NESTA Neighbourhood Challenge Programme

About the challenge

The Neighbourhood Challenge is a new programme from NESTA, working with the Big Lottery Fund, to support community-led innovation. It aims to show how community organisations – when equipped with the right skills, practical tools and small, catalytic amounts of money – can galvanise people to work together to create innovative responses to local priorities, particularly in neighbourhoods with low levels of social capital.

Watch the video and see the pictures from our launch event here

Community organisations across England were invited to apply to the 18-month programme. NESTA  selects ten organisations and provides them with funding to trial an approach to community organising that reflects their own vision for what will work best in their area.

We will provide the practical tools and high-quality training needed for participating organisations to help people in their communities create local campaigns, innovative community projects and new social enterprises that address their passions and priorities. We will also provide micro-finance to support the development of local projects and establish local challenge prizes to incentivise community-led innovation.

The Neighbourhood Challenge will deliver tangible impact and powerful case studies in local areas. At the same time, it will be rigorously evaluated to inform the Government’s thinking about how to make the Big Society work for all communities in the UK.

You can find out more about The Neighbourhood Challenge by reading our programme overview (PDF 0.2Mb).

If you have specific questions about the programme and how it will work then please check our Frequently Asked Questions page.