Brixton Project Case Study

Brixton Project

Community

© Image by Brixton Project

Overview

The Brixton Project is a participatory placemaking and community organisation working across the London Borough of Lambeth. Rooted in Brixton but operating borough‑wide, the project supports grassroots community development by strengthening equity, collaboration, ownership and belonging, and by amplifying local identity, heritage and collective joy.

As part of a Lambeth Council‑commissioned programme, the Brixton Project plays a central role in advocacy for the borough’s voluntary and community sector. The project also builds understanding and connection across a complex ecosystem of organisations, funders, and partners working towards shared outcomes.

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Challenges

Lambeth’s voluntary and community sector is broad and vibrant, with more than 1,500 organisations contributing across health, wellbeing, disability support, climate action, youth services, faith and culture. Yet this richness has long been fragmented, with many groups operating in sector‑based silos and limited ways to understand how their work connected across shared goals, outcomes or places.

Existing directories supported basic service searches but offered little insight into relationships, collaboration opportunities or gaps across the wider system. The absence of system‑level visibility made it challenging to strengthen partnerships, surface unmet needs or build a shared understanding of Lambeth’s community ecosystem.

OnePlanet Solution

The Brixton Project partnered with OnePlanet to build an outcomes‑led directory of Lambeth’s voluntary and community sector. Using OnePlanet, hundreds of organisations are now being mapped and linked through shared outcomes such as health and wellbeing, disability, physical health and mental health. Rather than appearing as isolated entries, organisations are visualised as part of an interconnected system.

At this stage, the directory exists as a published plan that creates a shared picture of the sector. The platform enables the Brixton Project to see where organisations connect across sectors, where multiple groups contribute to the same outcomes, and where collaboration may be possible but not yet visible. This systems view supports learning, reflection and iteration, rather than prescribing fixed solutions.

Explore the directory Mindmap and Geomap here: VCS – The Brixton Project

Benefits and Return on Investment

Through its collaboration with OnePlanet, the Brixton Project has begun to realise the following benefits:

A shared, system‑wide view of Lambeth’s voluntary and community sector, showing organisations as part of an interconnected ecosystem rather than isolated entries.
Greater visibility of relationships, overlaps and shared outcomes across organisations working in different sectors.
Early insight into areas of strong provision and potential gaps, supporting learning and reflection at a borough scale.
A flexible, outcomes‑led foundation that can evolve over time, supporting deeper collaboration as capacity allows.
An approach that respects the realities of the community sector, enabling gradual engagement rather than placing additional burden on organisations.

""OnePlanet helps us connect the bigger picture. It brings together projects, people and ideas into a shared framework, making it easier to communicate our vision and work collaboratively towards a more sustainable community.""

Bob Philipson, Sustainable Goulburn Mulwaree