Made In Wigan Enable, Empower & Enact Change.

WE ENABLE, EMPOWER & ENACT CHANGE.

The Wigan and Leigh Community Charity (WLCC) exists to build on the expertise developed in the Abram Ward Community Charity in order to maximize local resources and instigate, nurture and develop community business and social enterprise across the whole borough of Wigan, providing the knowledge, skills, networks and platforms, to enable social enterprise in all its different forms to thrive, thus contributing at a significant level to the education, employment and enterprise in Wigan and its neighbouring boroughs.

Our values include:

• A commitment to protect the environment to achieve net-zero buildings by 2030
• An unswerving commitment to diversity and inclusion at all levels of our organisation

It's about people

…the growth of the local economy for the benefit of the local community…

…an opportunity for any person within a community to turn an interest or skill into a valued product or service…

…to work with other people to create new, or expand existing community businesses…

…that add value and trade with the local and wider community, in turn generating further revenue and jobs…

It’s also an opportunity for young people:

We will attend careers fairs, industry days etc. with local schools to let young people know about community business and social enterprise
Options to become an employer rather than an employee
Helping to retain wealth within the borough and possibly bring further wealth into the borough
An opportunity to develop your own Social Enterprise or Community Business:
We work with aspirant and established local, community and social entrepreneurs wishing to learn and improve their practice in successful social entrepreneurship, and helping them to create opportunities to establish their businesses and develop their markets under the concept of ‘make and buy local’, both in person and on line.
WLCC aims to take ideas generated via Community Organising, to help provide the support these organisations require.
Start Up support will be access to accommodation, funding support etc.
Scale Up support will be via Enterprise Coaching, but also mechanisms to help to raise awareness of their product / service, and sell to the Public and Private sector, but also the local community.
WLCC has developed an Enterprise Awareness Programme that aims to support local people, from School leavers through to people looking to find employment, to identify the Social Economy sector as a career opportunity.

Find out more…

It's about places

WLCC adopts a Place-based approach to empowering and supporting local communities in their development of their neighbourhoods. This enables communities to feel that they are instrumental in making where they live the place that they want it to be. It nurtures pride, tackles loneliness, gives a sense of purpose and belief.

We recognise that there are diverse needs within local communities and respond to these needs by stimulating and supporting local action.

Identifying and stimulating the Social Economy sector to spot opportunities to respond to, armed with the resources they need to succeed.

Supporting the development of ward-based Community Organising, including Neighbourhood Plans, to create Planning Policies for Social Economy organisations so to be integral to the local neighbourhoods’ development

We work with local communities, resident groups etc, and people from across the borough, helping them to acquire the knowledge, skills and networks to undertake their own Neighbourhood vision for the future development of their neighbourhoods, working in partnership with the local authority and other strategic organisations
One key driver is Neighbourhood Planning.

This has been developed in Abram Ward as an approach and has seen a Community Action Plan developed. These actions in Abram Ward will then be implemented by Wigan and Leigh Community Charity, be it run via WLCC or in support of other Social Economy organisations.

Find out more…

W & L Community Co-Operative

Charity leading on a Buy Local campaign via our brand 'Made in Wigan' which aims to reduce inequality via the growth of Community Business. We create a 'bottom up' approach, ensuring we shape services for the community, led by the community. All our Community Businesses are looking for volunteers to join, learn new skills and make products that will be sold on our Online platform.

We aim to support new Community Businesses in Abram Ward and Boroughwide.

COMMUNITY BUSINESS ASSETS, DEVELOPMENT & MANAGEMENT.

The Wigan and Leigh Community Charity (WLCC) offers a ‘one-stop shop’ for aspirant local entrepreneurs and community leaders who need access to the knowledge, skills, networks and resources, both on and off line, to set up successful community-focused businesses in the borough and its immediate surroundings.

We do this by working closely with the local authority, local business and community networks. We manage buildings accommodating small businesses; we promote community businesses by promoting them on and off line, in especially designed and managed trading locations; we empower local communities to become more entrepreneurial through our practical, reality-based training and development; and we stimulate early ambitions by providing experience-based education, mentoring and work experience for young people.

Buildings

The Platt Bridge Community Zone is a vivid example of our ability to combine the ‘soft’ assets community groups bring in terms of knowledge, skills and volunteer time, and the ‘hard’ assets the Council can offer, such as buildings.

WLCC will build on that experience to give a new lease of life to vital local facilities, using our ability to access funding and resources not available to the Council to enable us to invest and improve the offer to local people.

Open spaces

The Council’s ‘hard’ assets are not only buildings, they can be Open Spaces such as playing fields, bowling greens, hard-standing, allotments etc. There are many ways that these areas can be re-purposed to provide new spaces for vital local facilities or for the use of new and existing Community Businesses.

Using our ability to access funding and resources not available to the Council, we can invest in and improve these disused places to re-invigorate areas in and around the Borough.

Shop

Within our Wigan Hub, our shop is used to promote and sell the goods that are produced by local enterprises. Each enterprise will produce a range of goods for sale and as you browse the goods, you can also read their story and why the goods are produced and by whom. We are always looking for new producers to sell their goods.

We also deliver a programme of mentor driven support from our upstairs meeting space for people wishing to learn how they can become part of an existing or start a new Community Business. If you wish to enquire please email.

Community led housing

Under the banner of our “Neighbourhood Plan’, we aim for our neighbourhood to be socially inclusive and to provide homes for families, couples and single people of all ages and backgrounds, these homes will include small and large properties: apartments, houses and bungalows.

We also aim for homes in Abram Ward to have a mix of tenures, from social housing, affordable rented homes, affordable homes to buy as well as larger homes to rent or buy. It is essential that new homes are built to high-quality standards with environmental sustainability and energy efficiency at the forefront.

March 22, 2024

Social Enterprise of the Month: Happy Smiles

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We caught up with Alex Winstanley from Happy Smiles Training to find out how working with global brands such as Manchester United and Levis, as […]

February 28, 2024

Social Enterprise of the Month: Pianos, Pies and Pirouettes

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Piano, Pies and Pirouettes dance school recently secured £150,000 of Proper Good funding to continue bringing arts to the community. We talked to co-owner Alan […]

January 2, 2024

Social Enterprise of the month: PGW Rebuild with hope

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Rebuild with Hope caused a stir earlier this year when it set up its flagship store in the former Debenhams store in Wigan’s Grand Arcade. […]

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Are you someone or have you identified someone who might benefit from becoming involved with WLCC or any of our initiatives such as Made in Wigan?

There are various ways that you can get in touch to take things forward.

It may be that you want to make contact to first find out if there really is a ‘fit’.

You may want to speak on the phone, come and visit us on behalf of someone, or maybe you’d like to bring someone along for an initial chat.

Whichever route you prefer we can accommodate.

First things first though, share some brief details and we’ll be back in touch!

Wigan & Leigh Community Charity. Business Community Hub. Platt Bridge Community Zone.

81 Ribble Road, Platt Bridge, Wigan. WN2 5EG

E: hello@wlcommunity.org.uk T: 01942 732 022 W: wlcommunity.org.uk

made possible by the hard work and dedication of many people and among others the following organisations.

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