The Change Coefficient and Make an Impact CIC were commissioned by LocalMotion in late 2024 to develop a learning framework for the network. This toolkit is one of the key outputs of the process and supports the implementation of the learning framework.
LocalMotion aims to inspire new ways of tackling the common social, economic and environmental issues that communities face, so they can thrive and flourish. Its shared purpose is “to reimagine a more just future for everyone” through cross sector collaboration that supports the untapped and under resourced potential of communities to create change across a local authority area. Sparked by a desire to create a ‘fit for the future’ collaborative funding model for the people, communities and complex and intersecting issues that foundations were set up to support, LocalMotion began with the question: “what would be possible if we worked together in a different way?”
Working at the interconnecting levels of the local – in six place networks in England and Wales – and the national – with the five funders and representatives from the six places forming a national governance group – LocalMotion wants to learn as much as possible about what it takes to create and sustain collaborative change. The desire is to understand how we can collectively tackle the root causes of social, environmental and economic injustices to achieve both the national shared purpose of reimagining a more just future for everyone – and the local visions set by each of the six places.
One of LocalMotion’s signature strengths is that funders are deeply involved in the work with people in the six places and in bringing people together across the whole initiative. At its heart the work is relational and seeks to capture changes happening at all the different layers of the work: across the whole LocalMotion initiative, within local place networks, within funding organisations and the wider funding system, and for the individuals involved in the work.
This requires new ways of thinking about how the work is understood and insights are shared. The hypothesis that is being tested through LocalMotion is that ‘connections create change’, with deeper collaboration leading to deeper, more sustainable change.
There are four foundations to LocalMotion’s work as shown in Figure 2.
This learning framework seeks to support the development of a forward-looking learning approach where learning is actionable, a core part of the work and inclusive. An approach that supports experimentation and iteration and provides insights on what is changing because of the work and what needs to change as a result of what we are learning.
The toolkit aims to support anyone involved in LocalMotion and beyond to develop actionable insights and to learn directly from their efforts to build and sustain a successful social, economic and environmental justice movement. It supports LocalMotion’s learning principles that recognise that learning does not happen on a set schedule, emphasise learning through experience and dialogue and recognise that even unintended results are actionable learning.
LocalMotion’s learning principles against which it wishes to understand what is changing through its work are:
