The Neighbourhood Challenge project invested in community-led innovation; this paper presents observations from the scheme.

Key findings:

• There is much to learn from the methods and approaches used by the 17 Neighbourhood Challenge communities in which the programme has invested.
• All of the communities have been finding ways to put good ideas into practice.
• All projects have been committed to finding ways to enable people to become agents of change in their communities.

The Neighbourhood Challenge project was developed by Nesta and the Big Lottery Fund.

The 17 different organisations and partnerships around England were selected to receive investment because of their ambition to test innovative ways of building co-operation, collaboration and action within their communities.

Midway through the project, this paper was produced to provide observations, drawing on evidence from the people who are funding, delivering and supporting the projects. It identifies the common features of their approach and what is distinctive about how they apply their methods.

Author:

Nesta