b-inspired : Our Power To Change Journey

B-inspired has been working with and for local people for over 22 years and our partnership is inclusive and embraces everyone who wants to help Braunstone flourish, from community groups to private business. In 2017, Power to Change (a National Lottery endowed trust), invested £1 million into Braunstone through a five-year programme called Empowering Places.

B-inspired acted as the catalyst for Braunstone to become a community business-led economy, where local people could create their own solutions to tackle some of the most difficult issues faced by their community. They would feel strong and supported by a partnership that has develop and built local infra-structure.

In carrying out this programme, b-inspired have worked with local people, through an inclusive approach. The intended outcome was to have grown existing community businesses in Braunstone and created up to 5 new ones.

The aim was to provide a self-supporting cluster of community businesses, offering a range of goods and services that local people can afford.

Now, in 2022, we wanted to look back on the success of the past five years and reflect on everything we’ve achieved. From launching The Grove Community Hub in 2020, to supporting the creation of three community businesses (Parkside Community Café, Preloved@45 Community Shop and Penalty Box Social Bar) and supporting two other local community groups (ER Dance and Fitness and FSD Football Academy) to become community businesses, this is definitely something to celebrate.

The graphic below gives a little bit more information as to what we’ve being doing over the past five years. It’s been a very interesting and exciting journey and we hope to continue with this success well into the future! If you could you like on the image, you’ll be able to see a little bit more about this…