A new era for Neighbourly lab

It is hard to believe that Neighbourly Lab will be five years old in the Spring. Our first half decade has been a time of much researching, training, trialling, innovating, learning, sharing, and amplifying.
Over the past number of years we have carved out our place as an organisation that is committed to working with partners to create stronger and more connected communities. We have partnered with so many committed people and organisations including local authorities, NHS, VCFS organisations, social media companies, transport providers, housing associations, academic institutions, policy makers, campaigners… the list goes on.
We have spent thousands of hours in communities, listening to people ensuring that lesser heard voices are amplified to decision makers and that they have a seat at the decision- making table through co-production.
We are now at a moment where we want to consolidate these learnings and have an even greater impact in communities by sharpening the focus of our work and targeting our efforts where we feel we can make the biggest difference.
Crystalling our missions for 2025
Based on our work to date, we believe the following areas of focus will allow us to most effectively and impactfully achieve our mission, to create stronger and more connected communities.
LONG TERM SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
From supermarkets to bus stations to WhatsApp groups, places and spaces should be designed to help people meet and mix.
We aim to enhance how the built environment, physical infrastructure, and online platforms can foster long-term social connections, provide information and support in communities.
ACCELERATING WELCOME
We want to help newcomers settle quickly and comfortably, minimising the burden of adjusting to a new place so that they can more easily access the support and care they need to thrive in that place. We focus on how places are set up to welcome newcomers through the provision of services, information and tools, and identify ways to mitigate the friction of new groups living together.
INCLUSIVE SERVICE-PROVISION
Public and frontline services have a duty to offer inclusive support to more marginalised and sometimes vulnerable residents. We work with organisations to understand their diverse communities, and support community members to get involved in shaping services so that they are better designed and support more people.
New look for a new era
Alongside all of these efforts to be more targeted in our work, we have also worked hard to significantly improve our amplification and comms work by establishing a dedicated Growth team – Grainne O’Dwyer, Head of Growth and Partnerships and Aba Amihyia, Growth and Communications Strategist. Our work is now reaching more people and having greater impact than ever before.
So it felt only right as we pass this milestone, graduating from our ‘childhood years’ to our ‘adolescence’ as an organisation, that we have a brand image that reflected who we are today. A more mature, wiser Neighbourly Lab that still brings a lot of energy, thoughtfulness and generosity to all of the work that we do.
Our Growth team, and in particular Aba, have worked tirelessly with our partners at Agency for Good, Jonny Hall Studios and our Design Consultant Sooraj Seshan this year to develop a refreshed logo, new website, new materials and resources.
We absolutely love it and we hope you will too!