Abram Ward Community Co-operative was established in 2013 to create a 'bottom up' approach to growing the community, and also Wigan Borough.
It's based at Platt Bridge Community Zone, where it completed a community asset transfer in 2014.
From there, it provides advice, support and training to the local community to help establish social enterprises and community businesses.
The co-operative has developed a neighbourhood planning forum to allow the community to have their say on both economic development and health and wellbeing.
It has also developed the Wigan Borough Social Enterprise Network and works with it to address issues identified by the community. Abram Ward Community Cooperative is now leading on the campaign to designate Wigan Borough as a Social Enterprise Town, via Social Enterprise UK’s kitemark.
The co-operative is one of six organisations across the country that are part of the Power to Change 'Empowering Places' programme. Through this, it has created a local wealth building project called 'Made in Wigan', which aims to reduce inequality via the growth of community businesses.
Made in Wigan is a project that aims to work with all anchor institutions and the private sector to ensure there is a 'line of sight' of social enterprises and community businesses that will empower local people to spend locally, whilst be trained to showcase their 'special something' and turn it into a service that meets the needs of the local community.