About Coexist
Coexist is a dynamic and creative community network based in Bristol, UK. We seek to enhance the wellbeing and resilience of the communities we serve. Our current projects include:
-
The Coexist Community Kitchen - re-launched in Mivart Street, Easton, the Community Kitchen brings people together through food, and uses cooking as a vehicle to work with people who experience social marginalisation in our society;
-
The Bristol Commons - a new community-building and re-building initiative aiming to bring people from diverse groups across Bristol into dialogue together through a cultural programme of events and community conversations around ‘the commons’;
-
The Wellbeing and Resilience European Network (WREN) - an emerging network supporting community groups that are working towards a healthy, creative and sustainable future across Europe.
We are a Charitable Community Benefit Society (CCBS). This means we have charitable aims and that we work for community benefit. Though we have been dormant for a number of years, we are currently looking for a new location to launch a community hub and consulting with local communities to explore future collaborations.
Founded in 2008, Coexist redeveloped Hamilton House - an empty 55,000 sq/ft office block - into a thriving cultural and community hub as a ‘Centre for Excellence in Sustainable Community’. We pioneered one of the first co-working hubs in the UK, had over 500 artists, charities and small business based within the building, boasted a conference suite and meeting rooms, a community theatre space, dance studios, a community kitchen, wellbeing rooms, an artists shop and gallery space amongst an array of other community resources and services. Unfortunately, the Hamilton House project ended in 2018 with a much publicised eviction, despite over 15,000 people petitioning to bring the building into community ownership. More information on this can be found at our legacy site: www.hamiltonhouse.org
Our pioneering work and the Coexist Community Model has been studied by researchers, community organisations and city delegations from across the world. We have built a reputation as a values-driven, dynamic project that develops new resources and approaches, speaks truth to power and works inclusively to regenerate our communities.
Membership
In March 2023 Coexist will be opening a Membership Plan.
By signing up to our membership and contributing anything from £1 per month, you can join a growing community of people dedicated to recommoning Bristol by:
-
Bringing buildings and spaces into community ownership;
-
Developing policy and campaigns that protects arts and cultural projects from property developers;
-
Fostering projects that enhance community wellbeing and resilience.
We know through 1st hand experience of losing Hamilton House that private companies are co-opting community projects and capitalising on increases in value to property generated through community activity. We believe that this value should be shared between landlords and community, and that there should be greater protection for community organisations and social enterprises through the Assets of Community Value Register. We are working to increase the security this offers and develop a new framework to support Bristol’s cultural and community spaces.
Your membership will help enable us to do this whilst entitling you to:
-
Receive member discounts for our events;;
-
Join Coexist Working Groups and Action Hubs;
-
Lend your voice to our Annual General Meetings and Membership Events.
Sign up here when membership opens.
