Supporting community-led research in Lambeth

Key information:

• Partner: The Brixton Project CIC
• Amount: £145,117
• Duration: 12 months
• Programme: Innovation

What are we doing together?

Following the successful launch of the Community Research Exchange (CRX), we’re funding The Brixton Project to continue their work.

The Brixton Project is a participatory, place-making organisation that builds resilience and ownership at the heart of community. It uses cultural programmes and the public realm to help local people express their identity, culture and heritage in ways that are relevant and authentic to them.

The CRX is a programme that centres the voices of Lambeth residents at the heart of shaping the future of community leadership, the design of the built environment and policymaking.

Through a series of in-person sessions, it brings together residents, health professionals, policymakers, researchers, community leaders and funders to explore solutions in a participatory way – whilst grounding discussions in the realities of daily life.

Some of the topics stakeholders have discussed so far include the climate crisis, health and community development.

People are the experts in their own lives – and policymakers can only make lasting, systematic impact on health inequalities through properly engaging with communities and including people with lived experience in how they make decisions.

By building agency within communities and fostering collaboration across sectors, the CRX aims to build a creative framework to identify and interrogate the needs, desires, and aspirations of residents – and in turn inform more effective service provisions that better people’s health.

Aim of the partnership

Through supporting the CRX, we’re building our capacity to becoming a better funder by putting community participation at the heart of our work and supporting community-driven change to address health inequalities.

The CRX will do this through:

• Transparent engagement and open dialogue among stakeholders by ensuring strategies and policies reflect the genuine priorities and concerns of the communities they serve
• Empowering communities to take ownership of the decisions that impact their lives
• Activating shared agency and decision-making power with a broad range of stakeholders to ensure collective responsibility and influence over activities and processes
• Building capacity within communities with the skills, tools and resources necessary to drive lasting and transformative change themselves
• Developing a dynamic and responsive model of working that learns from stakeholder feedback and adapts to the evolving needs of the community

Connection to our strategy

This partnership is part of our Innovation team’s community research area of investigation. Our projects explore what’s needed to create an environment where community research can thrive in Lambeth and Southwark, and finding the best ways to engage and communicate with local communities.