Programme - Kindred

Kindred is home to a variety of programmes designed to strengthen and diversify the social economy across Liverpool City Region. This includes partnerships and programmes that support women, our diverse communities, young people and a people-led approach to regeneration of place and the environment. Kindred’s work puts social value at the heart of economic growth, supporting creative and social businesses so they can grow their impact and benefit the communities they are rooted in.

BlaST

Black Social Traders Network (BlaST) is a network of Black-led socially-trading organisations (STOs) in Liverpool City Region, recognising and amplifying the collective impact and contributions of social business leaders with Black and Ethnic Minority lived experience. It is vitally important in Kindred’s aim of providing 25% of our investment to Black-led organisations.

Ideas Work

Ideas Work is Kindred’s young people project, working with the next generation of social-trading organisations, from ages 5–24. So far, this strand of our work has included pilot sessions in LCR-based primary schools with years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. September 2024’s ‘Occupy’ programme was designed to encourage questions around ideas and work, working with young people between 18 and 24+ and giving them time, space and the resources to try out new ideas with a social agenda or benefit.

Street and a Half, St Helens

The Street and a Half’ building (SnA) in St Helens is the culmination of almost two years of work with St Helens Borough Council. The building runs along Haydock Street and Bickerstaffe Street in the town centre and is designed to help support and increase the growth of the already vibrant social economy across the Borough. The new space will support and nurture creative and social businesses and start-ups.

Women in the Know, Knowsley

Women in the Know began in Knowsley in 2023, bringing together around 40 local women to a series of sessions hosted by local STOs. Initially an opportunity to talk about their social business activity, startups and ideas to make improvements in their communities, the group was supported to explore their ideas and their aspirations for their new and existing socially trading businesses; to connect with each other and work towards pitching to secure Kindred Development Awards to support the realisation of their plans. Now, Kindred is bringing on board partners to develop a Women in the Know Enterprise Incubator to support the talented women social entrepreneurs from Kirkby and across the Borough. A care pilot is being explored and delivered with a series of partners.

Green Social Prescribing

Supported by Kindred, Sefton-based Gateway Collective is working alongside Vauxhall Health Centre, a GP surgery in North Liverpool, to develop a community growing project on green space around the surgery. Alongside that specific outcome, the project is designed to look at ways that STOs with green space can work in partnership with NHS services to deliver green social prescribing.

Social Economy Club

Kindred hosts the peer-to-peer Social Economy Club alongside partners School for Social Entrepreneurs, Capacity and LJMU. Its name reflects the growing, thriving social economy ecosystem in Liverpool City Region and our collective role in its strength and development. A bi-monthly get-together, it’s a chance for STOs to meet to share ideas, stories and solutions, ask for and offer help and support and collaborate.

Women Ambition Programme

A peer-to-peer programme co-designed and delivered by women social business leaders and supported by Kindred. It was developed in response to evidence gained from Kindred’s first two years of investment, to identify and overcome the barriers to accelerated and high growth facing women-led STOs. For example, one of the findings indicated that women-led STOs are less likely to ask for the resources they need/ additional resources, and are less confident about their businesses’ capacity to grow, despite evidencing their ability to set up and run sustained business activity.

Our investees
So far, we’ve made 66 investments in 51 socially-trading organisations across Liverpool City Region, over the last four years. They are music venues and maker spaces; they tackle active transport and aquaponics; provide legal and coaching and signing services; they are cafés and football clubs and organisations that work with young babies and older people. These are our current investments.