What we do and why
Our mission is to nudge lasting change in surprising and enterprising ways to build a strong local community and economy.
Our vision is to make Union Street a street the whole world loves again.
We do this by…
Nudging local buildings and spaces to be used and loved.
Nudging local people and businesses to be brave, creative, resilient and healthy, supporting themselves and their local community.
Nudging local and national change for communities by using our voice and leading by example.
The empty, neglected buildings have a big impact on where we live. They hold memories, histories and can be reused to create opportunities and hope for local people now and in the future. People wanted this to change.
How we do things is as important as what we do because it increases the lasting impact for local people.
These are some of the things that we think are important…
Community ownership
Empty buildings in private ownership have caused long term problems along the street for decades.
An important part of changing the street is making sure some buildings are owned by the community. This means we can use these buildings to create a street that meets the needs of local people and more of the economic impact from changes we make stays in the community.
We own three buildings. We bought The Clipper in 2017, we bought The Millennium with Eat Work Art in 2020, and we bought C103 in 2022.
We lease two buildings: Union Corner and The Plot.
Collective investment
595 people have invested in community shares in Nudge. Community shares are a way of people coming together and using their money to make something happen that they care about. We have people who have invested £50 and people who have invested £100,000, they all have one vote each.
We raised £205,000 on our first share offer for The Clipper in September 2018.
We raised £300,000 on our second share offer for The Millennium in December 2020.
Local spend
We know that spending money with local businesses makes our community stronger, supports local talent and improves our local economy.
We aim to spend 40% of our money within 1 mile of Union Street and 75% in Plymouth.
We prioritise using local businesses and have seen many grow and create new jobs as a result.
We prioritise local people for interviews and most of our small team leave nearby. We give people who have experienced additional barriers to getting work additional support and opportunities.
Small things are important
It’s not just about the buildings. It’s about people, making connections and making change step by step and learning as we go.
Looking after the little things add up to big changes that have more impact.
That is why we make sure that people leave their mark in our buildings in lots of different ways. It is why we might prioritise work differently to a building developer. We are not a ‘service’, we are a community offers lots of informal support to each other in our spaces and on the street.
We reuse and repurpose
We are a giant recycling project - we value the materials and care that previous generations put into the buildings we are looking after.
We look after objects we find that will have memories for people and repurpose them into the buildings future uses. We reuse as much material as possible on site, gift it on or recycle locally. We do this because we know it makes environmental sense and because it values the memories and history in the buildings in a way that creates unique and special spaces.
We love colour and having fun!
When we asked people how they would like the street to change the main response was that it felt grey, uncared for, unsafe and dominated by cars.
So our activity out on the street seeks to change that. We regularly pop out on the street with activities, music and events, and every year we close the road for the Union Street Party.