Helping community businesses be more resilient – Lessons learnt from the Trade Up programme

One of Power to Change’s three strategic priorities for 2021-2025 is ‘more resilient community businesses’. This paper explores whether the Trade Up programme - designed to support the growth of community businesses and being delivered between May 2017 to March 2022 - made community businesses more resilient. Findings show that while different components of the Trade Up programme directly encouraged resilience, most community businesses will require further time and support to thrive in the long run. It explores the role of funders in supporting established community businesses going forward.