The people closest to social challenges often have the best ideas to solve them – but the least ability to act.
We find and back these hidden entrepreneurs, giving them the time, money and support to build businesses that change lives, and mobilising their place around them.
The result: citizens turning lived experience into businesses that change lives – independently evaluated at £10.43 of social and economic value for every £1 invested, in year one alone.
Citizen First is how we back hidden entrepreneurs over a full year: a Real Living Wage salary so they can build their business full time, seed funding and specialist support, and a place systematically mobilised around them.
The independent evaluation, by Brunel University of London and Northumbria University, found:
"Citizen First does not simply support individual entrepreneurs: it constitutes a missing layer of civic infrastructure – a repeatable mechanism for converting lived experience into local economic and social value, at a scale and cost-effectiveness that merits continued regional investment."
The model is codified and on its third deployment. Its returns have been independently assessed twice, in two places – by the same research team, using the same methodology – with the ratio improving between them. The evaluators' conclusion: it "warrants expansion to other towns and city regions."
This report presents an independent evaluation of Citizen First LCR's first year, conducted by researchers at Brunel University of London and Northumbria University, using social return on investment (SROI) analysis, participatory action research and oral history.
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Within a year, Citizen First entrepreneurs had built businesses: from robots for healthcare to apps for sleep support, from tackling the NEET crisis to addressing knife crime – even a uniquely accessible mobile hair salon. Businesses now trading and already securing investment, funding, commercial partnerships and revenue.
Behind them stands a coalition of more than 50 organisations from across the Liverpool City Region – universities, businesses, housing associations, civic organisations and public bodies – all helping local entrepreneurs succeed.
The independent evaluation concluded that Citizen First warrants expansion to other towns and city regions. The next wave of places is already taking shape.
Whether you're a combined authority, local council, university, business, housing association or place-based funder, we'd welcome a conversation about what Citizen First could look like in your community.
