?? How Redbridge Council innovated to face the cost of living crisis

Hello,

You might remember when we shared our work with the Redbridge community hubs team last year – supporting them in building a learning approach to engaging with communities and enhancing collaboration approaches. We wanted to check in again one year on to see how the story continued without us.

The team has continued building their learning-focused approach, which you can read more about in their impact report . They’ve continued to use the learning dashboard and indicators that we supported them to build – crucially, using this data for learning rather than as metrics for accountability. The team also found that implementing a self-management approach supported learning, as it helped them to focus on reflection and feedback together rather than reporting up a hierarchy.

Three key lessons have emerged from collaborating and learning alongside their communities:?

• ???? Engaging in deep listening with people is a powerful opportunity to identify the needs and aspirations of community members and build trust over time.
• ?? Flexible and responsive data collection supports engagement specialists to spot themes and trends, and identify priority groups to focus their ongoing activities.
• ?? ‘Changing the relationship’ requires council colleagues to commit to a long-term cultural shift, to connect with local people as collaborators rather than ‘customers’.

The context in Redbridge has changed significantly over the last year - in particular, the cost of living crisis hit many residents hard. The team built on what they were learning to respond to these issues. You can hear more about their work in practice by reading Saraya’s blog on how they co-produced a cost-of-living support offer delivered from one of the local libraries.

This experience has provided Redbridge Council with a valuable learning opportunity. It will be instrumental in shaping the future delivery of another community hub in Seven Kings, as well as future hubs once economic conditions improve, offering crucial insights into how to effectively empower communities and collaboratively design services.

Best wishes,

Ruth

?? Connect with Ruth on LinkedIn

?? Read about Redbridge’s journey

What else we've been talking about

• ?? Harnessing the positive potential of AI for urban climate action : On 21st September, join leaders from across the public, private, and social sectors for a discussion on how AI could help to accelerate climate action.
• ??? Building relationships and learning from success : As part of our work with Dusseldorp Forum and Hands Up Mallee around storytelling for systems change, we've been listening to understand how stories could be heard more meaningfully.
• ?? Will you be at Climate Week NYC and UNGA 78? : We will be! Connect with us to talk about reimagining local government to better meet net zero and Sustainable Development Goals.

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