A ‘make space’ at the North Docks in Liverpool is the first successful project to secure investment from a £300,000 fund to regenerate North Liverpool.
LaunchPad and Beautiful Ideas will fund between 10 and 15 projects in the North of the city that use innovative and creative ways to tackle some of the biggest problems facing communities.
Make Liverpool, an open access workshop, allowing people to use equipment and tools, along with meeting rooms, co-working and events spaces, has received a £30,000 investment.
The 18,000 sq ft of space has been unused for 10 years and the investment will transform it into a working maker space, helping anyone from artists to builders, carpenters, designers, craft makers, and artisans who need space. They may be independent, sole traders or part of wider teams, but the make space will help improve access to the tools they need.
Community interest company Beautiful ideas said this first investment will help to build a new community of businesses who can collaborate, support each other, share ideas and help to build an alternative economy.
More than 70 entrepreneurial ideas were submitted to LaunchPad and its team has been working to help develop concepts further. The ideas had to abide by two rules: To collaborate in North Liverpool and to have social impact in the North of the city.
Deputy Mayor of Liverpool, Ann O’Byrne says: “Creating a community of creative and collaborative business will begin a sea change in North Liverpool and the make space is the ideal first step for that. “By creating a space where people can physically build a new economy, where they can share ideas and experience, we give people the confidence and the tools they need to transform North Liverpool.”
Cllr Nick Small, Cabinet Member for Employment, Enterprise and Skills, added: “LaunchPad is about more than ideas. Instead it’s designed to be a platform for action. “We have seen, in spaces across Liverpool, how the right space with the right tools can galvanise a whole fresh economy. “Make Liverpool, next door to Kazimier’s Wind Factory, is creating a new anchor, a new lightning rod for creative enterprise in North Liverpool.”
