Understory Project

Horncastle and Spalding Community Action Mapping

Children’s Links and LVET have been offered the chance to map community action in Horncastle and Spalding as part of a Lottery funded project, called Understory. 

Understory is a tool for us to map the network of relationships that support our organisations and people. It builds community strength by helping a community to understand itself better. The map will enable us to see who we have here in the community, what goals everyone is working towards, and how each of our organisations connect. This information will tell us how to build stronger ties between people and stronger collaborations around our goals.

It is important to note that Understory explores the relationships between people – the trusted working relationships that allow us to build community power. It’s a wealth of research and understanding that doesn’t exist yet and Understory hope to influence funders and policymakers with aggregate data in the years to come, so it’s an exciting project to be part of. The map will be made together in an online / in-person meeting – with the option to take part in whichever version you are most comfortable with. We would like as many local organisations to participate as possible. Details of where and when will be sent out closer to the time. In the meantime, if you would like to take part, or be kept up to date with information, please send an email to emily.ward@lvet.org. 

Understory has been designed by Onion Collective and Free Ice Cream, (respectively a social enterprise and design studio). More information on it can be found at https://understory.community.