The Citizenship and Integration Initiative: can we achieve more together than we can as individual organisations?

Learning from two years of partnership working to increase social integration in London.

The Citizenship and Integration Initiative (CII) is a pooled fund of £1 million to support work on citizenship and integration in London. The Initiative brought together independent foundations and civil society organisations with the Mayor of London to advance shared goals on social integration. 

As learning partner for the Initiative since 2017, Renaisi has explored the question: can we achieve more together than we can as individual organisations? 

Renaisi’s role as the Learning Partner for the Initiative had three main aims:

1. Understanding how the new partnership model works and the activities taking place.
2. Exploring the impact of the Initiative on policy and practice.
3. Providing ongoing feedback and development support to partners.

At an event today (15 October 2019) we shared learning on the challenges and potential of this model of working together. Read the full learning report.

Did partners achieve more together?

Achievements of the CII include a campaign and guidance for young people with insecure status, the EU Londoners Portal in multiple languages, the first London Voter Registration Week, and the first EU Settled Status Ceremony.

Our report found that collaboration helped increase the impact of the CII activities in the following ways:

Improved quality of activities: the GLA could have delivered certain activities alone, but the quality was enriched by the secondee’s frontline knowledge.

Greater exposure and/or prestige of activities: civil society organisations could have delivered certain activities alone, but the reach and influence would not have been as great without the GLA.

Improved policy making: secondees were able to contribute their expertise to wider GLA policymaking.

It is expected that the long-term impact of the CII will be:

• Stronger relationships between civil society and the GLA and a better understanding of how to work together.
• Activities and approaches developed by the secondees will be embedded in the GLA’s work.

What next?

The CII partners are developing the Initiative for 2020 onward. Contact Trust for London for more information.

Download the full report or download the summary report.

Read more about Renaisi’s learning partnerships.