Happy City is thrilled to announce we’ve been awarded a significant grant from the Big Lottery Fund to support our work to put the wellbeing of people and planet at the heart of the economy.

The grant will fund major developments to our wellbeing measurement tools to make them available to charities and communities across the UK.

Happy City’s chief executive Liz Zeidler says:“This is a game-changer for our capacity to respond to the growing interest in wellbeing in every corner of the UK. These tools will help to challenge assumptions and change the goalposts of decisions makers around the UK, putting what really matters to people’s lives centre stage.”

A focus of the work is Happy City’s Pulse, an online survey that measures individual and community wellbeing. The survey supports people to explore how they think and feel, what they do to improve their wellbeing and how they connect with others and provides resources to help them grow their wellbeing.

The Big Lottery’s support will allow organisations to use the Pulse to measure the wellbeing of groups and communities to build our understanding of what works to support those most in need. The upgraded version will give any group using it access to their own unique data collection portal and dashboard. It will be freely available alongside training to help use it to understand the strengths, needs and opportunities within their local area. We aim to work with more than 2000 charities in the next two years.

The funding will also help us expand the use of our Thriving Places Index (TPI) across the UK. The TPI — currently available in England and Wales — measures how well a place is creating the conditions for wellbeing and if it is doing so for all its citizens now and in the future. It looks at a range of elements including equality, sustainability, health, education, community and the quality and resilience of the local economy.

The TPI is designed to help local decision makers in all sectors to prioritise the wellbeing of communities in their planning, policies, commissioning and delivery. It has been piloted in five areas of Gwent in south east Wales, where it is being used to support cross-sector working.

Together these two tools provide a new way to measure progress in our society – moving away from a simple view of success based on growing consumption and wealth for the few, and helping focus energy and resources to creating the conditions for everyone to thrive now and in the future.

Liz says: “We’re delighted to be working with the Big Lottery Fund to strengthen our work in this sector, and the communities it supports, to focus on what it means to thrive — together.”