ESRC Centre in Community Participation and Connectedness

There is a rich landscape of community action in the UK, but learning is uneven and partial, and we lack the evidence base and infrastructure for investment in, or scale-up of, successful approaches. The Centre for Collaboration in Community Connectedness (C4) responds to this challenge. It is a hub for collaboration across disciplines, sectors and places, which is rooted in community leadership and designed to transform policy and practice. C4 involves partners in universities, communities, policy, business, and civil society who have co-created this proposal and are united in its ambitious vision to develop connected communities everywhere. We define connected communities as those with high levels of social bonds and cohesion: where people have good relationships and a sense of pride and belonging, express trust in each other and agencies, have access to resources and opportunities to participate, and can co- operate within and between places to respond to challenges and opportunities.

If community connectedness is not strong, people are more likely to experience poverty, have lower levels of employment and skills, and higher levels of illness. In communities which are connected, these challenges are less acute, and people may be better able to mobilise local resources to respond to crises or take advantage of new opportunities (described as community resilience). C4 will learn from areas where connectedness is strong, and work with communities and decision makers to address these disparities and improve outcomes for society.

The Centre will be convened by Professors Sarah Pearson and Peter Wells at Sheffield Hallam University, who will work with a UK-wide team of researchers and specialist community and policy partners to synthesise existing evidence, develop improved measures, and undertake new research. Core to C4 are five ‘Community Catapults’: place-based partnerships led by civil society organisations and engaging researchers, practitioners and policy makers to co-design and carry out research, test out innovative approaches, and build evidence to support interventions which strengthen community ties and resources.

The research draws on three conceptual framings: 1) Community (where people they live and their connections with neighbours) 2) Relationships (social interactions that have meaning to people) 3) Social capital (the value or resources that people get from their networks and relationships).

Outcomes include: 1) Translatable evidence and improved understanding of the factors that support community connectedness 2) New measures and resources to help policy makers, practitioners and funders scale-up, and invest in, successful approaches 3) Exemplars of innovative partnerships between researchers, communities, and policy makers to build capacity for community- led research and practice 4) A new wave of researchers in community connectedness.

These bring benefits to wider society, including: Better outcomes for communities through new models of community action to drive local responses to challenges including poverty, low levels of health and wellbeing, the climate emergency and weak social cohesion Stronger democratic processes through new community relationships between policy-makers and communities **Improved effectiveness of policy making, investment decisions, and practice and services.