The front cover of the Boston blueprint.

The mission

Social Change were commissioned to undertake a behavioural insights project to explore current attitudes, perceptions and experiences relating to life and work in Boston, the current state of community relations and views towards local leaders. The project aimed to better understand how existing community tensions and inequalities in the borough could be addressed with view to empowering and improving the wellbeing of the people of Boston.

Hands holding open the boston report, displaying infographics

The research

Five research phases identified barriers and facilitators of community cohesion and fostering positive relationships with the Council and Community Leaders, providing rich insights into different perspectives on supporting Boston to thrive:

1. Scoping and desk research;

2. Interviews with Community Leaders;

3. The BIG Boston Survey;

4. Storytelling and Active Listening;

5. Stakeholder Event. 

An open spread of the Boston blueprint showing infographics.

What we did

After being presented with headline findings and behavioural insights from the project, via a survey, interviews and active listening exercises, key stakeholders developed potential solutions to the issues of most importance to the people of Boston, to inform the development of impactful interventions for the short-term and into the future. They were tasked with considering the Suitability, Feasibility and Acceptability of these interventions and the relevant resources needed to implement them.

The impact.

We combined the research findings across all project phases to present key themes representing current attitudes and behaviours towards community cohesion, relations with local leaders and life in Boston.

Using our knowledge of behavioural science, we generated key insights that informed the development of three overarching recommendations for future interventions. Together, these comprised our 'Blueprint for Boston', which provides a detailed breakdown of all findings and each recommendation, as well as key behavioural insights to support the Council’s next steps in building a more cohesive and integrated Boston Borough. 

12 behavioural insights
1 stakeholder event
3 key recommendations
1 'Blueprint for Boston'