YSM Communities

Since July 2012, we have been working in partnership with HEINEKEN, the UK’s biggest cider & beer company, who enlisted our support to help develop their long-standing commitment to community investment. Our community work is now focused on three very different areas where HEINEKEN is a major employer: Moss Side and Hulme in Manchester, Tadcaster in Yorkshire and Ledbury in Herefordshire.

As part of our community engagement in these communities, we conducted public workshops which brought local people together to identify practical, positive projects which responded to local needs. You can watch the videos below to see the workshops we conducted in each area to kick-start the process. As you will see, each community is unique in its own way

We have now put all the ideas in each area on an easy-to-use, local web-site and are working with local community leaders to get the projects underway. We are also engaging HEINEKEN employees, matching their skills and capabilities to local need.

Moss Side and Hulme

Moss Side & Hulme residents are keen to promote a sense of pride in a multi-cultural area, with a rich heritage and a ‘can do’ culture. Negative associations about the area are being taken apart by a passionate and vocal community.

To find out more, visit the Your Square Mile website for Moss Side & Hulme

Tadcaster

Tadcaster is a Yorkshire town rich in history and home to three famous brewers. It is inhabited by a fervent group of citizens keen to revitalise their community. Your Square Mile is working hard to engage local businesses and a cross-section of residents whose voices are rarely heard in civic life: young people, the elderly and parents with young children.

To find out more, visit the Your Square Mile website for Tadcaster.

Ledbury

The home of cider, poetry and beautiful architecture, Ledbury has many attractive assets but it was the local voices we came to hear – and they spoke out in abundance.

To find out more visit the Your Square Mile website for Ledbury.

The Pilot Communities

Previous to our work with HEINEKEN, we worked with sixteen communities across the UK. If you want to be inspired by your fellow citizens and the energy being put into tackling social problems, watch our documentary.

We have learned a lot from these pilots, about some of the barriers that need to be overcome, about what makes and helps people to get more involved, and about what tools people need.

These learnings have informed the development of this website and the formation of the Your Square Mile Mutual.

We began this work in February 2011 in the following sixteen communities: Bettws, Caw, Galliagh, Glyncoch, Gorleston, Greenock, Hoxton & Shoreditch, L8 (Toxteth), Manton, Mount Vernon, Northfield, Pollokshields, St John’s, Todmorden, Weavers in Tower Hamlets and Wigton. You can watch the workshop films from each individual community below.