Social Life

💡 We have reflected on the last 12 years of our work. We are excited to share our approach. We work with #builtenvironment professionals, including #architects, #planners, #regeneration teams, designers and investors, to put #socialvalue and #sustainability at the heart of what they do. Since 2011 our work has been underpinned by our Social Sustainability Framework. 📎 Throughout the years we have developed a diverse offer - we deliver #socialsustainability assessments, develop #socialinfrastructure strategies, focus on place-based #socialvalue, evaluate #policy and develop #toolkits to influence organisations. Our work is always underpinned by strong #engagement and #participation - from embedding ourselves in #communities on a long-term basis to developing theories of change. 🎎 We have had the pleasure to work with a lot of diverse clients from the private sector (Grosvenor, Design District London, Cisco, Hawkins\Brown, etc.), housing associations (Peabody, Pioneer Group, L&Q, etc.), public sector (Greater London Authority, Southwark Council, Lewisham Council, etc.), third sector (People's Health Trust, New Economics Foundation, Locality, Etc.), universities (Leeds Beckett University, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and communities. 🗨 "Social Life have produced a number of in-depth reports for Notting Hill Genesis, helping to shape the social impact of our schemes going through complex regeneration processes. Social Life's approach is always sensitive to local issues and provides us with invaluable insights about community responses to changes in their area. Their research is thorough and offers a range of methods adapted to the specific needs and circumstances at hand." - Sherine McFarlane, Head of Social & Economic Investment (Grahame Park & Woodberry Down) Development and Ben Britton, Research and Data Analyst, Notting Hill Genesis 💬 "Nicola Bacon and Social Life are pioneers of social value in place, working tirelessly with and for communities to ensure that local need and resilient community infrastructure is a fundamental part of every development plan. Social Life helped the Quality of Life Foundation to develop the questions and methodology for crucial qualitative research that informed our own understanding of what makes a good place to live, and we would recommend them to anyone interested in finding out the opportunities and challenges for people in place." - Matthew Morgan, Director and co-founder, Quality of Life Foundation 👇 Download and share our pamphlet. Contact us if you are interested in collaborating, commissioning or talking with us on any of the themes we have set out. Get in touch with Nicola Bacon: nicola.bacon@social-life.co  or Larissa Begault: larissa.begault@social-life.co 🎉 Find us at UKREiiF if you would like a physical copy and a chat in person! Get in touch with Simeon Shtebunaev simeon.shtebunaev@social-life.co

Learning so much from my role with Social Life - it's been a pleasure to be involved in the projects mentioned here.

Meet Joel Simpson - one of Social Life's researcher who first joined us through the field team in 2023. He has since supported the Southwark Estates Health and Wellbeing project, and helped facilitate the second round of research into public space interventions in the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) area along the Grand Union canal. Joel also lectures in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts (University of the Arts London), where his work explores how the university can strategically utilise its resources to support housing campaigns in the local area. He has an MSc in Urban Development Planning from UCL, and sits on the board of trustees at community land trust Rural Urban Synthesis Society RUSS housing, who recently completed a project of 36 mixed-tenure, permanently affordable homes in Lewisham, south London, which were partly self-built by volunteers. ❓Question you're exploring: "I’m interested in how our research can reveal and address issues within the built environment that are impacting communities, particularly in relation to housing." 🛝"Our research on the ground so often highlights the inspiring work that communities are already doing to generate informal infrastructure that supports their most vulnerable members." If you want to have a chat contact: joel.simpson@social-life.co  https://lnkd.in/e2YA5keE

Monday saw the Centre for the New Midlands Reimagining the Region's Housing and Communities dinner at the University College Birmingham Dr Halima Sacranie launched their recently completed research evaluating the West Midlands Social Housing Quality Fund available to read: https://lnkd.in/ejRGZ9vJ Really fascinating outcomes, especially exploring the issues of damp and mould in social housing in detail. We also heard from Leo Pollak West Midlands Combined Authority and clive benfield Benfield Group Ltd With Social Life we are excited to explore collaboration with the centre's research strand on developing a Decent Neighbourhood Standard! The Centre for the New Midlands has mission to develop and disseminate new ideas to enrich the lives of the region’s citizens and to enhance political discourse across the area. The centre is actively exploring funding and research opportunities, so please get in touch: https://lnkd.in/eAZTmu56 or with Chris Smith As ever it was great catching up with Conor Nolan and meeting the fantastic Professor Guy Daly!

Meet Jessica Cargill-Thompson - Social Life's Engagement Lead, having worked with the team as an Associate since 2020 🧗♀️ Following a successful career in consumer magazines and city guides, Jessica redirected her career towards urban development, using her journalistic skills to conduct inclusive and accessible community engagement. As an Associate at engagement and urban design consultants Soundings (2021-23), she led teams to develop: a community vision for Beckton Riverside, Newham; a sustainable public realm strategy for Leytonstone; and a public realm framework for North Finchley. She uses in-person and digital engagement to ensure inclusivity, and builds stakeholder relationships to reach wide networks and underrepresented groups. An alumnus of social enterprise PUBLIC PRACTICE (2020-21) she led community engagement on Waltham Forest’s local plan. She has also led accessible community engagement for Design Codes in Epping Forest and Uttlesford, Essex. Her magazine career included seven years as features / deputy editor of Time Out London, editor of several London guides, and writing about cities and architecture for Wallpaper*, Building Design., Building Magazine, and the Eurostar's magazine. She uses the editorial skills of curating, communications, project management and place-centric research to run engaging consultations and events on urban regeneration, neighbourhood planning and public space, and advise on strategies to bridge the gap between communities, developers and planners. At Social Life Jessica is leading collaborative design projects on three Southwark Council Estates and qualitative research in Suffolk coastal communities. Previously she contributed to our Understanding Southwark report. Jessica has an MSc (distinction) in Urban Studies from UCL and a BA in Anthropology from Durham University. Her 2018 masters dissertation explored everyday places and urban identities around the Old Kent Road and how they interact with the proposed Area Action Plan. ❓In Social Life, Jessica is exploring: "Building strong, engaged, empowered communities and great neighbourhoods" 🪅What do you like about the team: "The shared passion for building sustainable communities and the eclectic mix of colleagues and associates who bring different perspectives to every project." If you want to have a chat email: jessica.cargill-thompson@social-life.co https://lnkd.in/er3j-VrK

