Do you know what a Community Share Offer is? No, I didn’t, until recently. But some friends of mine are trying to buy a building that’s a fantastic resource in their local community, so I’ve learned all about it.

Basically, a Community Share Offer is a way to raise funds for something you’re wanting to buy by asking people in the community to purchase shares in it. They then become a decision-making member of the cooperative of people that owns that commodity – in this case, a community hub in Coalville, Leicestershire.

If you’re short of time and want to cut straight to a summary of this particular community share offer, click here. But if you want to know the story of why I’m interested in it, read on!

This is my friend Deana, who I met in a tea stall queue at a literature festival gig in June 2017.

She’s a friendly, chatty person and, in fact, a bit of a force of nature. Indeed, we met because she overheard me telling someone my dream was to help young people write whatever they wanted to write, and she leant forward to join in, asking ‘what’s stopping you, then?’, before suggesting a number of places I could go to for funding. A challenge, as a rejection-sensitive anxious avoidant, I wasn’t quite ready for. But I wasn’t going to get away with that.

Before long, Deana had invited me to nip over and see her organisation – Th!nk FC, of possibility tool fame – at work, and offered me a small, paid authorly gig as an incentive to go. This was to run WW1-themed writing activities in the market hall and schools in Coalville – her ‘patch’. I was filmed (though I tried to get out of it) reading the poem I’d pulled together from snatches of the young people’s writing, with the film projected on a wall as part of the Famous Fifty exhibition. A close up of my face, huge for all to see, and my voice booming out across the hall, saw quiet inner Alison begin the journey to being comfortable being seen.

Which continued over the following years, seeing me volunteering with Deana and Co at festivals, though I’d never camped before in my life; acting as pit crew for community exhibitions Up North, where Deana made me approach random strangers at the next-door TEDX conference and talk about the project (fantastic free rejection-aversion therapy!); visiting a town-based daytime music event in Derbyshire to meet some youth workers, where I saw what’s possible with a shoestring budget and the goodwill of the general public if only you’re brave enough to ask for help.

I’ve learned a lot from Deana since I met her – things that’ve had a direct impact on me as a person but also on my creative, freelancing life – and I know I’m not the only one. She’s the Queen of Possibility Thinking and the ‘You Can’ attitude. That attitude is catching, and there’s now a large body of people who, like me, have experienced the life-changing experience of being Deana’d and gone on support others in a similar way.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Around three years ago Deana and her Th!nk FC crew set up a new initiative, a co-operative Community Benefit Society called Coalville Communities and Neighbours – Coalville CAN.

As they say themselves, they don’t attempt to fix people, but to listen to what people in those communities would like to do to fix things for themselves, and then support them to make that happen. This might be lending a group a room to meet in or a shelf in the hub shop to sell the things they make, sharing ideas of places they can go to for funding and some coaching on how to apply for it, short term practical business support, encouragement, a friendly face and a cup of tea. Whatever they need, as long as they’re willing to put in some leg work themselves, too.

Following Deana’s philosophy, Coalville CAN staff and volunteers open people’s minds to possibilities, support them to work round obstacles, and help make change happen. It works beautifully and they’ve gone from strength to strength, from an early start in a borrowed room in an office building to occupying the whole of the building.

Their landlords – East Midlands Housing – have now offered to sell them that building, and Coalville CAN have been running a Community Share Offer to raise funds so they can do that. Owning the hub would secure their future in the heart of Coalville and enable them to support other groups and initiatives in the area. An area which very much needs that sort of support.

And they’re so close to the line – to a figure that’ll unlock match funding and other financial opportunities. But they only have until 30^th September 2024 to find that £30,000.

And so I’m sharing this story as a preamble to asking whether you might possibly be able to put your hand in your pocket and chip some money in.

Can you help? Here’s the link to the Community Share investment page if you TH!NK you can.

Watch a video about the share offer here and here.

Make a payment towards the community share offer here.

Summary of investment information:

Payments up to £24 are received – with much gratitude – as a donation.

Payments between £25 to £249 are also a donation but earn the donor membership of Coalville CAN, meaning they can attend meetings and vote on decisions about how CCAN is run.

Shares themselves are £250 each and interest (at 4% from year 3) is paid against share purchases of £1,000 and over. The money can be withdrawn again in the future and the investor also becomes a member of Coalville CAN.

In the very unlikely case that CCAN can’t go ahead with the purchase, each investor would be contacted and asked what they wanted to happen with their investment, options being to retain the investment in CCAN’s contingency plans or have their money returned. 

However, once CCAN achieve the remaining £30,000 they can then access match funding and agreed-in-principle loans from a number of community-focused organisations, which would take them up to the asking price of the building. 

It’s a very positive situation, and the team are so close to the winning line. So if you’ve got a bit of money you’re willing to donate, or a slightly bigger pot of money sitting earning less than 4% interest somewhere else, I’d ask you to consider helping this wonderful organisation buy the roof over their heads so they can continue doing the life-changing things for their community that they do.

You can make a payment towards the community share offer here.