Bradford Moor Neighbourhood Challenge

Read the Bradford Moore Neighbourhood Challenge blog

About the approach

Bradford Moor Neighbourhood Challenge is testing a community entrepreneur model. The aim is to reach out, fund and support local talent as a catalyst for sustainable community-led solutions that deliver small-scale but vital local social provision.

There are four strands to the approach. Firstly, a Catalyst Challenge Fund will provide cash awards for local start-up community entrepreneurs. Secondly, there will be leveraging of local assets to attract investment and resources from local private sector organisations and individuals. Thirdly, a package of tailor-made support will be made available to each Challenge Fund Award Winner. Finally, there will be an opportunity for individuals to volunteer in the various projects created by the community entrepreneurs.

Community Entrepreneurs Fund

The approach is one of investment in individuals and ideas, and will use a Challenge Fund to identify local people with entrepreneurial potential to deliver small-scale local solutions and provisions. Award winners will need to provide matched funding alongside Neighbourhood Challenge investment. In return, those involved will be supported by mentors recruited from local businesses, and given access to dedicated networking and training opportunities. The mini-projects run by the Award winners will be aimed at increasing connections between people and generating new voluntary activity within the community.

About the organisations

The lead: Bradford Moor Play and Support Services

Play And Support Services (PASS) is a community/local resident voluntary action organisation which delivers community projects on a reclaimed piece of wasteland, Attock Park, in the Bradford Moor district of Bradford. Local people have transformed the space from wasteland into a thriving space for community leisure, health, education and community development activity. It strives to be as accessible as possible and to be used by a broad variety of community members in Bradford Moor.

The group's aim is to develop a culture of social action, creating a fertile ground for community-led innovation and real impact.

Expert Partner: UnLtd

UnLtd is a national charity that finds and supports the development of social entrepreneurs. Its mission is to reach out and unleash the energies of people who can transform the world in which they live. It seeks out motivated people who are resourceful and resilient, and then builds their confidence and skills to achieve impact through developing sustainable social ventures of all kinds - from voluntary groups through to social enterprises to social businesses.

UnLtd's skills lie in finding, assessing, funding, supporting and developing the people who step forward with solutions to the problems they live within their communities. It offers a 'staircase' of opportunities for taking people up to the point of being ready for major social investment and large-scale expansion.

About the neighbourhood

Bradford Moor has historically been a transition point for migrant communities and currently has a strong representation from South Asian residents. The area has received successive social and economic interventions that have had mixed success, and have contributed to a degree of cynicism and a sense of disconnection from the rest of the Bradford district. The potential for a stronger community has always existed within the area, but it has been challenged by the current support infrastructure. PASS has demonstrated that much can be achieved when opportunities for community connection and leadership are provided. Residents are moving from community disinterest and detachment to volunteering and active involvement in local change. As seen through the Attock park development, they are now ready to take a lead in shaping their own ideas as supported by UnLtd.