Southwark Living – Participatory Data
Client Name Project Type Year Status Southwark Works Service User Evaluation Project Overview Southwark Living is an innovative pilot project exploring how residents can play a more meaningful role in
The Connected Community: Insights for a Stockwell & Oval Service Directory
Client Name
Hyde Foundation
Project Type
Community Survey
Year
2025
Status
Completed
The Connected Community:
Insights for a Stockwell & Oval Service Directory
Project Overview
Stockwell and Oval are vibrant, culturally rich neighbourhoods, but the benefits of this vibrancy are not experienced equally by all residents. Many people across these two areas face ongoing challenges linked to poverty, language barriers, disability and long-term health conditions. These inequalities influence not only residents’ quality of life but also how easily they can access the services and community spaces that exist to support them.
Evidence from the earlier Stockwell Strong Fund, which provided grants to local organisations responding to the cost of living crisis, revealed consistent gaps in awareness of local services and venues. Residents reported that they often did not know what support was available, where to find it or how to access it. The Connected Community survey later confirmed these patterns. On page 3 of the report, findings show that most residents rated their awareness at only two to three out of five, and over one third said they never use local services, even when they know they exist. This suggests that knowledge is partial, uneven and not always translating into confidence or action.
Stockwell and Oval also include communities with higher proportions of residents experiencing language barriers, as highlighted on page 14, where 42.3 percent of respondents reported difficulties accessing information due to language. This reinforces the importance of accessible communication and trusted, community-based information channels.
Against this backdrop, the partners behind the Stockwell Strong Fund Sedulous, Oval Learning, Thriving Stockwell and Stockwell Partnership, supported by Hyde Foundation identified an opportunity to use remaining funding to strengthen local information access. Rather than assuming what type of directory residents needed, the partners chose to begin with listening. A community survey was developed to understand how residents currently get information, what they would find most useful and what barriers stand in the way.
This project, The Connected Community, is the result of that work. It continues the ethos of the Stockwell Strong Fund by centring lived experience, challenging inequality and ensuring that any future Service Directory is shaped by the real needs and preferences of the people it aims to serve. By grounding decisions in local insight, the project lays the groundwork for a directory that is not simply a list but a practical, equitable tool that helps Stockwell and Oval residents connect to the support and opportunities around them.
Why It Matters
Access to clear, trusted and easy to understand information is a foundation of community wellbeing, yet residents in Stockwell and Oval consistently told us that they struggle to find out what support is available locally. This is not a small gap. It undermines people’s ability to manage everyday pressures, especially during a cost of living crisis that continues to affect many households.
The Connected Community project matters because:
- Awareness does not equal access. The survey findings show that while many residents know services exist, they often do not feel confident navigating them. On page 19, over one third of respondents said they never use local services, even when aware of them, indicating a steep drop-off between knowledge and engagement;
- Inequalities shape who gets information and who is left behind. Residents experiencing disability, long-term health conditions or language barriers face additional hurdles. Page 14 highlights that 42.3 percent of respondents reported significant language barriers, limiting how reliably information reaches multilingual communities;
- People rely on informal networks because formal channels do not reach them. Many residents shared that they find out about services through friends, WhatsApp groups or community word of mouth. While powerful, these channels are uneven and can leave many without access to the same information;
- Local services lose visibility without accessible communication routes. Community organisations, neighbourhood groups and local venues frequently offer valuable activities, yet their impact is limited when residents do not know they exist or cannot easily find out about them; and
- A directory can be an equity tool, not just an information product. When designed with community insight, a directory can help overcome barriers shaped by geography, language, disability, digital exclusion and trust. This makes it more than a convenience. It becomes a mechanism for fairness.
Ultimately, this project matters because access to information shapes access to opportunity. Without reliable, inclusive and easy to navigate ways of discovering what is available, too many people in Stockwell and Oval are unable to benefit from the services that could support their wellbeing, connection and resilience.
Key Project Objectives
- Understand how residents currently access information about local services, activities and community venues, and identify where gaps or breakdowns occur.
- Explore residents’ awareness and confidence levels in using existing services, with the aim of understanding not only what people know but how comfortable they feel engaging;
- Identify barriers such as language, digital exclusion, disability, trust and geography that prevent residents from finding or using local support;
- Highlight the formats and channels residents prefer so that any future Service Directory is designed around real-world behaviours rather than assumptions;
- Gather insight from groups often underrepresented in community engagement, including residents experiencing long-term health conditions, carers, multilingual households, older adults and those with limited digital access;
- Generate evidence that informs a practical and equitable directory, ensuring that the final tool increases visibility, accessibility and trust across Stockwell and Oval; and
- Provide partners with a clear direction for next steps, enabling organisations to co-design a directory that supports both immediate needs and long-term community connection.
Our Approach
We approached this project with a simple but important principle: before building any kind of service directory, we needed to understand how residents actually find information, what they struggle with and what they would genuinely use. This meant starting from lived experience rather than assumptions.
To do this, Sedulous designed a community survey that combined both quantitative questions and open-text responses. The survey explored awareness levels, information channels and preferred formats for a future directory. This mixed-method approach meant we could capture patterns across the area while still allowing residents to describe their experiences in their own words. As shown on page 9 of the report, the questionnaire explored awareness, usage, channel preferences and accessibility barriers, giving us a rounded picture of local information needs.
