Introduction &
Brief
Camden and its community spirit
Camden has a proud, rebellious spirit that throughout its history has seen communities come together to tackle problems. We know local people value a sense of community – residents want to know their neighbours, feel safe and secure in their homes and on their streets, and to be able to identify meaningful ways to contribute to their community.
Inclusion
However, while Camden has a great community spirit not everyone benefits from this, Camden is a borough of two halves where many people are excluded from opportunities or feel isolated in their neighbourhoods.
We know that some of the most significant wider determinants of poor outcomes tend to be geographically concentrated and we want to work in areas which not only suffer from these, but where there is the energy to develop new ways of solving problems together and building platforms for social integration and inclusive growth.
Design Thinking
Field Research &
Workshops
Communication, trust & collaboration
Through our immersive research in Kentish Town we learned how collaboration is needed for a healthy and connected environment. But the barriers to collaboration are within communication gaps and the resulting trust issues. By kicking-off a transparent communication we wish to improve the relationships between organisations and the public to ultimately fuel a collaborative and trusting neighbourhood with new bonds and an overall safety net through community togetherness.
„Creating and maintaining trust requires not silence and taking trust for granted but analysis and self-criticism. Quite the contrary of the resource and medium metaphors, trust requires articulation, understanding and continuing interpersonal action.“
– Business Ethics Quarterly, by Fernando Flores and Robert C. Solomon
Problem Statement
How might we better connect local citizens to scattered initiatives and resources to improve community togetherness and neighbourly support?
Vision &
Value Proposition
A platform for community building
We wish to support citizens in need and citizens with the capacity to support others and volunteer. By redirecting to engagement opportunities and broadcasting the causes of local organisations through our weekly talks we create a respectful and open space for communication in both directions – from organisations to the local public, and back. This multi-channel platform approach and its accesibile online tools don’t only offer direct matching of needs and causes but also create bonds in the community. While we want to deliver direct engagement tools for the COVID-19 crisis and the long term challenges in the smaller neighborhoods we also want to achieve a change of mindset in the UK’s local communities.
Weekly talks by local heroes
Through informal interviews and experience sharing, this is an opportunity to raise awareness of the challenges being faced within Camden Borough today – but also to highlight positive action already being taken.
Each episode will focus on an individual organisation and give them the opportunity to raise awareness of their activities, and tell their story in a way that connects with the audience. It is an opportunity to reach locals who would benefit from their services and also those in a position to support the organisation in any way.
Mobilization of existing resources
Underlying inequality has always been a struggle and is now spotlighted even more with recent challenges, where charities and local community organisations are vehicles to compensate for these disportionately affected communities. We believe there is a vast amount of engaged residents with the energy and willingness to do good and involve in their community, but are discouraged because initiatives are too scattered. Sustaining motivation under these conditions proves to be a barrier.
Digital transformation as a tool for social innovation
Local voluntary organisations are experts at helping, but financially not capable of investing in digital strategies to better connect to these engaged residents willing to support. We want to bring these together. In 2018 there were over 20 million UK volunteers, and we believe by supporting local organisations to better engage willing residents, we can help increase this number supporting neighbors in need.
A platform for community building
We wish to support citizens in need and citizens with the capacity to support others and volunteer. By redirecting to engagement opportunities and broadcasting the causes of local organisations through our weekly talks we create a respectful and open space for communication in both directions – from organisations to the local public, and back. This multi-channel platform approach and its accesibile online tools don’t only offer direct matching of needs and causes but also create bonds in the community. While we want to deliver direct engagement tools for the COVID-19 crisis and the long term challenges in the smaller neighborhoods we also want to achieve a change of mindset in the UK’s local communities.
Weekly talks by local heroes
Through informal interviews and experience sharing, this is an opportunity to raise awareness of the challenges being faced within Camden Borough today – but also to highlight positive action already being taken.
Each episode will focus on an individual organisation and give them the opportunity to raise awareness of their activities, and tell their story in a way that connects with the audience. It is an opportunity to reach locals who would benefit from their services and also those in a position to support the organisation in any way.
Mobilization of existing resources
Underlying inequality has always been a struggle and is now spotlighted even more with recent challenges, where charities and local community organisations are vehicles to compensate for these disportionately affected communities. We believe there is a vast amount of engaged residents with the energy and willingness to do good and involve in their community, but are discouraged because initiatives are too scattered. Sustaining motivation under these conditions proves to be a barrier.
Digital transformation as a tool for social innovation
Local voluntary organisations are experts at helping, but financially not capable of investing in digital strategies to better connect to these engaged residents willing to support. We want to bring these together. In 2018 there were over 20 million UK volunteers, and we believe by supporting local organisations to better engage willing residents, we can help increase this number supporting neighbors in need.
How it works
01.
Bringing our host and local guests together