Opus believes we can live in a place where everyone works to make things better for each other. ‘Better’ to us means fair, diverse, accessible, independent and heard.
We work with a cross-section of independent, community and voluntary sector organisations whilst directly reaching over 150,000 people a year through live events, broadcasting and publishing in Sheffield and beyond.
Opus projects connect us to each other and to music, arts, culture, ideas, action and conversations that will make change. They broadly sit under four headings: Community Media, Active Citizenship & Participatory Democracy, Independent Trade & Local Economies, and Transformative Arts Experiences.
We are passionate about supporting ‘upstream’ solutions to social, political, economic and environmental concerns. We recognise that this is a long-term and systemic approach to social change — that’s why we create platforms which champion social causes, independent businesses, not-for-profits, emerging talent, active citizenship and community participation.
Through our projects we strive to achieve two main outcomes. The first is to create platforms for independent information and communication which amplify voices within the local economy, voluntary, community and campaign sectors. This is achieved by running a monthly free print magazine called Now Then (30,000 readership) with a corresponding app and website (20,000 regular monthly unique readers), and a print distribution service which reaches over 1,000 locations of high public footfall in South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire.
The second is to support active citizenship and community participation. These projects include Festival of Debate, which each year reaches 15,000 to 20,000 people through over 100 events delivered with dozens of community partners, and regular work which addresses social cohesion in our city.
Opus also incubates campaign groups which we believe have the potential to radically change the world we live in for the better, like UBI Labs; undertakes research projects in collaboration with other third sector organisations, like Cohesion Sheffield; and holds organisational trustee and board positions with Voluntary Action Sheffield, Cohesion Sheffield, Sheffield Climate Alliance and Healthwatch Sheffield.
Learn more about what we do and why we do it in our Review 2020 (December 2020).
Opus Review 2020 (Final V5)