Launch event: Different People, Same Place

At this event, we explored the newly published findings from our Different People, Same Place project.

The webinar was chaired by David Hopkins, Director of Community at Coin Street and board member at the What Works Centre for Wellbeing, and we heard from:

• Nancy Hey, Executive Direction at the What Works Centre for Wellbeing, spoke about the Centre’s individual and community wellbeing work.
• The lead researchers, Dr Laura Kudrna and Dr Oyinlola Oyebode, presented the findings from their work and the model that was created.
• Dr Jill Rutter, Policy & Research Manager at Spirit of 2012, explored implications of the findings for community based initiatives in the context of levelling up.
• Sarah Wilkinson, Evidence Officer at the Centre for Ageing Better, discussed the importance of individual and community wellbeing to ageing well.

Watch the event recording

The event had lots of engagement and here are some of the questions and comments it explored:

• “Can community networks have negative impacts on those excluded from them or those who want to exit them?”
• “There is sometimes a tendency to unproblematically see community as good. But good for whom?”
• “Interested on thoughts of reaching lonely older people – last thing we want to do in a public campaign is highlight the fact people are feeling isolated due to potential negative impact on those individuals wellbeing from being reminded about that…”
• “Given the time lag, the issues now with costs and inflation, does there need to be another look at predictions? Working in social housing we are seeing a exponential demand in people needing help, across the board of needs, and we’ve yet to hit April. The Budget announcements also seem not to be really going to help those that most need it!”
• “Really interesting point about wellbeing spillover in the context of inequality and potential widening wellbeing gap. I agree that volunteering can be beneficial for those in receipt of services delivered – but it’s also beneficial for the volunteers’ wellbeing, so it’s important that this (opportunity to volunteer) is ‘levelled up’ as well. Any thoughts in context of model?”
• “One of the interesting ‘silos’ I noticed when I was working in volunteering policy during the pandemic, was across community development and volunteering. It seemed to me that people in those spaces saw themselves as distinct, but community development didn’t see themselves as volunteers and volunteer orgs didn’t talk about ‘community’ in terms of place but only interest. Has anyone else observed that? I think it’s changing, but just small differences in language / self description seemed to reveal parallel but disconnected action/thinking.”

Find links to some of the presenter slides below:

Nancy Hey – the Centre’s individual and community wellbeing work. Download slides.

Dr. Laura Kudrna (University of Birmingham) and Dr. Oyinlola Oyebode (Warwick University) – the research, findings and model. Download slides.

Sarah Wilkinson (Centre for Ageing Better) – exploring the importance of Individual and Community Wellbeing to Ageing Well. Download slides.

Explore the Different People, Same Place project page

Download and read the technical report

Learn about and download the Model of Individual and Community Wellbeing

Read the briefing

Places and Community – main webpage https://whatworkswellbeing.org/category/places-and-community/ 

Community wellbeing – conceptual review https://whatworkswellbeing.org/resources/community-wellbeing-concepts-and-questions/ 

Social Capital Review – looking at interventions that sought to improve neighbourhood belonging, community cohesion & social support networks https://whatworkswellbeing.org/blog/invitation-to-tender-rapid-review-of-intervention-research-that-evaluates-social-capital-outcomes/ 

Places and Spaces – systematic review and briefing on social relations and a case study synthesis and briefing on community hubs and green spaces https://whatworkswellbeing.org/resources/places-spaces-people-and-wellbeing/

Using Local Needs for Wellbeing Data https://whatworkswellbeing.org/resources/understanding-local-needs-for-wellbeing-data/