Networks, Support & Advocacy
Networks and support organisations have a key role to play in strengthening and building the capacity of land-based social enterprises. They provide access to things that practitioners often find it difficult to obtain, such as information, markets, and advocacy. Moreover, networks are important to innovative projects as they make it easier to draw on a wider ranges of skills and resources. However, several challenges exist to creating, accessing and maintaining these support systems.

Key issues:
- Creating and maintaining networks and relationships requires a specific skill set, one that even experienced practitioners are rarely trained in.
- Sustaining networks and support organisations requires resources and capacity. Engaging practitioners can also be challenging, especially when there the direct short-term benefits are not clear.
- Where support does exist, it is often focused on specific sub-sectors such as community food growing. This can mean a lack of resources and structures for collaborating outside these silos on cross-cutting issues
- Conflicts around values, ideals, goals, representation, governance, funding and alliances can derail attempts at collaboration.
Different land-based sectors face many similar issues. Working together, these groups could identify and campaign on shared policy goals.
What needs to change:
- Internal conflicts need to be understood and dealt with as a core part of engagement with diverse groups. There need to be better governance structures and facilitators, and clarity of shared aims, objectives and values.
- Practitioners need to acknowledge the value of network and relationship-building across different sectors, embrace strategic and identify support needs.
- Support organisations can help practitioners hone their network-building skills. Projects like Power to Change’s Peer Networks programme can help organisations’ develop the necessary skills to create strong and sustainable networks.
- Funders can support collaboration between organisations by funding collaborative projects.
- Public commissioning should actively support networks to coordinate bids from smaller land-based social enterprises
Our projects
- Power to Change’s Peer Networks Programme: we are convening a Community of Practice to share learning and experiences, and come up with innovative models of developing networks.
- We previously worked with the Tudor Trust to provide support and advice to land-based social enterprises.
Further resources
Scroll down to the posts below to read the latest updates on our work in this policy area.
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Related publications
Research reports and publications written by the Shared Assets team
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Land Based Social Enterprise: What is standing in the way of common good land use? In this report, we explore what is standing in the way of new models of common good land use.
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Supporting Land-Based Social Enterprises This report explores some of the key issues to consider when supporting new land-based social enterprises. The findings are drawn from interviews with 13 representatives from social enterprises who received direct technical, business and training support from Shared Assets between 2013-15. [Read the full report here]
Related news and opinion
Blog articles, news and opinion pieces from the Shared Assets team
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