oxford, Alice has been involved in a number of co-ops and community businesses over the past 7 years.
Our Partnership
Owned by Oxford’s work is overseen by a Steering Group including representatives from five grass-roots community-anchor projects in the City.
Our Funder
Owned by Oxford was launched as a pilot in April 2021 with funding from Friends Provident .
The Owned by Oxford Project is part of CAG Oxfordshire, a co-operative owned by its members.
Registered as The Community Action Groups Project Oxfordshire Limited with the FCA, number 8117.
ADDRESS: Makespace, 1 Aristotle Lane, Oxford OX2 6TP