We worked closely with our partners Oval Learning, Thriving Stockwell and Stockwell Partnership to distribute the survey through trusted local networks. This included schools, community organisations and neighbourhood groups, helping us reach a broad cross section of residents. In total, 52 residents responded, offering insights that reflect real households, real challenges and real information gaps.
Our approach was grounded in participatory values. As described on page 9, Sedulous positions research as a collaborative process rather than an extractive one. This means creating space for residents to share experiences honestly and ensuring their voices inform practical decisions about the future directory.
We also interpreted the results with equity in mind. Residents with disabilities, long-term health conditions and language barriers were particularly vocal in sharing how difficult it can be to access information locally. By highlighting these patterns, we ensured that the findings would not simply describe what residents know but shine a light on who is being left out and why.
Through this approach, we were able to build a clear, community-informed foundation for the next phase of work. The insights generated are grounded in lived experience, shaped by local realities and focused on creating a directory that is not only useful but fair, accessible and trusted by the people it is designed to serve.
Community Involvement
Community involvement was central to this project. Rather than designing a directory from the outside, we began by listening to residents who live, work and connect in Stockwell and Oval every day. The survey provided an accessible entry point, giving people the chance to share how they currently find information, what gets in the way and what would make support easier to access.
- Residents contributed honest and practical insights that revealed not only awareness levels but also the emotions, hesitations and frustrations that sit behind them. Their responses highlighted gaps that are often missed, such as the reliance on WhatsApp groups for trusted information, the challenges of navigating unclear or inconsistent communication and the ways language barriers shape access for multilingual households. These contributions provided the grounding needed for designing a directory that speaks to real needs rather than imagined ones;
- Importantly, the survey made it clear that different demographic groups experience Stockwell and Oval in different ways. Younger residents, older adults, people with disabilities, carers, migrants and those living in specific postcode clusters all reported distinct patterns in how they learn about what is available and what stops them from using local services; and
- Because of this, Sedulous recommends that the next phase of this work builds directly on the survey by hosting a series of co-design sessions with diverse resident groups. These sessions would allow community members to shape the directory’s structure, format, accessibility features and communication style. Co-design is essential for ensuring the directory works for those who experience the greatest barriers and that it reflects the linguistic, cultural and social realities of the neighbourhoods it is meant to serve.
Through the voices of residents and the commitment to deeper community-led design, this project has laid the first layer of a directory that is not only informative but equitable, trusted and shaped by those who need it most.
Partners & Funders
The Connected Community project was delivered through a continued partnership between Sedulous, Oval Learning, Thriving Stockwell and Stockwell Partnership. This collaboration builds on the foundations established during the Stockwell Strong Fund, where the partners worked together to distribute grants that supported local organisations responding to the cost of living crisis.
The Hyde Foundation provided the funding that made both the Stockwell Strong Fund and this follow-on project possible. Their support enabled the partnership to extend its work beyond grant distribution and explore how local systems could be strengthened in more sustainable ways.
Each partner brought a different strength to this project. Oval Learning and Thriving Stockwell contributed long-standing community relationships and local knowledge. Stockwell Partnership provided insight into neighbourhood priorities and strong connections with grassroots groups. Sedulous led on community engagement, survey design and analysis, ensuring that residents’ voices shaped the direction and recommendations of the work.
Together, these partners formed a shared vision: to create a service directory rooted in lived experience that helps residents navigate the support, spaces and opportunities available in Stockwell and Oval. The Connected Community project represents the first step toward that shared goal.
What’s Next
This project represents the first step toward creating a service directory that genuinely reflects the needs and realities of Stockwell and Oval residents. The survey has provided a clear foundation, but the work ahead is about deepening and refining that understanding so that the directory is not only accurate, but accessible, trusted and easy to use.
The next phase will focus on building on these insights through targeted co-design sessions with different demographic groups. Residents have already highlighted that experiences vary widely depending on age, language, disability, digital access and community networks. Bringing these groups together in facilitated workshops will allow them to shape the directory’s structure, accessibility features, content priorities and communication style.
Alongside this, the partnership will explore how best to host, maintain and update the directory so that it remains relevant and sustainable. Considerations will include whether the directory should be digital, printed or both; how organisations can keep their information up to date; and how local networks can continue to play a role in sharing information.
By grounding future steps in community insight and continuing the collaborative approach established through the Stockwell Strong Fund, the partners aim to create a directory that strengthens connection, reduces inequality and supports residents in navigating the rich network of services and spaces available in their neighbourhood.
The work now is about turning insight into action and transforming what residents have shared into a practical tool that benefits the whole community.
Get in Touch!
If your organisation is exploring ways to understand communities more deeply or to design services that are shaped by the people they are meant to support, we would be happy to work with you. Sedulous specialises in insight-led community engagement that translates local experiences into practical, inclusive solutions. Whether you are developing a new project, planning community research or looking to create tools that improve access to information, we can help you build an approach that is grounded in trust and real-world understanding.
Contact us to start a conversation about how we can support your next piece of work. Stronger communities begin with listening, and meaningful change grows from what people share.
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