About Our Bigger Story

Big Local was an exciting opportunity for residents in 150 areas around England to use at least £1m each to make a lasting and positive difference to their communities.

Big Local brought together all the local talent, ambitions, skills and energy from individuals, groups and organisations who wanted to make their area an even better place to live and develop the skills and knowledge of local residents. It had a long term approach to change: Big Local areas had up to 15 years to spend their money.

The programme was funded by the Big Lottery Fund and managed by Local Trust. Local Trust supports residents and communities to create positive change. They believe those in the community know best about what is needed in the places where they live, work and socialise, and are the most likely to come up with solutions to make a lasting difference.

Local Trust has an ongoing commitment to learning and evaluation and commissioned Our Bigger Story as one way to learn about how community led change happens.

Learn more about Big Local and Local Trust

Our Bigger Story was a multimedia evaluation of Big Local which aimed to record positive change in Big Local areas and understand how those changes came about and how they could be sustained.

Led by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University, the team worked with 15 Big Local areas across England to record change as it happened – change in individuals and in Big Local communities as a whole.

We supported Big Local areas to record their experiences, through community research, blogs, photos, digital stories, films and other media.

Together we created an on-line record of the activities that made Big Local areas an even better to place to live, and produced films about how Big Local is making a difference.

Ultimately, Our Bigger Story is a unique digital record of change in communities over a ten year period.