Citizen First works because it brings together the two halves of community-led change that have never been properly connected. On one side: citizens with the lived experience, business ideas and entrepreneurial spirit to solve problems in their own communities. On the other: the businesses and institutions with the resources, networks and reach to back them.
Citizen First is the missing activation layer that links them. The model has five elements, refined over multiple programmes:
1. Inclusive opportunity - a CV-less, open-call recruitment process that reaches deep into communities.
2. Financial stability - a year's Real Living Wage salary plus seed funding, removing the barriers to participation.
3. Meaningful support - small, tight-knit cohorts with a dedicated full-time business advisor.
4. Specialist expertise - training, tools and expert mentoring in business experimentation, alongside tech development support.
5. A powerful local network - local institutions, public, private and civic, systematically mobilised around each entrepreneur, embedding their enterprise in the wider system from day one.
The model delivers exceptional returns. An independent University of Essex evaluation found it delivered £6.26 of social value for every £1 invested — in the first year alone.
"The principles should be taken as transformational trends for the future of community development."
University of Essex Evaluation
The businesses are real. In the North East, Laura Wood built Invisible Creations - award-winning home and garden products that double as discreet support rails, now stocked in B&Q with 12,000+ units sold and 25,000+ people benefiting. In Essex, Karen Badenoch created Trusted Money Confidence - a peer-to-peer programme that has helped people in her Essex communities make changes worth over £220,000.
These aren't outliers - they demonstrate what becomes possible when people with lived experience receive the economic security and institutional backing to build businesses rooted in the challenges they've lived.
See it in action: Citizen First LCR backed hidden entrepreneurs to build health and care businesses in the Liverpool City Region - 77% secured investment or revenue within twelve months.
