Case study
Working with Made Open to help the Torfaen community thrive
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With the invaluable support of Basis and Made Open, Connect Torfaen is continuing to grow into a lifeline for Torfaen, and, most importantly, a dynamic online community hub that truly fulfils its potential. Their expert guidance in building partner collaboration, enhancing platform usability, and creating a strategic plan to re-engage both partners and the wider community has been instrumental in this success”.
Natasha Wright, Connect Torfaen Engagement Officer, Torfaen Voluntary Alliance
In 2022, following the Covid-19 pandemic, leaders in Torfaen, a county in south Wales, were interested in strengthening local communities after months of isolation. The Torfaen Voluntary Alliance, Torfaen County Borough Council and the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board teamed up to create a digital space where residents can access local information on activities, services and volunteering in their area.
Through grant funding from the Welsh government, the Torfaen partners commissioned Made Open, a leading platform provider for place-based communities. Leveraging their strategic and service design expertise, Made Open developed a personalised platform called Connect Torfaen to meet the partners’ needs for an online community hub aligned with the broader vision for the Torfaen community.
In the first year, the platform saw rapid adoption with 430 registered members and over 15,000 unique users. It continued to gain traction with more community groups and residents signing up to the platform in 2023. However, as the year wore on, activity began to decline. With less engagement on the site, the partners were concerned that the platform wasn’t translating into a more connected and collaborative community.
With grant funding coming to an end and the initial licence set to expire in spring 2024, they knew something had to be done to maximise the value of their investment. Despite the decreased usage of Connect Torfaen, the partners still believed it had potential for meaningful impact and the council saw the platform playing a critical role in achieving their 2023-2027 Community Wellbeing Strategy.
Understanding the challenge
Partners agreed they would benefit from a fresh set of eyes to do a deep dive into the situation and help them determine the best path forward.
While we identified some improvements that could be made to the platform itself, what became apparent was the need for higher levels of collaboration between the partners and better ways of working that would enable them to make quick decisions and adapt to the evolving needs of the community.
Maximising the value of the platform
Following the review, the partners knew they needed to figure out how to improve collaboration and make working in partnership much easier for everyone involved. We facilitated a full-day workshop for the partners to develop a shared vision for the platform, determine priorities, assign clear ownership for the action plan and agree on a team structure for doing the work.
In line with an agile approach, the working group responsible for carrying out the action plan consisted of a multidisciplinary team with representation from each of the partners, including the Bron Afon Housing Association who recently joined the partnership.
Aaron From Basis acted as the Scrum Master and, with the team, established an agile working rhythm with regular, 15-minute check-ins (stand-ups) twice a week for the working group and fortnightly project updates (show and tells) with leadership.
We knew that for this work to be successful, Made Open needed to be heavily involved. After facilitating a meeting between partner leaders and the CEO of Made Open, they established regular monthly meetings to review data, set strategy and provide coaching to help the lead staff member in Torfaen more effectively manage the platform.
In addition, Made Open was quick to implement platform improvements based on feedback from users and partner stakeholders, such as redesigning the landing page and streamlining the user journey. During this time, Made Open launched version 3 of their platform based on wider usability testing, which greatly enhanced the user experience and addressed several issues identified in the review. Notable platform improvements included faster activity posting (critical for time-poor community groups), better site navigation, member verification for a safer community and easier recording of time banking and volunteering hours.
With better working relationships between the partners and Made Open, and an improved platform experience, the working group spent the following months developing more robust support around the platform, engaging community groups and organisations, and preparing to publicly relaunch Connect Torfaen to residents.
On the ground, this increased engagement is having a tangible impact on the Torfaen community. According to Samantha Lowry from the CoStar Partnership, a community organisation dedicated to tackling poverty and reducing social isolation:
“Connect Torfaen is a fantastic platform for advertising all of the upcoming events and regular group activities we host at CoStar. Using the site has not only increased footfall but also ensured a more targeted audience for our events and activities. It has also enhanced our connections with other groups and events, benefiting both CoStar and our clients.”
The Impact
Within three months, the team was ready to re-launch the platform.
Torfaen is just at the start of leveraging the power of what the Made Open platform can offer and has plans of further expanding Connect Torfaen to be the community’s central hub for volunteering and eventually serve as a mechanism for participatory budgeting.
"Empowering communities across Torfaen to thrive is at the heart of what we do, and seeing the success of Connect Torfaen is incredibly rewarding. Through collaboration with Made Open, Torfaen County Borough Council, and Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, we've created a platform that connects people with local activities, services, and volunteering opportunities in a way that truly supports the community. By working with Basis to review the platform, implement key improvements, and strengthen collaboration between our partners, engagement has grown, and we’re already seeing a significant difference in the lives of residents. Made Open has been highly adaptable and supportive, responding to the changes requested and continuously enhancing the platform to meet community needs. We’re excited to continue building on this success and making Torfaen a stronger, more connected place for everyone."
- Aimi Morris, Operational Executive Officer, Torfaen Voluntary Alliance
Future Collaboration
At the start of this project, neither of our organisations thought we might work together, especially given that one of us was evaluating the other. But what the work in Torfaen shows is that we’ve sort of stumbled upon what could be a really meaningful approach for empowering communities to thrive.
When it comes to place-based work, there are a few key ingredients that enable communities to be successful -- Made Open calls these the 5 ‘P’s: People, Place, Partners, Processes and Platform.
Every community is grounded in a given place whether that’s a physical location or a conceptual space like a professional network. Within that place, there are people (i.e. community members), partners (e.g. charities, government agencies, businesses, etc.) and processes (i.e. ways of working to meet community needs) that are brought together through some sort of platform (digital or physical) that creates the space for members to organise, collaborate and share information.
Made Open has developed a user-friendly digital platform that creates the much-needed infrastructure for community development and has built a reputation for personalising that platform to the unique needs of its clients. Over 100 communities across 8 countries have a Made Open platform, including cities as big as Bristol and organisations as complex as the NHS.
We on the other hand are experts in working with people and partners to improve processes that lead to better outcomes for the community. While a lot of our work focuses on leveraging agile ways of working and relational service design to transform resident-facing public services, such as homelessness prevention and social care, we have also helped places like the London Borough of Newham establish their Social Welfare Alliance to improve collaboration between the council, VCS sector and health partners.
As was the case in Torfaen, Made Open works with many communities that either have or want a digital platform but need some help with the people, partners and processes around it. Likewise, we encounter many place-based communities that are doing things right but lack a dynamic platform that allows them to be even greater than the sum of their parts.
By working together, there is an opportunity for us to support place-based communities in a more holistic way than either of our organisations can alone: delivering a powerful platform tailored to the unique needs of diverse communities backed by facilitation experts that enable leaders and partners to maximise the potential of what their communities can be.
We’re excited to see how our work together might evolve as we continue to learn and grow alongside our partners in this space.
If you’re interested in learning more about how Made Open and Basis can support you and your community, feel free to reach out to Robert (robert@madeopen.co.uk) or Aaron (aaron.teater@basis.co.uk).
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