Mycelial Network: Transforming Spaces, Empowering Communities

At the core of our work, we activate and steward land and buildings in our neighbourhoods. We do this with our communities, for the long term. Our work is deeply hopeful and determined – together we're demonstrating the inevitable future.

Why do we call ourselves 'CADs'?

We call ourselves 'Community Asset Developers' (CADs): locally-led organisations that take on buildings and spaces to benefit our neighbourhoods. CADs work with and for their communities to secure places—like community centres, cultural venues, and workspaces—so they remain in community ownership for the long term.

CADs are catalytic in nature: these organisations aren’t just about owning buildings; they create thriving local ecosystems by supporting social enterprises, grassroots initiatives, and ultimately, long-term neighbourhood-wide transformation.

What has ‘mycelium’ got to do with it?

Right now, the Mycelial Network connects 30+ CADs across England, sharing knowledge, resources, and funding to scale their impact - from Sunderland to Plymouth, Coalville to York.

At the heart of our way of working and our manifesto is the metaphor of mycelium, inspired by the work of New Constellations – whose deep research into fungal networks helped us think about how our own ecosystems might be more mycelial in nature.

Mycelium = a network of fungal threads or hyphae under the soil, which forge mutually-beneficial partnerships with plants and trees, and distribute resources to areas that need them.

Why do CADs matter?

At least 75% of the UK’s urban neighbourhoods are under corporate ownership and control, leading to behaviours like landbanking, rent hikes and ongoing vacancies. By localising and democratising who owns and controls urban neighbourhoods, CADs:

protect and transform spaces for community use – critical in the face of spiralling inequality and widening social division;
build local power and wealth, ensuring neighbourhoods shape their own future and any rents are reinvested for local benefit;
enable collaboration, creating networks of organisations meeting local needs and working together for change;
drive neighbourhood-wide retrofit and climate adaptation – critical given the scale of the ecological emergencies we face.

Through the Mycelial Network we’re weaving threads between participants as a way to grow the trust, mutual support and resources that flow between us. We know that we’re stronger together, and can use our agency and influence as a collective in the face of power imbalances with funders, asset owners and local authorities – rather than facing struggles on our own.

Now let’s get specific… What is this Mycelial Network in practice and how do we create and nurture it?

We're building a catalytic fund & collective, shifting who owns & transforms our neighbourhoods, for good:

What: Perpetual revenue grant fund for England-based Community Asset Developers*
Quantum: £100m first raise (£25m initial tranche)
Governance: To be governed by a dedicated steering group of Network members, & managed by fiscal host Footwork Trust CIO
Relationship: Funders join the collective, meeting quarterly & becoming long-term learning partners with the Network
Organising principles: Trust-based, highly relational, flexible, long-term, responsive to need, shifting power, peer-led, built-in support
Who are we? We're 29 organisations, from 29 towns and cities, so far!