Resources · Posted November 5, 2024
Places with Purpose: Hannah Clinch from the POP Shop
As part of our exploration of ‘Places with Purpose’, we chatted to Hannah Clinch, Founder of the POP Shop in Dunoon. She offers valuable insight into community wealth-building, the power of creative collaboration, and the need for better business support for home-based freelancers in rural areas.
Here at The Melting Pot, we have been exploring the concept of places with purpose. Over the past 18 months, we have consulted our members, partners and wider community across Scotland and recognised that there is growing demand for places and spaces that bring people together who are united by ‘purpose’. These places and spaces are sources of inspiration, support, connection, collaboration and innovation. At the heart of these places are social innovators who are taking action to create positive impact for people and the planet.
Our colleague, Aleks, recently spoke to Hannah Clinch about what places with purpose means to her, as a resident and place-maker in a small, coastal Scottish town.
Hannah and her work
Hannah is a Designer and Researcher with a background in social enterprise. She founded the POP Shop – a small coworking space in Dunoon – in response to challenges she observed in her community – particularly for people working freelance from home, or setting up enterprises around care responsibilities.
“People working in their homes are not necessarily seen as serious businesses or feel connected into their communities from a professional point of view. For rural communities and small towns, these people are vital to the economy, but their contribution is not always acknowledged and their support needs are not being met through traditional business support mechanisms.”
Hannah is passionate about community wealth building and environmentally sustainable development. Through the POP Shop, she provides desk space, but more importantly, she brings different people and skillsets together by, “engineering projects that support collaborative practice and create Fair Work for local freelancers”. The POP Shop has cultivated a close-knit community of 12 members and a wide range of collaborators. Members include individuals from various creative sectors, such as design, architecture and wellbeing.
A meet-up group for local freelancers and home-based workers, delivered in partnership with Dunoon Community Development Trust, with additional support from the Social Enterprise Academy.
Over a few years, place-making projects run from the Shop have been developed through a close working partnership with Dunoon Community Development Trust, a local charity that hires desk space. These projects include the development of a Local Place Plan, Green Map making training and the development of a peer support network called Dunoon and Cowal Coworks. These projects are consciously designed to provide local people with opportunities to test out creative ideas and work skills.
A little scene-setting: what’s Dunoon like?
Dunoon is a small coastal town in the West of Scotland with a rich cultural and architectural heritage. This heritage famously includes Scotland’s last purpose-built timber pier for paddle steamers. There is great natural beauty surrounding Dunoon and a unique climate that produces conditions for some of Scotland’s most stunning rainforests.
Dunoon is home to multiple small and social enterprises, which includes home-based workers, freelancers and local creatives. Despite the town’s attractive setting, Dunoon is classified as economically deprived. The community has been notably affected by the lack of “institutional thickness”, i.e. bigger employers that can provide stable and progressive jobs to local people. Many residents work from home and try to establish enterprises, including social enterprises but are often working in isolation and in a climate that lacks investment.
Hannah feels that women are disproportionately affected by the lack of work opportunities and career progression in Dunoon. Childcare is very limited. The town’s last remaining after-school provision shut only recently, so women – who statistically take on that extra burden more readily – face greater challenges in working ‘normal’ hours or commuting to Glasgow. Many therefore decide to set up their own businesses. “Sounds in theory like a great idea”, says Hannah, “but you’ve got to have the support there and unfortunately, I think we really fail women in that way. [Childcare] is never seen as an economic development issue, but it is key if you want to turn places like Dunoon around”.
Many of Dunoon’s small businesses rely on seasonal tourism. During the Covid years, this focus highlighted the fragility of the town’s economy. As a place-making social entrepreneur, Hannah believes we should “do things that are good for the community and make Dunoon a great place to live – the visitors will come anyway. I think it’s increasingly attractive to visitors to see towns that are doing things differently… those who care more about the environment or have something culturally that is interesting or unique. So many economic development strategies focus on getting tourists here without thinking about the people who live here.”
What does a place with purpose mean?
To Hannah, places with purpose exceed their physical attributes; they are environments designed to foster community engagement, collaboration and social impact. In the context of the POP Shop, this meaning takes shape through its commitment to empowering local individuals – particularly women – and facilitating their entrepreneurial journeys. Hannah believes that these spaces should act as catalysts for positive change, reflecting the community’s values, dreams and needs.
Furthermore, purpose extends to the broader mission of addressing social issues within the wider community. Hannah emphasises the importance of community in shaping the purpose of the space, ensuring that it evolves alongside the needs of its members.
“I think a place with purpose should have a definitive mission and be informed by a lot of consultation about where the challenges are. That requires you to really connect to the people on the ground that are seeing, experiencing and understanding the complexities of exclusion.”
That’s not to say that rural places with purpose should solely focus inwardly. As well as ensuring the local community’s needs are front of mind, Hannah adds that “a place with purpose should be well networked. It should have its individual characteristics but should also be networked into things that bring new thinking, knowledge, income and opportunity to it.”
Influence of location and heritage on the work
Dunoon’s rich history significantly influences the work Hannah does through the POP Shop. Heritage is not just a backdrop; it informs the community’s identity and economic discussions. “Our mission at the POP Shop is to work with people to develop heritage-inspired solutions to climate change that build wealth and health in our community. This work is informed by our understanding of place, where we can we try and create opportunities around that mission in a small but consistent way.”
As part of this, Hannah and co-director of POP Shop Enterprises CIC, Manda Forster, have developed the Dunoon Goes Pop project. This project draws on the heritage of the George Stirling soft drinks factory; a drinks-making and distribution facility that opened in the town in the 1880s, but closed in the 1970s.
Dunoon Goes POP – The heritage inspired, soft drinks enterprise based at the POP Shop.
This story has inspired a range of activities that have created work and learning opportunities in the community, including making and selling soft drinks. Hannah and her team have created drink flavours inspired by the lives of local characters. This project not only revives local product making and manufacturing, but also opens up a dialogue about the town’s socioeconomic past, including the area’s links to sugar production and slavery.
Challenges faced in creating a Place with Purpose
With limited desks, the coworking space alone does not generate enough income to cover all operational costs. So, POP Shop Enterprises CIC needs to bring in additional income through projects and enterprising activities, including soft drinks sales.
Communications can also prove to be a real challenge in a rural setting. Messages can be very fragmented, and opportunities or events can be missed just because there isn’t a central place to find out about what’s going on. Being the proactive place-maker that she is, Hannah and the team at Dunoon Community Development Trust have addressed this need by setting up whatsondunoon.co.uk; a community-owned digital asset that keeps everyone informed. There are even plans afoot to develop this into a volunteer-run physical hub to keep residents informed and included. This is just one example of how a place with purpose like the POP Shop can bring together various people and skills to deliver a creative project that genuinely serves the local community.
Ambitions for the POP Shop
Over the next few years, the team plan to develop the shop space, a series of sheds and a yard space further to include a garden, kitchen and meeting area. These facilitates will be used by Dunoon Goes POP, but will also be available to start-ups and small businesses. This extends the co-work offer from just desk spaces to a facility that can be flexibly used by a range of enterprises.
Overall, Hannah is focused on maximising the POP Shop’s potential to be a comprehensive green enterprise hub with a focus on female entrepreneurship.
Illustration by Walter Newton (a local illustrator and home-based worker).
Thank you so much to Hannah Clinch for talking to us about her place with purpose, and her amazing insight about the concept. Find out more about Hannah and her work using the links below:
In the meantime, keep an eye on our socials for more information about the cross-sector partnerships that can co-produce places with purpose.