I am Co-founder of Flo's - The Place in the Park (a community enterprise hub in Oxford) and Xenia (a charity bridging differences in London and Sheffield). For a while now I've been rushing around, meeting people, cleaning floors, cooking soup, writing funding bids, fixing doors, wiping tears, listening, doing and being constantly surprised - that is the work of a community worker. After eight years of practical work, I am excited and privileged to be able to learn from projects abroad and to share what I find with colleagues in the UK.

My Fellowship will be looking at how community hubs can become more integrated and sustained by the local economy and supported by regional authorities while still being locally owned. I am interested in how community hubs can be directly funded by the local economy, how they can be spaces where diverse people bridge differences and find a sense of belonging, and the importance of local ownership.

It is my hope that my Fellowship will enable UK community groups, infrastructure support organisations and local authorities to learn about how to enable, support and scale the impact of community hubs.