Soho First Community Development Trust
Charity 1173499
Overview
Summary
Soho First Community Development Trust appears to operate less as a single-purpose service provider than as a locally rooted connector: mobilising residents’ skills, aspirations and relationships alongside partner organisations to influence Soho’s social, economic and environmental conditions. Its unusually broad charitable remit gives it potential to connect community-led priorities with regeneration, employment, environmental and wellbeing activity. The available evidence suggests an asset-based, place-focused model, though it does not show the scale, durability or outcomes of its work.
Operational geography
No operational geography is currently available for this organisation.
Areas of work
- Economic/community Development/employment
- Environment/conservation/heritage
Who they help
- Children/young People
- Elderly/old People
- Other Charities Or Voluntary Bodies
- People With Disabilities
How they help
- Acts As An Umbrella Or Resource Body
- Provides Advocacy/advice/information
- Provides Services
Discoveries involving this organisation
The Atlas has not published any Discoveries involving this organisation yet.
Observations
A connector rather than a narrowly defined provider
The organisation appears to use an asset-based community-development approach: connecting residents’ existing capacities and aspirations so they can identify and respond to local priorities, rather than defining needs solely through services delivered to them.
Why it matters
This helps explain its likely role in the local civic ecosystem: building participation, relationships and local agency may be as central as delivering projects. It may therefore be a useful bridge for organisations seeking credible community connection.
Show evidence
“Bringing together the gifts, passions, skills and aspirations of everyone in Soho and Jewellery Quarter to help make the area a better place to live and work.”
Source:Organisation“Connecting the gifts, aspirations, capacities and skills of people in Birmingham's Soho Ward so that we are better able to identify local needs and priorities and act in response to them.”
Source:Organisation
A broad regeneration mandate may enable cross-sector convening
Its charitable objects span poverty, employment, training, business support, housing, amenities, environment, health, childcare and safety. This may position Soho First to connect issues often addressed separately and to convene partners around place-based priorities.
Why it matters
The breadth is distinctive because it creates scope for the organisation to recognise links between economic opportunity, environmental conditions and community wellbeing, rather than treating these as isolated programmes.
Show evidence
“The charity's objects include urban regeneration through relief of poverty and unemployment, education and training, business support, housing, public amenities, environmental conservation, public health, childcare, public safety and crime prevention.”
Source:Charity Commission“Soho First aspires to work alongside residents and partners to make a difference to local priorities - social, economic and environmental.”
Source:Organisation
Its stated geography appears to be expanding or differently framed
There is a potentially important difference between the formal objects’ focus on Soho Ward and the website’s repeated reference to Soho and Jewellery Quarter. This may indicate an expanded operating geography, a partnership geography, or a change in organisational positioning.
Why it matters
Geographic scope shapes whose priorities the trust represents, which relationships it can build, and whether it is best understood as a ward-based body or a wider neighbourhood connector.
Show evidence
“The charity objects refer in particular to Birmingham's Soho Ward.”
Source:Charity Commission“Working for the Good of Soho and Jewellery Quarter.”
Source:Organisation
- Which projects, services and partnerships are currently active, and which parts of the broad charitable remit are actually delivered.
- Whether Jewellery Quarter is a formal service area, a collaborative focus, or primarily part of the organisation’s public positioning.
- How residents influence decisions and what outcomes have resulted from its community-connection approach.
Remaining uncertainties
- Recent annual reports, accounts or impact reports showing activities, beneficiaries, outcomes and funding sources.
- Details of current delivery partners, governance arrangements and the geographic reach of programmes.
- Examples of resident-led priorities that have led to action or sustained local change.
Additional evidence needed
Charity Commission profile
Activities
Connecting the gifts, aspirations, capacities and skills of people in Birmingham's Soho Ward so that we are better able to identify local needs and priorities and act in response to them. Soho First aspires to work alongside residents and partners to make a difference to local priorities - social, economic and environmental - to create a place that is even better for all to live and work in.
Charity objects
1. TO DEVELOP THE CAPACITY AND SKILLS OF THE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIALLY AND ECONOMICALLY DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITY OF SOHO WARD, BIRMINGHAM, IN SUCH A WAY THAT THEY ARE BETTER ABLE TO IDENTIFY, AND HELP MEET, THEIR NEEDS AND TO PARTICIPATE MORE FULLY IN SOCIETY. 2. THE PROMOTION FOR THE PUBLIC BENEFIT OF URBAN REGENERATION IN AREAS OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEPRIVATION (AND IN PARTICULAR BIRMINGHAMÆS SOHO WARD) BY ALL OR ANY OF THE FOLLOWING MEANS: A) THE RELIEF OF POVERTY IN SUCH WAYS AS MAY BE THOUGHT FIT; B) THE RELIEF OF UNEMPLOYMENT IN SUCH WAYS AS MAY BE THOUGHT FIT, INCLUDING ASSISTANCE TO FIND EMPLOYMENT; C) THE ADVANCEMENT OF EDUCATION, TRAINING OR RETRAINING, PARTICULARLY AMONG UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE, AND PROVIDING UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE WITH WORK EXPERIENCE; D) THE PROVISION OF FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE, TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, OR BUSINESS ADVICE OR CONSULTANCY IN ORDER TO PROVIDE TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE IN CASES OF FINANCIAL OR OTHER CHARITABLE NEED THROUGH HELP: (I) IN SETTING UP THEIR OWN BUSINESS, OR (II) TO EXISTING BUSINESSES; (E) THE CREATION OF TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES BY THE PROVISION OF WORKSPACE, BUILDINGS AND/OR LAND FOR USE ON FAVOURABLE TERMS; (F) THE PROVISION OF HOUSING FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN CONDITIONS OF NEED AND THE IMPROVEMENT OF HOUSING IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR OR IN CHARITABLE OWNERSHIP PROVIDED THAT SUCH POWER SHALL NOT EXTEND TO RELIEVING ANY LOCAL AUTHORITIES OR OTHER BODIES OF A STATUTORY DUTY TO PROVIDE OR IMPROVE HOUSING; (G) THE MAINTENANCE, IMPROVEMENT OR PROVISION OF PUBLIC AMENITIES; (H) THE PRESERVATION OF BUILDINGS OR SITES OF HISTORIC OR ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE; (I) THE PROVISION OR ASSISTANCE IN THE PROVISION OF RECREATIONAL FACILITIES FOR THE PUBLIC AT LARGE AND/ OR THOSE WHO, BY REASONS OF THEIR YOUTH, AGE, INFIRMITY OR DISABLEMENT, POVERTY OR SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CIRCUMSTANCES, HAVE NEED FOR SUCH FACILITIES; (J) THE PROTECTION OR CONSERVATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT; (K) THE PROVISION OF PUBLIC HEALTH FACILITIES AND CHILDCARE; (L) THE PROMOTION OF PUBLIC SAFETY AND PREVENTION OF CRIME; AND (M) SUCH OTHER MEANS AS MAY FROM TIME TO TIME BE DETERMINED SUBJECT TO THE PRIOR CONSENT OF THE CHARITY COMMISSIONERS FOR ENGLAND AND WALES.Ö