Place-Based Change
An approach to change rooted in the relationships, assets, institutions and lived realities of a specific local area.
Place-based change and collective impact practice field
This page is a plain-English practice summary. It attributes the source field and avoids presenting the framework as Positively Devious intellectual property.
What this framework helps with
- local youth strategy
- neighbourhood-based partnerships
- aligning services, civic action and community assets
Three questions it helps teams ask
- What makes this place distinctive?
- Which local relationships are trusted?
- What should be adapted rather than copied?
How to use it in youth and community work
Use Place-Based Change as a lens for better decisions, not as a script. Start with the local context, invite the people affected by the work into the interpretation, and turn the framework into practical questions, design choices and learning habits.
For Positively Devious, this framework matters because it helps explain one part of the wider conditions around positive deviance: the relationships, opportunities, skills, systems and power arrangements that make uncommon positive outcomes more likely to be noticed and learned from.
What to watch out for
- place is not neutral; local power dynamics matter
- avoid importing generic models without adaptation
- short funding cycles can undermine relationship-building