Community Business Weekend
Tuesday, 1 May 2018
Hebden Bridge Community Association invites you along to find out more
This bank holiday weekend Hebden Bridge Community Association, a charity that owns and runs The Town Hall, are joining other community businesses around the country to celebrate the third annual Community Business Weekend.
Aimed at shining a light on the 7,000 community businesses across England, Community Business Weekend offers a unique opportunity for local people to visit and see how they can get involved.
On the 4th, 5th and 6th May, Hebden Bridge Community Association, which has been community-owned since 2008, is inviting everyone along to find out more about how you can get involved: as a member, volunteer or Trustee. .
Graham Mynott from Hebden Bridge Community Association told the HebWeb, “This is a wonderful opportunity to get the message out that Hebden Bridge Community Association is a charity which owns and runs our wonderful Town Hall and to invite local people to support us, come and find out what we do and how they can get involved. We live in a town with several community businesses: The Trades Club and the Fox and Goose are amongst many others. We should all celebrate this weekend!”
Peter Jenkins, Interim Chief Executive at organisers Power to Change, added, “Community businesses are a great example of local people taking power into their own hands. Every day tens of thousands of people get up and go to work at one of the 7,000 community businesses in England. Hundreds of thousands of us shop, visit or benefit from them directly, but they are still relatively unknown.
“That’s why Community Business Weekend is so important. It shines a light on these community-run gems that bring not only much needed services and spaces to a community but boost local economies and reinvest the profits for the benefit of local people.
“Top-down regeneration and devolution has failed to transform many disadvantaged areas, but communities, best placed to know what their neighbourhoods need and what works, usually thrive when they’re given the power to tackle these issues themselves.”
Community businesses are organisations rooted in a local area, run by and answerable to members of the community. They range from skate parks to libraries, tea rooms to vineyards and have a combined market income of £1.2bn in England, according to recent research.
Community businesses in England also employ 35,500 paid staff and 119,500 volunteers. Community Business Weekend is an opportunity to showcase what’s possible when local people take control and demonstrate their value to the local economy and society.
To find out more about Hebden Bridge Community Association, visit www.hebdenbridgetownhall.org.uk or check our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages.
To find out about other Community Business Weekend events in the area and for more information about the Weekend, visit www.communitybusinessweekend.org.