Zion Bristol: Keeping a vital resource at the heart of a community  

Zion Bristol was originally set up by local resident Jess Wright who bought the empty Methodist chapel and turned it into a community café.  

During Lockdown Jess decided to step away from the project and the community came together to discuss buying the building. Emma was a volunteer at the time. Like other volunteers and users of the centre, she wanted to keep Zion at the heart of the community.

“The place really came into its own during Covid. All the mutual aid partnerships set up during Covid highlighted how important this community space is. We were also a cost-of-living hub for the council last winter, offering free meals and providing hygiene bags. And we extended our opening hours so people could come in, have coffee and keep warm.”  

To enable the community to take ownership of the centre, Emma and a team of residents set up a community benefit society – then launched a community share offer to raise the capital.   They worked with Co-operatives UK’s Booster Fund, first to get a development grant to develop the share offer documents, business plan and receive the Standard Mark.    

With a target of £475,000 plus stamp duty to raise, local people rallied, lending their skills and expertise to the campaign in areas including finance and marketing.    

Zion received £240,000 from the Community Ownership Fund (COF) – a central government levelling up fund. And in August 2022, they successfully raised £234,908 from their community share offer, which included £25,000 match investment from the Community Shares Booster Fund, funded by Power to Change Trust.   

370 people invested, 288 of which came from immediate local area showing the level of local support.

“We would not be here without the share offer and COF funding”, said Emma. “At one point we were considering a mortgage. When we started crunching the figures on the mortgage, we realised we would not have been able to survive six months.    

John Dawson, Head of Investment at Co-operatives UK said: “This is another amazing story of people coming together to save a much-treasured community facility, using community shares. Over the past decade over £210m has been raised through community shares, and we were delighted to help Zion reach their fundraising target.” 

The sale completed in April 2023 and now Emma and her colleagues plan to build on the good work Zion Bristol. Zion Bristol now has seven local people on the payroll, a group of dedicated volunteers, and there is real hope for the future.

“Taking the centre into community ownership has been a huge learning curve” said Emma. “It has been a challenge, sometimes frustrating process. But, more importantly, it’s a hugely positively step and I’m excited for the future.” 

Zion Bristol are now working to grow their community offering – making links with the local GP surgery to support older people and working with the NHS in South Bristol to tackle inequalities and improve health outcomes.

“We’re proof that you can save an asset. We’re an area where things are always being taken away and not being replaced. It’s a big boost for the local community that we can affect change and save assets – it’s an empowering thing.”