Meet Larissa Begault our Projects Director 🪇 Larissa joined Social Life in August 2021 after having spent eight years in New York City where she co-founded Make Public, a research organisation focused on guiding and measuring the social impact of place-making initiatives. She uses applied research to support inclusion in participatory urban processes and in the design of places. Her work sits at the intersection of public space development and social infrastructure with issues such as health equity, climate justice and safety. Her approach includes co-defining values and social impact frameworks, using multi-method research, engagement, on-the-ground data collection, and applying these to design strategy and policies of places. Larissa also worked as a researcher at Gehl - Making Cities for People Institute and the Healthy Materials Lab. Prior to moving to New York in 2013, she practised in London as an architect and led urban research projects in Cuba and Chile focused on community development and emergency housing, respectively. Larissa also taught undergraduates at Parsons School of Design - The New School and currently teaches a Diploma Unit at the Architectural Association. She received a bachelor of architecture from the Architectural Association and a master of arts in Theories of Urban Practice from Parsons School of Design. ❓What question are you exploring: "I really want to see how applied research influences the design of places. I am interested in working with design teams to ensure that the findings about a place actually translate into better design decisions." 🎉What do you like about Social Life: "The constant breaking of silos in the built environment sector. When we work and engage with places, there are no silos and all things are very interconnected. I am fascinated to make sense of this and provide support to address the cross-cutting challenges of a place." If you would like to find out more contact: larissa.begault@social-life.co https://lnkd.in/etiEZB8c

We are Social Life! 🏗 Our work is about the relationship between people and places. We specialise in research and community projects exploring how people are affected by changes in the built environment. Find out more: https://lnkd.in/eVBb57ic 🎇We believe that creating places that support local people, which are socially sustainable, matters as much as creating places that are economically and environmentally sustainable. 📝 Our work is about understanding how peoples' day-to-day experience of local places is shaped by the built environment - housing, public spaces, parks and local high streets - and how change, through regeneration, new development or small improvements to public spaces, affects the social fabric, opportunities and wellbeing of local areas. 🏘 We bring these insights to the process of planning, designing and managing places by working with communities, built environment professionals, public agencies and governments, in the UK and internationally. Social Life is a social enterprise, created by the The Young Foundation in 2012, to become a specialist centre of research and innovation about the social life of communities. Social Life builds on the ground-breaking work of two leading social thinkers: Michael Young, sociologist and social entrepreneur who established the Institute of Community Studies in 1954 to bring social research to post-war urban planning; and Professor Sir Peter Hall, one of the world's most respected and widely-published thinkers about urban planning and former Senior Research Fellow at the Young Foundation. Get in touch: https://lnkd.in/eDgjz3QZ Email: hello@social-life.co or drop by our office in Peacock Yard!🦚 Joel Simpson Fiona Smith Nicola Bacon Mena Ali Larissa Begault Natasha Shah Jessica Cargill-Thompson Lavanya Kumaran Simeon Shtebunaev

We were delighted to do a CPD delivery session today with the wonderful Karakusevic Carson Architects - thank you so much for the invite and the welcome, as well as, the insightful and very interesting questions. We are always interested in how our work is understood and perceived by other built environment professionals and the discussion was fascinating! The CPD agenda included: 🧿Our social sustainability framework that underpins our work - Design for Social Sustainability: https://lnkd.in/eb8xxiZp 🧮 Introducing our ideas of leveriging applied research approach and methods. 🔬We also discusse case studies that illustrate different type of projects we do: 📊Social sustainability assessment such as our work on South Acton and Acton Gardnes, Ealing(https://lnkd.in/edu2T3kM and Grahame Park, Barnet (https://lnkd.in/edKmkgwg) projects. 📍 Social infrastructure strategy approach such as our work in Kings Ward, Hackney and the Beehive, Cambridge (https://lnkd.in/e2ug9rAh) 📌Place-based social value delivery and our approach within the RIBA Plan of work: https://lnkd.in/enzuyV8X If you would like to have a chat with us about the work we do get in touch! hello@social-life.co or drop Nicola Bacon Larissa Begault or Simeon Shtebunaev a mesage.

📣The conclusions of this report very much reflect our work across London neighbourhoods - especially the way that precarious finances and precarious wellbeing are affecting people living in very different circumstances. And of course the limited powers of regeneration programmes to impact wider communities. Have a read ⬇️

A lot of our work is urban so it’s been very good to spend some autumn days in Suffolk talking to people in coastal communities about what it means to live there, and how they feel about their community, their health and their wellbeing. Starting this week in Hollesley - which includes in its parish the very beautiful Shingle Street - we’ve been out and about speaking to residents. If you live in Hollesley, Reydon or Kessingland you can feed your thoughts and experiences into our work here https://lnkd.in/gM-9weYB Natasha Shah Fiona Smith Jessica Cargill-Thompson SQW Suffolk County Council