Centre for Thriving Places: the new name for Happy City
Putting wellbeing economics into practice
The Happiness Pulse
The Happiness Pulse measures the detailed reality of individual wellbeing through a simple online survey. It gets to the heart of the how people feel and function in their lives, work and communities, helping you to understand, measure and improve wellbeing.
- Happiness Pulse data can be fed back at many levels – from individual to whole communities allowing stakeholders to better understand and act to increase wellbeing.
- Off the shelf or bespoke survey modules can be added to explore issues relevant to a particular organisation, sector, or local area.
- The Happiness Pulse maps the wellbeing strengths and needs of any group and helps you measure the impact of your work on people’s lives.
- Evaluate the social impact and value of projects and programmes to understand how they are working and demonstrate this to funders, partners and communities themselves with shareable reports
The Thriving Places Index
The Thriving Places Index is a new compass for the 21st century. It supports decision makers across sectors to assess and prioritise policy, based on the impact it has on the wellbeing and sustainability of people and communities.
It can be used to provide a:
- shared set of goals for cross-sector, multi-disciplinary working
- framework for designing holistic approaches to budgeting, planning, procurement, commissioning and collaborative placemaking
- powerful communication tool to engage citizens and diverse stakeholders in a sustainable wellbeing approach to change
- local and asset-based means of measuring, tracking and evaluating progress on a range of interconnected priorities (including the Sustainable Development Goals)
- means to balance the competing priorities inherent in a sustainable and just approach to local economics.
Latest blogs
Has lockdown created a path to a wellbeing economy?
For some, the current crisis has been a rare period of space – a time for renewal, rest and reviving... read more →
21st May 2020
New tools and resources to help people and communities to thrive
We are currently facing unprecedented challenges to our wellbeing - individually, locally and globally. Sadly for some it is a... read more →
29th April 2020
The Little Book of WINS
We've adapted our popular resource, The Little Book of WOW to reflect the new circumstances that people are experiencing during... read more →
14th April 2020
Marmot, fist pumps and tea – Guest blog from Joanne Smithson Local Government and Health Lead at What Works Centre for Wellbeing
This guest blog from Joanne was prepared in February 2020 before the COVID-19 crisis dramatically changed the way that we live and... read more →
9th April 2020
On indices and indecision: guest blog from Richard Harries, Director of the Power to Change Research Institute.
If you want to learn what the spirit of the people is by means of arithmetic, it goes without saying... read more →
25th March 2020
2020 Thriving Places Index data released
Today, we've launched the 2020 data set for the Thriving Places Index, now in its fourth year. The 2020 results... read more →
18th March 2020
Testimonials
The Thriving Places Index is a brilliant tool for debating what we think matters most in our lives, exploring just how different parts of the UK are doing, and asking why there are such vast differences between them. This is just the kind of metric needed to steer us wisely through the 21st century.
Kate Raworth – Economist and Author of Doughnut Economics
To build an economy that delivers wellbeing for people and the planet, we need systemic transformation that starts where people are. The Thriving Places Index does exactly that: it starts where people are, and measures success through the lens of wellbeing. Metrics like these are vital because they open up conversations about the purpose of the economy, and what living good lives actually means in our communities.
Dr Katherine Trebeck, Advocacy and Influencing lead at the Wellbeing Economy Alliance and author of The Economics of Arrival
The Thriving Places Index and the work of the Centre for Thriving Places gives government, policy-makers, public services and people an exciting alternative to measuring Gross Domestic Product as the only marker of well-being.
Sophie Howe – Future Generations Commissioner, Welsh Government