Summary
This report outlines the Empowering Places model of place-based business support, designed to enable local community anchor organizations and commissioners of business support to work together to address the issues faced by the communities they serve.
The model encourages shared approaches to support small-scale enterprises and social purpose businesses, with the aim of creating positive impacts in areas such as health, wellbeing, and social inclusion.
The report also highlights the need to learn from past mistakes and ensure the sustainability of initiatives that promote locally rooted economic development. The Empowering Places model, based on insights from research and practice, takes into account the historical context and current challenges facing local providers of support and is particularly effective at engaging with communities to create a fairer and more equitable economic, environmental, and social future.
The findings of this report are applicable to other locally based enterprise support initiatives. You can explore the model on our website
Recommendations Summary
- The Empowering Places model of place-based business support offers a powerful framework for creating thriving local economies by harnessing the passion and creative potential of communities. Enabling better collaboration between local community anchor organisations and business support commissioners, it promotes shared approaches to economic prosperity.
- Businesses established to meet social needs in deprived areas drive economic growth, create opportunities, and introduce innovation to meet social, health and environmental challenges. Finding sustainable ways of supporting them is essential for fostering entrepreneurship, creating opportunity, and a cohesive approach to economic development.
- Investing in social businesses future- proofs the economy, meets changing consumer demands aligned with social issues, empowers communities, and helps create sustainable and resilient communities.
- The model demonstrates that this requires a concerted effort from all stakeholders, to create the conditions for the long-term success of local business support ecosystems. Collective vision, inclusive support, and long-term commitment are vital – alongside investment in the development of locally rooted anchors and hubs, enabling them to be effective economic catalysts in their communities.
- Leveraging local intelligence, maximising existing resources, promoting continuous learning, and providing capacity support are essential for ensuring high-quality local business support.
- Establishing referral networks, creating equitable access, providing education on social business types, upskilling support staff in relational approaches such as coaching, and facilitating peer support drive useful change and inspire collective responsibility.
- Taking the model forward, ‘Innovation in Business’ has the potential to be transformative for communities if local actors, commissioners and stakeholders have the collective will to contribute to and adopt these approaches.
