Place Knowledge Hub

Browse our library of tools and resources to support your place-based work. Curious to learn more? We’re always here to chat.

Our library for place-based systems change

Explore our collection of resources, ideas, and stories from our decades of experience in place-based systems change work.

Inquiry: How to sustain place-based change

The question of how we can sustain place-based systems change has been one that many of us have been grappling with for years. In recent years, as we've moved to slightly longer funding cycles, people leading this work have faced real challenge when seeking to embed the changes they've made beyond the initial funding they received.

With support from partners including Esmée Fairbairn, Homewards, Turn2us, Pathway Fund and others, we set out to explore how we can change this.

5 Min

Archive

Steve Coles: Wellbeing in Shoreditch

It’s obvious, when we stop and think for a moment, that lots of problems we face personally and societally are complex, deep-rooted and multi-faceted. However, in a culture…

4 Min

Archive

Steve Stillwell: You’re only young once!

Places are about communities and communities are about people. Most people would agree that everyone would benefit from improved knowledge and confidence when it comes to dealing with…

6 Min

Archive

Bethia McNeil: Collective change and collective impact

I work in the business of measuring and understanding change. I do this because I believe that understanding whether and how the work of the social sector creates…

4 Min

Archive

Thomas Neumark: There’s mixing and there’s mixing

In 1902 George Gillett, the founder of The Peel (a charity working in Clerkenwell, London) and future Labour MP wrote that, in London, “the evils of poverty, overcrowding,…

7 Min

Archive

Vidhya Alakeson: Better places through community business

Ennerdale Bridge is a small village in the Western Lake District. Eleven miles from Carlisle, it is as beautiful as it is remote. In 2011, when the only…

5 Min

Archive

How Big Local areas have used small grants funds to address local issues

I recently attended the Big Local Spring Event in Birmingham. There, members of Big Local partnerships outlined some of the many solutions to local issues the programme has…

Inquiries & Campaigns

Our research collections and campaigns address structural challenges, providing insights to help partners navigate complexity and influence policy changes.

How to sustain place-based systems change

Building on over 30 years of working with over 100+ places across the UK to fund, deliver, and evidence place-based work, we explore what it takes to sustain these efforts.

What does it take to change a system?

A guide designed to support funders and practitioners to understand how to approach systems change and their role in it.

Funding for place based systems change

Chaired by Save the Children UK, we brought charities and funders together to explore how to best manage funds to support long-term, place-based systemic change.