What we do
Place-based working can help unlock communities’ ideas, assets and power, and drive change to improve people’s quality of life.
We work alongside local communities and people with lived experience to understand their views and experiences, and build on their strengths, skills and resources.
Our work helps organisations and communities gain a clearer understanding of people’s strengths and needs, forge stronger local connections and foster a culture of collaboration.
How we do it
Our team uses strengths-based approaches, including community research, participatory budgeting and 100-day challenges.
We base our work on appreciative inquiry. This is a way of asking questions and thinking about the future that fosters positive relationships and builds on the basic goodness in a person, a situation or an organisation. It acknowledges the contribution of all individuals and increases trust and collaboration.
Our approach is tailored to each community’s needs. This could mean meeting people in cafes, libraries, parks and community spaces, and training local people in active listening to hear stories from across the community.
We use a mix of informal conversations, focus groups, interactive workshops and structured events, working alongside people to make sense of their own findings and co-design solutions.
For an informal chat about working with us, get in touch.
Related Projects
Improving the wellbeing of families of children and young people with autism in Bromley
Helping staff, carers and parents to work together through a 100 day challenge.
Community breastfeeding research in Calderdale
Helping Calderdale Council give parents and babies better breastfeeding support by understanding people’s real life experiences.
Raising awareness of women's homelessness in West Sussex
Using participatory photography and storytelling to raise the profile of the challenges faced by women experiencing homelessness.
Latest News
This is what delivering change through a relational approach looks like in practice
“I was fortunate to attend a recent Ideas Alliance learning event where I got to listen to the very brilliant Katie Fleeman from Liverpool Combined Authority. Katie is leading a very grounded, relational approach to change working with homelessness commissioners from across the city region.
Here are some of Katie’s gems of wisdom together with some insights from me.”
– Kath Smythe
Join us for The Ember Sessions – a day of free online learning and collaboration
Ideas Alliance is turning 10 years old, and to celebrate we’re hosting The Ember Sessions: Gathering, connecting, hope. We’d love for you to join us!
It’s a day of free online sessions covering topics like commissioning and alliance contracting; appreciating tension and conflict with appreciative inquiry; commissioning for place; and the power of people in co-production.
Commissioning with communities and complexity
Our Director Helen Sharp reflects on her early experiences with commissioning, and how she came to the realisation that things needed to be done differently.
“Overnight, our commissioning came to life – it sprung out from the spreadsheet, it demanded creativity and fresh ideas and it challenged us at every step as we continually asked ourselves ‘why have we been doing it this way?’”