Project explores creative ways of combining community stories and data to shape regeneration

The Stories for Us project will see academics working with organisations across �鶹�ƽ�� and Hastings

Diverse group of people participating in a workshop

Project explores creative ways of combining community stories and data to shape regeneration

The Stories for Us project will see academics working with organisations across �鶹�ƽ�� and Hastings

Mr Alan Williams

Media and Communications Manager

Corporate Communications (Marketing and Communications)

24 March 2026

People’s experiences and perceptions of their local communities will be at the heart of a new project that aims to transform how authorities make decisions that impact towns and cities across the UK.

In the UK, three quarters of people feel they have little or no control over the important decisions that affect their neighbourhood and local community, while seven in ten believe local residents and groups have ideas and skills that could improve their community.

The Stories of Us project aims to address the feeling of powerlessness many people in the UK experience in relation to their local communities and decision-making processes.

Stories of Us is centred around two coastal communities – �鶹�ƽ�� and Hastings – which sit at the geographic and economic periphery of the UK and experience significant levels of deprivation. They are both home to vibrant grassroots organisations that are developing innovative approaches to community-led regeneration and empowerment.

Through a series of events, the project aims to combine both those elements – publicly held datasets which reflect aspects like economic status, and the personal stories of people that are never captured or reflected within spreadsheets.

In doing so, it aims to translate standard data into stories that are influenced by – and accurately reflect – local communities, and which are presented in such a way that they can be used effectively by decision makers such as local councils and national government.

The Stories of Us project is being led by experts in place, data science and public engagement from the �鶹�ƽ��, supported by funding through the Locally Unlocking Culture through Inclusive Access (LUCIA) programme at the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

The project will work with a network of community and social data partners including Nudge Community Builders, Hastings Commons, �鶹�ƽ�� Octopus Project (POP), Social Life, The Data Place, and Prospect Brixham and cultural organisations The Box and Hastings Contemporary. The project also involves academics from the University of Cambridge and Falmouth University.

Too often, the everyday experiences people have of their neighbourhoods – the things they feel, notice, and care about – are not at the centre of local decision-making.

Instead, decisions about communities are based on technical data and statistics that can feel abstract and distant from people's real lives. Our goal is to change this. We want to amplify marginalised voices and shift how decisions are made, so that communities themselves have a stronger say and greater control over the choices that shape the places where they live.

Professor Katharine Willis
Professor of Smart Cities and Communities

Over the next year, the project will support people living in �鶹�ƽ�� and Hastings to develop new stories about their communities, through methods that enable them to interpret and use data themselves.

Through workshops and collaborative activities involving community members, researchers, data practitioners, and policymakers, the project will co-create new ways to interpret and mobilise publicly available data sources.

This approach prioritises seldom-heard voices, respects diverse cultural identities, and supports communities to shape how data about them is used in decision-making.

We have learnt the power of data that sits in reports and spreadsheets and the power in opening this up to play, discuss and use in creative ways to make a difference in our community. This project is really exciting as it gives us the support and opportunity to experiment, innovate and learn in more robust and replicable ways alongside the other partners.

Hannah Sloggett
Co-Director of Nudge Community Builders

We have done a lot of work in understanding how to best influence decisions from a community and grassroots perspective. Our conclusion is that we need to fundamentally change what, how and where data is used - to increase the value we place on people's experiences, diversify who makes sense of data and shift the conversation into proximity with people i.e. into neighbourhoods and community. This is why this project is so important – it represents an opportunity to continue to discover how our society can make better decisions.

Matt Bell
CEO of the �鶹�ƽ�� Octopus Project

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Mr Alan Williams

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