By Rachel Dixon, Civil Society Data & Policy Officer, GLA Community Engagement
In October, we co-hosted the London Civic Data Innovation Showcase with our partners at Impact on Urban Health. The event celebrated the completion of our Civic Data Innovation Challenge (CDIC), a two-year grant fund through which our partnership invested c. £285K into 13 community data projects. The Showcase also sparked continued conversation about what’s on the horizon in London’s ‘data for good’ ecosystem. 
Image: Shipra Ogra, Principal Policy and Programme Officer (Civil Society) on the GLA Community Engagement Team, delivers opening remarks at the London Civic Data Innovation Showcase.
The insights and datasets presented on the day by Round 2 grantees (London Sport, Migrant Democracy Project, MyCake and Neighbourly Lab) demonstrate the benefits of flexible, strategic investment in methodologies and technical infrastructure for civil society. Through this work, we continue to build more nuanced understandings of (and measures for) components of ‘civic strength’. This includes developing a methodology for measuring belonging at borough level; capturing data on sport and physical activity as part of community life; refining a London borough-level dataset on charitable activity; and identifying gaps in representation between Londoners and their local councillors. The complete datasets will soon be incorporated into the live London Civic Strength Tool to help us build on community assets.
Investments in community data projects like these are rare and offer rich insights. Here are some of our top lessons:
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Data is a public good, and to best serve the interests of Londoners, insights projects should bridge what communities value and the social change decision-makers hope to affect. Far too often, we look where information already exists to shape policies and initiatives; this means we miss the opportunity to push the boundaries of what data can be made available—and thus of the impact we can have through harnessing it.
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Available data is not necessarily accessible data, as MyCake points out. Information about communities should be published via ethical means in open, useable formats; and it should be regularly reviewed to ensure its high quality and reliability.
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Strong relationship-building is the lynchpin of successful data collection. Our grantees worked across administrative and organisational boundaries to plug London’s data gaps. Doing so required deep engagement skills: understanding different stakeholders’ needs, explaining technical concepts in plain language, and aligning work to shared goals. This process requires flexibility, agility and a good deal of patience!
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We need more stories about what’s happening within civil society. Policymakers and others with power and influence need to see beyond the numbers to make positive impacts. By funding future community-led insight initiatives, we can make visible the strengths and needs of diverse communities across London.
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The sector needs more partnership working on data. CDIC was a partnership between a health focussed impact investor and a regional strategic authority – both committed to investment in measuring what matters to communities.
As the capital’s ‘data for good’ ecosystem grows, there’s ample reason for hope that Londoners are already pushing the boundaries of ‘civic data’ and that together we can advocate for expanded community access to insight creation.
For example, Impera Analytics’ Citizen-Led Impact model shifts power dynamics around knowledge, trains community members to collect qualitative data, and equips individuals to collectively build skills and enact change. Their quantitative work also starts with communities. Alongside Impact on Urban Health, they’ve designed the Social Progress Index to bridge the gap between modelling and community outcomes in relation to wellbeing.
Image: Pye Nyunt, CEO of Impera Analytics, discusses why London needs a community-led approach to impact measurement and data collection. The organisation’s Citizen Led Impact workstream is led by Dr James Shraiky and has made strong progress in embedding citizen science methods in Camden.
Along similar lines, UCL’s Institute for Global Prosperity just released its Citizen Prosperity Index, to “measure what matters to the prosperity of local communities in east London”. This hyperlocal data effort started with communities to create relevant metrics. Researchers worked with community researchers from within Hackney Wick, East Village and Stratford to define ‘prosperity’ in the context of neighbourhood regeneration. These definitions—and not those of policymakers, academics, or businesses—underpinned the CPI’s indicators and metrics.
We hope these initiatives are just a start toward more coordinated, cross-sector, community-centred ways of measuring what matters to Londoners. As a strategic authority we are committed to building an evidence base rooted in the realities of the city’s diverse communities and are keen to keep this working going and connect with partners who share these aims. 
Image: Showcase attendees discuss the barriers and enablers to embedding a community engagement approach in their data and insights work.
As we think about our next phase of work at the GLA Community Engagement Team—and at Impact on Urban Health—it would be good to learn from you. Please do reach out with ideas for ways to strengthen London’s civil society sector or to better inform policymakers about its reach.
If you’d like to stay in the loop on this work, please email Rachel at [email protected]
Together, we hope to keep advocating for a community-engaged approach to knowledge creation.