Local Trust
National charity putting power and resources in the hands of local communities.
About the work
Local Trust is a national charity based in London. It ran Big Local, one of the largest community-led funding programmes in England, which gave 150 neighbourhoods at least £1 million each to spend on their own priorities over 10 to 15 years. It also hosts the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods, which looks at how neighbourhood-level change can be supported in future.
In 2022 Local Trust asked Always Possible to support Big Locals Together, a network set up by Big Local areas so that they could keep working together and supporting each other once the programme ended. We worked with its steering group, made up of residents and volunteers from Big Local areas across England. We helped them work out what the network should be, who it’s for and how it could sustain itself.
We combined desk research and consultation with a series of online strategy workshops. We helped the group set out its purpose in a Theory of Change, identify what makes it distinctive, compare it with other organisations doing similar work, and test options for future funding and income. The result was a business plan for the network’s next phase, with a risk register, a short overview for members, and a picture of the partners and funders it could work with.
“I think we are in such a positive position thanks to Always Possible and the way they have listened to us and put things such as our USP in a document for others to read and understand.”
— Bill Chatt, Big Locals Together steering group
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