Bicester Social Impact & Community Hub

Our Why
Bicester is a historic market town that has seen dramatic changes over recent years, becoming the ‘fastest growing town in Europe’. Despite a population increase, much of the high street remains empty and there is a severe lack of provision for community spaces.

Through our place-based approach to fostering thriving communities, we’ve identified a rising need for social infrastructure in Bicester. This need can be evidenced in the Local Insights report, which reveals a higher needs score for ‘Active & Engaged Communities’, reflecting limited third-sector and charitable organising and lower civic engagement despite the demand for additional civic facilities. This data aligns with feedback from local grassroots organisations, who report lack of accessible, inclusive and affordable spaces for community organising has led to increased social isolation and a reduced sense of belonging.

Our Idea
The project aims to develop a community hub and workspace for non-profits and purpose-led organisations that are currently unable to access affordable, inclusive, and accessible spaces to connect with, create with, and support local communities. We hope that by unlocking a hub space such as this, we can support groups in building resourcing capacity and developing shared approaches collectively to bring Bicester’s communities together.

At Makespace, Alex has been the Project Manager on similar initiatives through a programme known as Meanwhile in Oxfordshire that supported the refurbishment and reactivation of two units on Bicester’s high street (Bicester Green & Crafters Emporium) among 27 other spaces across the county. This project will create a hub and spoke model, providing vital social infrastructure to foster community wealth-building approaches locally and address systemic issues in our community, including social isolation, food poverty, health and well-being.