This report gathers a wide range of insights taken from three community sites on how to implement a people powered approach to health and wellbeing.

Key findings

These three main insights were found to be the most important to making a difference on the ground:

• Helping people help themselves
• Creating opportunities for people to help one another
• Creating value between the professional and social spheres - helping health and care

Mobilising Communities was a short, experimental programme aimed at exploring the practical applications of the idea of ‘social movements’ in health in three communities in England.

The objective of the programme was to work with three sites to explore the opportunities to support effective ways of combining people power and community resources, together with publicly funded services, for better health outcomes across local communities.

The report goes into detail on how each of the three insights above can be developed to support a social movement in health for people and communities.

The sites involved in the programme were

• The Bromley by Bow Centre and Health Partnership
• Spice and Lancashire County Council
• Horsham and Mid Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group

The programme was funded by the government’s Social Action team and delivered by Nesta Health Lab and the Behavioral Insights Team (BIT).