We are very proud of our track record of delivering more than 1000 projects of all kinds, sizes and sectors.
Here are some examples of our work across the community sector:
Examples of engagement and community research projects:
Design, development and placemaking
- Community consultation across London for the National Gallery as part of the pre-planning engagement for a significant build programme to celebrate the 200 year anniversary of the Gallery. Kaizen are the engagement specialists, part of the appointed design team, led by US architects Selldorf. Our role included large scale community research and set up and facilitation of four co-design groups, including one that was nationally representative.
- Facilitation of a large community collaborative design process for LB Redbridge to develop a community led masterplan for Fairlop Waters Country Park. This included design and facilitation of a series of co-design workshops with a group of 40 local residents and stakeholders to come up with the new masterplan.
- Community research in 8 locations across the UK for the Quality of Life Foundation to understand what aspects of the built environment people feel have the biggest impact on their quality of life. This community research fed into the development of a comprehensive framework for how quality of life can be built into new developments.
- We have led engagement within design teams for more than £1Bn of new development, for organisations including Common Projects, HUB Residential and Kin.
Health and wellbeing
- In collaboration with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, we designed and delivered a major youth consultation to ensure that children and young people (CYP) were part of the ChangeNHS national conversation on the 10-year Health Plan. We engaged over 2000 children and young people, age 7-25 and from all 9 regions in England.
- Insight research for Lambeth Public Health (yearly, from 2021 to 2024) on food poverty and food insecurity in the Borough; engaging with over 500 residents each year that were representative of the Borough demographics.
- A community consultation with over 1000 people for Poplar HARCA to gather community views in order for Poplar HARCA and their partners to have a greater and more direct impact on local health and happiness.
Climate
- Community research across London to understand perceptions around nature conservation for the London Wildlife Trust. Over 1000 Londoners engaged.
- A youth consultation with more than 1400 children and young people, on behalf of LB Waltham Forest, to understand their views about the climate emergency to feed into the policy development by the climate change commission.
Strategy, policy and programme design
- Consultation for the North London Waste Authority across 7 London Boroughs, to get community feedback on the combined borough Draft Waste Management Strategy. Over 1000 people, representative of the Boroughs, were engaged using outreach-based methods – 78% said they had never been consulted about local services before (a further 14% said not much before).
- Engagement support and community research for Lambeth Age Friendly Borough programme delivery. This included strategic support, outreach based engagement and establishment and facilitation of Age Friendly Forum meetings.
- Community consultation for LB Brent as part of a large scale engagement review for the Borough. We did outreach based engagement of over 350 residents from across the Borough who were representative of Borough demographics (including traditionally under-represented groups).
Engagement consultancy projects
- Strategic engagement support and consultancy for the National Institute of Health Research to help improve engagement of people from diverse backgrounds in clinical research. This included adapting the Kaizen engagement models and engagement manual for the health sector and facilitating action learning for practitioners from across the country.
- Training and consultancy for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to develop and deliver an Engagement Quality Improvement programme for the college.
- Comprehensive review of tenant and homeowner engagement for Southwark Council to provide evidence to support improvements and service re-design, including consultation with over 1000 residents in the Borough.
- Development of a draft engagement strategy for the Regulator of Social Housing to help them develop their approach for engagement with tenants on changes to regulation and the new consumer standards. This project was delivered in collaboration with Social Engine.
- Engagement support for national disability and equality charity Scope in the re-design of their youth membership and engagement offer. This included facilitation of 12 co-design workshops with disabled young people from across the country.
- Support for the People’s Constitution Commission in Belize with developing their engagement approach and strategy for country wide, grass-roots up engagement around the review and rewriting of the Belizean constitution.
Youth consultation examples
- Consultation for the National Children’s Bureau, with over 600 children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, from across England, and over 200 parents and youth professionals about the impact of the pandemic and what can be learnt from their experience to inform future policy and practice.
- Consultation with over 100 young gang members for Leap Confronting Conflict as part of development of a large lottery bid to run a gangs programme in Lambeth and Southwark.
- A research consultation for the London Fire Brigade (LFB) to explore how to have the LFB become more representative of the diversity of London. We consulted with over 900 young people across London, identifying the perceived barriers, motivations and strategies and approaches that could help to engage more people from BAME backgrounds to apply for jobs with the LFB.
- Youth consultation across the UK, with over 700 people, on behalf of Nandos UK, on the issue of unemployment and what business can do to support young people.
- A consultation with young people for Bedford Borough Council about child sexual exploitation.
Examples of training projects
- 2-year Management Capacity Building and Developing Resourcefulness Programme for Liverpool City Council
- Design and delivery of multiple training workshops for the Local Government Association for alumni of the National Graduate Development Programme – on topics including Engagement, Resilience and Power & Influence
- 1 year Leadership Development Programme for YMCA England
- 2 Community Driven Development International training programmes for the Royal Institute of Public Administration
- Community Development training programme for the Government of Bermuda
- Attachment training for local authorities, care providers and schools. Clients for whom we’ve delivered Attachment training include London Borough of Camden, London Borough of Hounslow, Darlington Borough Council, Kent County Council, Bedford Borough Council, Sefton Council, as well as care providers such Action for Children and Match Foster Care, schools and youth charities such as The Prince’s Trust
Examples of multi-component programmes
- Kaizen has provided strategic engagement support and consultancy working with the Grenfell community on behalf of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government , and the Grenfell Tower Memorial Commission, to hear the views of bereaved, survivors and local residents and support the forging of a shared vision for the Grenfell Tower Memorial. Over 1800 people shared their views with us.
- Ongoing programme with North East Collaborative Outreach Programme (NECOP) to support their delivery of their National Collaborative Outreach Programme; this is a national initiative aiming to double the proportion of disadvantaged students entering higher education by 2020. Kaizen delivered training and coaching for the staff team from the 5 universities involved in the partnership (Teesside, Newcastle, Northumbria, Durham and Sunderland) and trained mentors from across these universities.
Examples of youth projects
- Leadership workshops for young people at Primary and Secondary Schools, as well as Specialist Academies. We have worked with staff and students from over 350 schools.
- Delivery of all aspects of the award-winning Elevate Youth Voice programme for the London Legacy Development Corporation from 2014 to 2025. This is a very high-profile leadership and communication programme for 14-18 year olds from across East London. It is the flagship youth programme for the Olympic Park aimed at ensuring local young people have the platform to shape all development taking place on the Olympic Park. The Kaizen role includes recruitment and training of young people, facilitation of all training workshops and sessions, ongoing communication with and support of the young people, and liaison with LLDC and design teams working on projects on the Olympic Park.
- 1 year coaching and training programme with AimHigher London South where young people in foster care were paired up with coaches to support them in raising aspirations and achievement and going into Higher Education. We trained the young people, coaches and foster carers.
- Aspiration and employment readiness training for young blind graduates, for the Royal National Institute for the Blind.
- 2 year multi stranded Building Resilience programme consisting of workshops for children, young people, parents/carers and school staff to impact young people’s wellbeing and mental health. We worked with over 2000 children and young people (CYP) and over 100 parents, teachers and youth professionals.
- Training programmes to support young Premier League footballers for Fulham FC, Charlton and Southampton Football Clubs. We have had an ongoing partnership with Fulham Football Club Academy over many years. Our role has been to support with the players’ wider self-development off the field, and we have also been running workshops with parents of Academy players and delivering development training for the Coaches.