What is Community Business Weekend?
Community Business Weekend is an annual campaign which encourages people to visit a local community-run business to find out what they do. The campaign is now in its four year, and will run from Thursday 16th May to Sunday 19th May 2019.
What is a community business?
Community businesses aim to help address local needs and protect important services that people rely on, including housing, local shops and training opportunities. According to Power to Change, community businesses have four key characteristics in common:
- They are locally rooted
- They are accountable to the local community
- They trade for the benefit of local people
- They have a broad community impact
What will Campaign Collective be working on?
Plans for the annual campaign were launched today, whose organising team includes members from the charity communications agency Campaign Collective. The agency was appointed to work on the campaign by Power to Change.
Our members will be leading on a number of aspects of the campaign, including supporter engagement, social media, and the overall strategy development.
The theme for this year is #CommunityBusinessMatters, and we are asking people involved in community businesses and local people to share why #CommunityBusinessMatters to them.
Campaign Collective members have developed a toolkit to help supporters get involved. The guide includes links to:
- social media templates to help spread the word on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
- press release templates to promote your involvement to local media
- template letter to send your local school or college
- events guide to help plan your event
How can someone find out more information?
Community businesses can upload details about their community business in time for when our map launches this month. Anyone who does so will receive free stickers and bunting.
Organisers are aiming to build on the huge success of last year’s campaign, which saw more than 17,000 people visit 225 community businesses to learn all about the impact they are having, and how to get involved.