Community Anchor Organisations and the impact on the wider determinants of health 2022
As part of the VCSE Health and Wellbeing Alliance, Locality (in consortium with Power to Change) have been working with the government’s Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) to research the impact of community anchor organisations on the wider determinants of health. This includes understanding how they impact those experiencing health inequalities in their communities.
What are community anchor organisations?
For the purposes of this research, we consider community anchor organisations (CAOs) to be those that:
are independent and community led tend to be multi-purpose, employing staff, providing services and activities, and managing community assets, to tackle local challenges are committed to positive economic, social, or environmental change in their community, with any surplus funds reinvested in local impact survive through generating a diversity of income streams, including trading goods and/or services
provide a voice to local people in the shaping and delivery of community services.
Locality and Power to Change have supported CAOs to serve their local areas for many years. As such,
we are aware of how their multipurpose, locally rooted, asset-based delivery model positively impacts the
lives of local people through these determinants. This research seeks to explore this impact in more detail.
