Institute for Community Studies

The Institute for Community Studies is a new kind of research institute, with people and communities at its heart. We believe that the involvement of communities leads to better decision making on the issues that most affect them. In April 2021, we were appointed as strategic research partner to Power to Change. We support their mission to strengthen community businesses to tackle some of society’s biggest challenges at a local level, including the three biggest challenges of our time: climate change, digital transformation and social inequalities.

We engage with communities and experts across the UK to identify and prioritise the top questions that research and policy need to answer based on what matters, directing research towards the most urgent and salient questions and amplifying community perspectives. We prove and improve our practice by understanding what’s working, and through systematic engagement with communities, the sector and experts, share where there are weaknesses and gaps in our understanding. Through a unique combination of methods, we are giving increasing weight to the stories, experience and evidence created in communities supported through our growing national network of community researchers. We provoke direct engagement with policy makers, business and those holding the power to change the experience of communities today through working with those who care about taking action.

The Institute for Community Studies is powered by The Young Foundation.