Agbero 2100 is a strategic intervention within ‘systems design’ to support leaders from the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector across England to sustainably own and/or manage community assets. Over recent years, Ubele has been iteratively designing the Agbero 2100 infrastructure drawing on research, community consultation, and Baseline Assessments conducted with participating organisations.
In 2023, The Ubele Initiative published a new research report titled A Place to Call Home 2.0. (Read here) written by Karl Murray, following the original report of this name produced in partnership with Locality in 2015 (Read here). A Place to Call Home 2.0. explores the challenges, but also the benefits and value of sustainably owning or managing community assets within Black and racially minoritised communities. In the appendix of this report is a preparatory and readiness typology (Read here) defined by six key domains and four development levels. Agbero 2100 uses this typology as a participatory framework to support leaders to assess their organisation, identify development opportunities, and access bespoke support.
In 2024, 132 organisations expressed interest in joining Agbero 2100 across six English regions. Following a thorough selection process, 50 organisations were shortlisted to participate in initial training, of which 32 progressed to access development support. As mentioned, eligible community businesses are assessed using the typology to identify their level of development across the following six key domains: Financial Resources, Impact and Effectiveness, Operations and Infrastructure, Connectedness and Engagement, Physical Asset Ownership and Leadership and Governance. This ‘Baseline Assessment’ produces an ‘Action Plan’ to set development priorities for each organisation which will be reviewed in a second assessment after organisations have received development support.
The Action Plan produced from the Baseline Assessment guides how assignments are allocated to consultants to provide targeted Development Support. Additionally, eligible community businesses have access to training workshops across the six domains led by expert practitioners from Ubele’s consultancy framework, to enhance the skills and knowledge of the Agbero 2100 cohort. The Agbero 2100 team are also establishing ‘working groups’ to explore financial instruments and models for equitable community wealth building to support our cohort access transformative opportunities.
Advocacy is important within Agbero 2100 for connecting community businesses with up-to-date resources for community wealth building, facilitating stakeholder engagement, and signposting organisations to key opportunities across the VCSE sector. For eligible organisations in London, Ubele staff are exploring ‘place based’ approaches to local economic development by engaging with schools, local authorities and vcs organisations to review local plans, and advocate for Black and racially minoritised community businesses.
National & Regional forums serve as spaces to review insights emerging from Agbero 2100, analyse policy environments, and explore peer-to-peer leadership development. The forums provide opportunities to convene leaders using creative methodologies and gain a deeper understanding into the challenges and opportunities for community wealth building across the United Kingdom. In 2024, The Ubele Initiative sponsored, or co-designed, a range of forums such as the National Launch of Agbero 2100 at GMCVO in Manchester followed by a roadshow with Phoenix Way partners across six English regions (Watch here); Capacity Building Conference with Action for Race Equality, Voice for Change England and Olmec; and sponsored 32 leaders to attend the Locality Convention 2024 (Watch video here).
The Learning component of Agbero 2100 is designed to identify challenges in order to facilitate participatory problem-solving, drawing on real-world experiences to support the iterative development of Agbero 2100. The Learning component has three elements: Action Learning Sets, a Learning Partner, and collecting research and data across the six English regions to ensure ‘place-based’ integration.
The delivery of Agbero 2100 has had several challenges, including the fact that participating organisations need time to assess their organisations, identify development needs, and capacity to absorb support to make meaningful change. The race riots in the UK in August 2024 put additional pressure on Ubele and the organisations within its network, as new crisis workstreams emerged to support affected communities, which were generally unaccounted for in terms of budget. Furthermore, recruiting staff for Agbero 2100 has been challenging, as this strategic intervention requires specific skill sets to navigate the complexities of race, development, economics, iterative design methods, community engagement, and legal processes.
In 2025, the Agbero 2100 team aims to further develop this infrastructure based on insights and priority areas emerging from the programme. This includes plans to produce digital tools to make Community Wealth Building more accessible; conduct more interviews with community leaders such as Margaret Taribo; build profiles of participating community businesses; and archive past programme activity, such as ‘Agbero LIVE’ - a set of webinars to spotlight community leaders, explore key concepts and engage Strategic Partners.
The Ubele Initiative is extremely grateful for our collaboration with sector partners who have contributed to delivering the Agbero 2100 intervention over the past year including One Community Link, Leicester Community Benefit Society, Muslim Charities Forum, Pathway Fund, 198 Contemporary, Community Shares Unit, GMCVO, The Phoenix Way, Locality, Material Cultures, Runnymede Trust, Kinaraa C.I.C.; Augustine Clement Solicitors; Red Ochre, Aeaccountax, and many more.
The Ubele Initiative is grateful to Propel London, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, and Impact on Urban Health for funding Agbero 2100.
Text by Christxpher Oliver
