OVERVIEW: Agbero 2100 is a strategic intervention within ‘systems design’ to support leaders from the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector across England to sustainably own and/or manage community assets. Over recent years, Ubele has been iteratively designing the Agbero 2100 infrastructure drawing on research, community consultation, and Baseline Assessments conducted with participating organisations.

In 2023, The Ubele Initiative published a new research report titled A Place to Call Home 2.0. (Read here) written by Karl Murray, following the original report of this name produced in partnership with Locality in 2015 (Read here). A Place to Call Home 2.0. explores the challenges, but also the benefits and value of sustainably owning or managing community assets within Black and racially minoritised communities. In the appendix of this report is a preparatory and readiness typology (Read here) defined by six key domains and four development levels. Agbero 2100 uses this typology as a participatory framework to support leaders to assess their organisation, identify development opportunities, and access bespoke support.

In 2024, 132 organisations expressed interest in joining Agbero 2100 across six English regions. Following a thorough selection process, 50 organisations were shortlisted to participate in initial training, of which 32 progressed to access development support. As mentioned, eligible community businesses are assessed using the typology to identify their level of development across the following six key domains: Financial Resources, Impact and Effectiveness, Operations and Infrastructure, Connectedness and Engagement, Physical Asset Ownership and Leadership and Governance. This ‘Baseline Assessment’ produces an ‘Action Plan’ to set development priorities for each organisation which will be reviewed in a second assessment after organisations have received development support.