Workshop: Powerful Communities, Strong Economies – Making the economic case for community organisations

Powerful Communities

We live in uniquely uncertain and challenging times and it seems economic growth does not reach every neighbourhood.

Despite this, more and more places are finding their own answers - by building strong local partnerships that unlock the power of community and contribute to sustainable economic development.

This session will include examples from UK community organisations and will look at community ownership models as well as drawing on Locality’s report which provides a framework for local government can use to commission for economic resilience and community organisations can use to evidence their local economic impact.


Presenter: Tony Armstrong

Tony Armstrong

Tony is the CEO of Locality (UK). the national membership network supporting local community organisations to be strong and successful. Tony has led Locality since 2014 and oversees all aspects of the organisation.

He has a background in supporting communities to have more say over their local areas in the third sector and the public sector.

He led the national charity Living Streets between 2008-14.

Before joining the sector, he was a civil servant for 9 years and held a number of senior policy adviser roles in Government.

He worked on neighbourhood regeneration and renewal and health improvement and was one of the original members of staff of the Government's Neighbourhood Renewal Unit from 2001.