The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has a long history of supporting social change and addressing the root causes of poverty and inequality.

At the time of this work, the Emerging Futures team was exploring how JRF might deepen its understanding of community-led transition and place-based organising across the UK.

This enquiry was happening alongside strong existing place-based work within JRF, particularly through regional initiatives such as the North East programme.

The opportunity was to connect these different strands of learning and explore how the foundation might support place-rooted change more effectively in the future.

We worked alongside the Emerging Futures team as a learning partner during the early stages of this enquiry.

This included:

• contributing insight from our own place-based practice

• sharing examples of community-led transition emerging across the UK

• helping clarify key questions about how funders can better understand grassroots conditions

• supporting research and writing that brought together emerging thinking

Over time, we became a practical extension of the team, offering reflection, analysis, and grounded examples to help shape the direction of the work.

A key part of the collaboration involved connecting strategic thinking with real examples of place-based work.

This included spending time with colleagues connected to JRF’s regional programme in the North East and learning more about work taking place in Hartlepool through the Sea Change project.

These conversations helped ensure the enquiry stayed rooted in live practice, connecting national strategy with the realities of community-led organising.

A core part of our work was contributing a piece of research called Weaving Transitions.

This work explored the patterns and conditions behind community-led transition in place, looking at how communities are already connecting ecology, economy, culture and care into locally rooted systems of change.

Rather than focusing on isolated projects, the enquiry examined the social infrastructure that allows communities to organise collectively and navigate complex challenges over time.

The aim was to surface practical learning that could help inform how national institutions support place-based change in the future.

By the end of the process, the team had developed a clearer picture of:

• how community-led transition is already emerging in many places across the UK

• why this work often remains invisible to national funding systems

• what conditions help communities organise and lead change in place

• how funders might move resources and learning closer to communities

For us, the collaboration reinforced the importance of bridging between grassroots practice and national institutions, helping insights travel in both directions.