Locality Awards Shortlist for Locality Awards '25 announced

The Power of Community Award

Celebrating community organisations working with local people to shape their own future and to build a fairer society where everyone in the community thrives.

• High Trees Community Development Trust launched the Lambeth Peer Action Collective alongside partners, with an aim to empower local young people to tackle violence. Young people themselves gained skills and opportunities by researching violence locally, campaigning and influencing policy makers. They even allocated £150,000 of funding to make long-lasting change in their local area.
• Rotunda is a community anchor organisation in Kirkdale, North Liverpool, that is wholly community-led with local representation at all levels. They ensure local people have their voices heard, working with them to co-design projects and influence local health services, as well as regenerating the area and improving the lives of thousands of people each year.
• Tree Shepherd is a South London charity that empowers entrepreneurs, primarily women and minority founders, to start and grow businesses. They embed community voice with surveys and a local traders forum, create new markets and opportunities, and provide support, mentoring, training courses and affordable workspace to build local wealth. 

Transforming Lives Award

Celebrating community organisations whose support has had a significant impact on changing local people’s lives.

• Be The Change Youth Project delivers trauma-informed programs for disadvantaged young people in Bolton. Last year they supported over 15,600 young people to gain confidence and social skills through sports, mentoring, leadership, and education– like their knife crime awareness workshops which were shown to have reduced anti-social behaviour across the local area.
• C-Change West London work across Hounslow, Hillingdon and Ealing to tackle health inequalities, empower local residents, and create inclusive opportunities. Their Youth Filmmaking and Social Action Programme provides a safe space for disadvantaged young people to gain confidence and skills, with participants often moving into education and employment.
• St Paul's Community Development Trust has supported families in Balsall Heath, Birmingham for over 50 years. Last year, through education, a city farm, and wellbeing and family services, they improved the lives of 3,200 people, providing hope, healing and connection.

Building Inclusive Communities Award

Supported by Howden, this award celebrates community organisations that connect diverse groups of people and create inclusive spaces.

• The Ethnic Minority Council work in the West Midlands to support underrepresented and marginalised communities. Through a huge range of activities like remembrance events, regular groups and museum exhibitions, they help thousands of people who might never otherwise have met to share stories, challenge assumptions, and build meaningful relationships.
• Halifax Opportunities Trust have worked for 23 years to create a vibrant, multicultural, and self-sustaining community in Park ward, Halifax. They provide English language and integration support for new arrivals, and they celebrate diversity and create opportunities for people to meet across their services, from their training to their family hubs.
• Liberdade Community Development Trust runs Gosforth Civic Theatre, which was created by and for people with learning disabilities. They foster a welcoming, inclusive environment for different groups, and their work alters expectations, enabling people with learning disabilities to develop higher aspirations for themselves.

Enterprising Organisation Award

Celebrating community organisations that have developed a creative business model that makes them successful and financially resilient.

• Acton Arts Project transformed a disused library in West London into a beautiful 2-screen cinema and lively community space. They are now a revenue-funded operation, combining ticket income, venue hire, and café sales with crowdfunding and help from volunteers.
• Community Ventures in Middlesbrough responds to local need – when residents told them housing was their biggest challenge, they secured nearly £2 million in social investment and brought 38 empty homes back into use. They even opened a community shop to supply appliances and furniture, providing homes, jobs and hope.
• Impact Hub Yorkshire provide training and support to enterprises run by people from marginalised groups. Starting off reliant on grants, they now get income from consultancy, events and venue hire, as well as a portfolio of enterprise support with partners like PwC, West Yorkshire Combined Authority and Channel 4. 

Community Heritage Award

New for 2025 and supported by Historic England, this award celebrates community organisations that have used a heritage building or space to improve the lives of their community. 

• Byrne Avenue Baths is a 1930s Art Deco swimming pool complex and community hub in the Wirral. It faced demolition before it was rescued, restored, and re-opened by the community. It now hosts a huge range of community groups, a sports hall, community café, a free Christmas Toy Shop and coat rack, and a social supermarket.
• Acumen Community Buildings restored the Grade II-listed Old Rectory in Houghton-le-Spring in the Sunderland Coalfields. They’ve involved 20,000 local people in events like folk singing, stonemasonry, a Big Lunch and telling stories of the people who used to live in the Rectory. This has created new connections, skills, community pride, and 21 new local enterprises.
• Bramley Baths and Community Trust is Leeds's last Edwardian bath house. Saved from closure by its community in 2012, it is now a thriving social enterprise providing community events, a gym, a pool and health and wellbeing services to 3,000 people a week in this disadvantaged area.
• The Winchester Project (The Winch) rescued Belsize Community Library from closure in 2012. Originally built in 1937, its open-plan layout strengthens local connections, allowing people attending different activities to bump into each other. Its baby groups, Faarsi and Hebrew storytimes, weekly ‘Crafternoon’ and music nights now attract 10,000 people a year to read, learn, gather and connect. 

Keep it Local Award

Supported by Lloyds Bank Foundation, this award celebrates local authorities and health bodies that work with local community organisations to unlock the power of their community.

• Shropshire Council are working with local community groups to pilot a Community Covenant in Market Drayton, something the We’re Right Here campaign has been calling for. The community covenant is a radical, neighbourhood-level power-sharing agreement that will allow local people to make decisions like local health services are delivered.
• South Tyneside Council created Local Area Coordinators to help local people with complex life situations build on their strengths and access all types of local services. Through their South Tyneside Pledge, 376 public and  private organisations have committed to invest, support and recruit locally, keeping over £3 million in the local economy.
• Wiltshire Council has been on a three-year journey of honest co-production with Wiltshire Centre for Independent Living, a Disabled Persons User Led Organisation. People with lived experience now challenge barriers, take part in staff inductions and training, and design services across adult social care, improving accessibility for thousands of local people