Place-based Systems Change Community of Practice

Reflections from Renaisi’s 2025 Community of Practice Event

On June 24th, the community gathered in South East London to explore a question that's been on our mind for a while: What does it take to sustain Place-Based Systems Change?

Both policy and practice around place-based systems change are evolving, bringing up new and more pertinent questions about how to really sustain this approach to social change over time. On June 24^th, coming together in a bright library room overlooking Canada Water, we were joined by over 30 organisations representing philanthropic funders, national charities, place-based charities, local authorities, housing associations and think tanks, all united by an interest in Place-based Systems Change, for our annual in-person Community of Practice meeting. Together, we took stock of the current shifts in the policy and practice landscape for place-based systems change, before looking forward to shape Renaisi’s new inquiry into how we ensure that place-based systems change can be sustained beyond initial resource commitments.

What is coming up for the community of practice?

Our community of practice is continually shaped by its members and so we held a space for people to share what they come to this group to explore. Some of the group joined to learn more about one another’s place-based systems change practice, impact and evaluation, programme design and the funding and policy landscape. Many are also grappling questions around how to sustain change in places. Alongside this a few questions particularly stood out to us from the group:

How do we know what beliefs and attitudes are changing?
How to have impact at deep local level and at systemic top-down level?
How to avoid reliance on one or two individuals as community leaders?
How to build trust and avoid being seen as exploitative when you are an organisation that has more institutional power?
How to get past demands of scaling up when the deep work is still needed?

The group contains organisations and individuals approaching place-based systems change from a range of perspectives – but across most, people were exploring how to build and use relationships as a lever for place-based systems change. Alongside this the group shared that they are exploring how to influence change through: shaping funding, shaping local infrastructure, building community capacity and building evidence and insight. Understanding the range of approaches to place-based systems change across the group set us up well for the rest of the day, ensuring that everyone in the room could gravitate towards learning from those working on similar questions and levers of change.

Panel discussion: What is new in policy and practice?

Major policy changes are reshaping the current landscape. We heard from panellist Sam Pluckrose-Oliver (Policy and Public Affairs Manager, Locality) about the English Devolution Bill marking a shift in how power is distributed, with the Bill aiming to dismantle complex two-tier systems in local government and elevate the powers of strategic authorities in areas such as transport and housing.

Natsayi Sithole (Chief Executive, Renaisi) walked us through the current challenges facing the voluntary and community sector, which continues to feel the strain despite the amount of positive change happening. We are seeing a trend of central government reallocating funds rather than introducing new ones. For example, although initiatives such as the £12 million investment in Black-led organisations via dormant assets are welcome, they are far from sufficient, with austerity’s impact lingering.

Finally, Carina Crawford-Khan (Assistant Director, Citizens UK) focused on a positive example of place-based systems change in Cardiff’s Grangetown and Butetown, inspiring us with the successes of youth-led community organising leading to a shift in institutional relationships in the city. Through a community listening campaign focused on youth violence, young people had over 2,400 conversations with local people to develop co-produced solutions. This led to £1 million being invested into community-defined priorities, including investment in an adaptive environment that supports long-term organising, cross-sector collaboration and place-based infrastructure.

Group discussions: How can we sustain place-based systems change in a cash-strapped environment?

In the second half of the day we progressed conversations around Renaisi’s new inquiry into sustaining Place-based Systems Change. This section began with a discussion exploring how the community defines sustainability in place-based systems change work and how they think this emerges. From here we moved into small groups where community members shared the questions that have been on their mind around sustaining place-based systems change, which they would like us to explore through our inquiry.

We’ll be sharing the content of these discussions and how they are feeding into next steps in our inquiry over the coming weeks.

Join our new inquiry on Sustaining Place-Based Systems Change

A year after Renaisi joined forces with The Social Innovation Partnership (TSIP) and The Social Investment Consultancy (TSIC), we bring together our complementary expertise in place-based systems change, evaluation and learning, co-production and equitable design for this inquiry. We will work with partners to explore what it takes to sustain change long-term, how funding and financing must evolve, and how people and organisations can be supported to commit for the long haul. We invite you to join us in shaping these solutions. To find out more about how to join the inquiry, please contact Kezia Jackson-Harman at k.jackson-harman@renaisi.com