Alex Hughes

Citizen Hub

Alex Hughes is a social entrepreneur on a mission to rebuild the infrastructure that connects people to opportunity, belonging and each other.

He is the founder of Citizen Hub, a growing national network of community-led spaces on the high street where anyone can walk in and find employment support, skills, wellbeing and connection in one place, no referral, no eligibility criteria, no appointment. Built as infrastructure rather than a programme, the model is designed to give every place somewhere reliable to belong. The founding hub in St Neots delivered around 200 jobs in its first year, run by a single employee and more than 40 volunteers.

Alex is also Chair of Inspire 2 Ignite, a youth organisation tackling the growing crisis of young people not in education, employment or training. Through it he co-founded the 3% Club, a cross-sector coalition with the ambitious goal of cutting NEET rates to 3% across the East of England, backed by major employers, combined authorities, colleges and the public sector.

His own story sits at the heart of his work. A father at 14 and a grandfather at 37, Alex learned early that opportunity rarely arrives by design, it has to be built. That conviction runs through everything he does, the belief that talent and opportunity are everywhere, but connection isn't and that closing that gap is the defining challenge of our time.

An honest speaker, Alex talks about social infrastructure, community-led change, the future of the high street, youth opportunity and what it really takes to build something that lasts. He has shared stages with parliamentarians and national leaders, appeared on BBC and regional television and convened everyone from government ministers to local barbers around the same table through initiatives like The Big Listen.

He speaks not as a theorist but as someone building in real time, with all the mess, honesty and hope that involves. His central message is simple and quietly radical, you can't commission your way out of a social crisis, but you can build your way out of one. Communities already contain everything they need to change. The task is to give them the infrastructure to do it.