London Borough of Tower Hamlets

This project seeks to adapt a successful community connectivity application to the younger, urban population of Tower Hamlets.

Bronze labs have created a social action platform that fosters social connection, volunteering and community asset development through a Smartphone app: https://mytri.be/ Critically, it enables immediate connection to Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) records, updated via links to police records, to support volunteering within the informal care sector. For example, someone may list that they need help putting up their fence and a fellow resident will choose to respond to the request. This technology was developed and implemented among an older population in Shropshire Council, and has expanded to councils with similar populations needs.

Tribe technology needs to account for concerns of youth participation, social cohesion and diversity that an inner-city setting, such as Tower Hamlets, presents. This project seeks to trial this technology within a large scale asset-based community development programme, Communities Driving Change (CDC), which fosters volunteering and participation within neighbourhoods. UsCreates, a service design agency, has been instrumental in establishing the CDC programme. We seek to take a design-led, coproduction approach to adapting this technology in a way that enables its further application to similar settings.

Discovery evidence

The CDC programme is based on the Well Communities evidence-based approach: http://wellcommunities.org.uk/

The 9 month scoping (phase 1) and engagement (phase 2) phases of the programme revealed the following:

• A desire for social connections, and a need for innovation to enable those connections in neighbourhoods where physical assets do not exist
• Lack of engagement with existing communication approaches, leading to low awareness of activities in the local area
• A disconnection between generations and desire for more intergenerational activity
• Safety is a major concern for many, with drug dealing and anti-social behaviour having visible presence in their area. This inhibits residents’ confidence in seeking social connection
• Considerable physical regeneration has not been accompanied by social regeneration in many neighbourhoods, decreasing local residents’ sense of inclusion and social cohesion
• A strong desire to contribute to improving their local area and engender neighbourliness.

Lot 3 discovery report phase 1: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Y1ceVFqlqKwFTjh-PfT8OpkiABsbwVZ9kiKEXuyEJHk/edit?usp=sharing

Lot 3 discovery report phase 2: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1P7QjRM0aRkEz0YTgJaR3wvJtOWqJxh2f6wG94ncNisU/edit#slide=id.g38f4d2e0a9_1_21

Lot 4 discovery report phase 1: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1cLG2czyR8LVMoldYv7d-1p6pExwkLaubd6vzzqZt2D4/edit#slide=id.p

Lot 4 discovery report phase 2: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gtB_fi8wDVyYO4HZB11h7wxFyljyljqG2-mi92YXvcM/edit#slide=id.p

Further understanding of the Tower Hamlets’ population: https://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/lgnl/health__social_care/joint_strategic_needs_assessme/joint_strategic_needs_assessme.aspx

Tribe technology appears on the gov.uk digital marketplace: https://www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud/services/547085449955561

UsCreates have extensive experience in design-led approaches to meet community needs: https://www.uscreates.com/our_story/