Love Your Place is a design-led programme that connects local residents, businesses and partners around a structured process of discovery and collaborative problem-solving.
Together, they form project teams to identify priorities, build evidence-based design briefs and create a clear path toward delivering meaningful, community-led outcomes.
Love Your Place turns ideas into action, connecting communities with industry through a structred innovation process.
Phase 1
Starting with a Challenge Day at our Hub or on location, we explore the problems and projects that matter to you and your community.
The Getting Ready phase often has three steps: Shape > Submit > Select:
Shape
The Challenge Day helps participants define the problem(s), refine their challenge(s) and develop their vision and action plan.
This sets the foundation for their projects to be more successful, with or without future support from the Hub.
Submit
After the Challenge Day, participants have a few weeks to strengthen their challenge and team before submitting their proect proposal.
Select
Projects are evaluated and then selected for ongoing support based on their alignment with an overarching goal or programme support offer.
In some instances, projects can also be voted on by the community, giving them a say in which projects continue through the programme.
Phase 2
After the Getting Ready phase, selected teams will dig deeper into problems and possibilities; guided by the insights and expertise of others.
The Getting Started phase has three steps: Discover > Define > Project Brief:
Discover
The first part of this phase focuses on understanding the needs, priorities and perspectives of stakeholders using design-led, user-centred research methods.
This process helps teams uncover barriers, opportunities, and key drivers that will shape each project.
Define
The second part of this phase takes all the insights each team has gathered during Discovery and uses them to clearly define the core problem they want to tackle. This involves:
This step ensures that teams have a solid foundation before exploring solutions, making their next steps more targeted and effective.
Project Brief
By the end of this phase, each team will have a shared problem definition, a unified vision, stakeholder insights and a clear project brief to guide their next steps.
Project teams are invited to join the Future Towns Innovation network to access expertise, opportunities and resources that will help them progress to the next stage.
Phase 3
In this phase, teams will co-create and test solutions, bringing their vision to life through prototyping or real world implementation.
The Getting Results phase has three steps: Design > Test > Learn:
Design
Building on the insights and clarity gained in the previous phases, this phase focuses on designing, prototyping and testing ideas that respond directly to the defined problem.
Test
Using resources from the Hub, teams are encouraged to test assumptions, gather feedback and adapt solutions - embracing the principle that it’s better to fail fast than succeed slowly.
Learn
By the end of this phase, each team will have actionable, tested solutions, a plan for implementation and confidence that their project is designed to achieve meaningful impact.
Project teams are equipped to explore next steps independently, strengthened by their connections with partners and influencers, and with the potential to pursue further funding or support alongside the University of Southampton and our partners.
After the Getting Ready phase, project teams will join monthly check-ins with a design thinking facilitator.
The Love Your Place programme made me really think about what people actually want, rather than an idea that I thought people wanted. It made me realise that research and talking to people is so important. The aim of our project changed as we began to understand what the actual problem was.
Cohort 1 participant
Are you ready to collaborate on real community challenges? Register on the platform and apply for a Love Your Place badge. We’ll notify you when the next cohort begins.
If you'd like to explore what your place could do or be next, please get in touch to discuss a tailored Love Your Place programme. We’ll help you shape it from idea to action.
Do you want to support local innovation and change? If so, get in touch to sponsor a Love Your Place cohort and help build happier, healthier and more prosperous places.
