About us
Our servicesCommunity First Oxfordshire is a community development and placemaking charity
With over 100 years of working with Oxfordshire’s communities, we offer services that support people and places across the county.
Whether we’re helping a volunteer update their hall’s fire equipment, supporting a community-led plan, or working with the statutory sector on a major placemaking project, we know how to help.
Community Action
We offer support, advice and training to people and groups who:
- Are interested in starting a community action project or want to get their community involved in volunteering.
- Need support with a community asset, like a hall, shop, or transport scheme.
- Would like to run a community-led plan.
- Are interested in getting involved in community research.
- Want to work collaboratively on things that matter to their community e.g. access to services, health equity, nature and climate work.
Placemaking
We offer support and advice to people and groups (including Parish Councils, Town Councils, Local Authorities, and Developers) who:
- Are looking for support with neighbourhood planning, or other planning issues.
- Want to deliver affordable or community-led housing for their local area.
- Need advice on stewardship and community management projects.
- Want to get the best from new housing development.
Our Values
Collaborative and integrity-driven, we are passionate about bringing different people together to nurture community-led action and help places and people adapt to change. In our work, we continually work to remove barriers to involvement and challenge racism and discrimination.
Community First Oxfordshire’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan was developed in 2021 and encourages an ongoing appraisal of how we embed EDI practices in our work.
Our Approach
Our approach is rooted in the principles of Asset Based Community Development. Often called ABCD, Asset Based Community Development recognises, identifies and harnesses existing ‘assets’ (i.e. things like skills, knowledge, capacity, resources, experience or enthusiasm) to strengthen community resilience.
Our Partners
We collaborate with a variety of partners and stakeholders to deliver our work:
Our History
Co-founded by Grace Hadow OBE in 1920, Community First Oxfordshire initially focused on providing art and literature to rural places, advocating for new public libraries and community halls in rural Oxfordshire.
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