Introduction to Footwork

Footwork Trust CIO (‘Footwork’) is an ambitious social change charity building the relational and financial infrastructure needed for locally-led neighbourhood transformation.

Over the past 4 years we’ve been working across 30 neighbourhoods through People and Place, supporting community innovators and emerging ‘Community Asset Developers’ (CADs) to gain the confidence, capacity, resources and peer connections to activate local land and buildings for community use. Increasingly this is influencing how local authorities, funders and built environment practitioners can act as genuine partners.

Together with our “civic partner” and subsidiary company Platform Places we’re facilitating a national movement of 50+ CADs, plus councils, funders, practitioners and private asset owners, to bring local land, buildings and spaces into community stewardship, and transform whole neighbourhoods for social justice and ecological resilience.

Why Now

We see this moment as one of profound transitions for neighbourhoods across England. As pressures around housing, access to safe and affordable space, and social infrastructure intensify, there is growing urgency that locally-rooted development models are essential towards a world where local people have the power to create resilient places.

We’re entering an exciting next step, with increasing breadth and opportunity across  strategic partnerships, including with local authorities (e.g. People and Place Camden);  city-wide work supported by UCL and Blagrave Trust with the GLA; and at a national scale as fiscal host and co-facilitator of the Mycelial Network. Meanwhile we are learning alongside Platform Place’s and their  £2.8m National Lottery backed Local Property Partnerships programme.

Who We’re Looking For

As our role evolves, we are strengthening our Board to ensure we have the right balance of governance, strategic oversight and lived sector experience. We are particularly interested in individuals who understand how decisions around land, property and investment are made in practice - and how capital might be mobilised differently to deliver more socially just and ecologically resilient places.

You may currently work in these fields, have done so previously, or operate adjacent to them, and may bring a mix of the following perspectives:

• Local government and/or combined authority perspective working on locally-led regeneration models and/or community assets
  • With direct experience of how land, property, investment or development systems operate in practice (e.g. how deals are structured, financed, assessed and delivered)
• Investment, philanthropy and building coalitions of funders around mission-aligned finance (predominantly grant but investment experience also welcome)
  • Have insight into the financial, institutional and/or political levers that influence how money flows into community asset development - including how capital can be unlocked in service of community outcomes
• Movement-building work towards systemic change
  • Have an understanding and/or direct experience of how organised community capacity and local innovation can shape neighbourhood transformation socially, economically and spatially - and how these forms of value are often overlooked within conventional development models
• Experience of charity (or comparable) governance - bring an understanding of charity governance, fiduciary responsibility, compliance and risk

As a Footwork trustee, you will:

• Support us to embed our team values, ways of working and positioning by bringing energy, strategy, decision-making and networks to deliver on FW's mission and values
• Provide strategic oversight and constructive challenge to the Board and team, bringing critical thinking to everything we do
• Support the long-term direction, resilience and sustainability of the wider movement of locally-led neighbourhood transformation as it continues to evolve
• Act as an ambassador for the organisation and the movement to help strengthen relationships across stakeholders and networks
• Help ensure strong charity governance, financial stewardship and responsible balancing of risk and opportunity, bringing an understanding of fiduciary duties, accountability and compliance within a mission-driven organisation. This could also include helping us hold and strengthen our safeguarding, complaints and governance practices as we grow across multiple entities.