From helping students perform better in exams to people managing their long-term health conditions more effectively, we’ve used a people powered approach for the last ten years to help governments and communities reimagine public services and improve people’s lives.

Shrinking budgets and a growing lack of trust in the political system means that governments today are facing huge challenges. COVID-19 has also brought to the fore the role of collaboration and the need for connection.

The complexity of these issues demands a different approach to power. An approach that involves communities and their needs, positions citizens as experts and rethinks the way public services are delivered.

To celebrate 10 years of people-powered work we're hosting a people power shift week of events and releasing several publications that call on government to support the acceleration of a people-powered shift through:

• The establishment of a £2 billion National Social Infrastructure Commission, to invest as much in community and social welfare infrastructure as we do in physical infrastructure like train lines and motorways;
• A £1 billion civil society and local authority local support package to support the immediate next wave of responses, alongside £50 million local voluntary response ‘booster fund’ to increase the capacity of local areas to support immediate voluntary responses to the pandemic;
• A £250 million people-powered recovery fund for those most impacted by COVID-19 and structural disadvantage.
• A public service pioneer programme to support a wave of pioneering local public services to experiment with ways to accelerate their people-powered shift with their local communities and civil society.
• A National Citizens’ Assembly to help citizens from all walks of life debate and shape the national COVID-19 recovery
• A national strategy for civic empowerment and participation, to shape the long term conditions for a people-powered shift.

Find out more in our report The People Powered Shift.