The Neighbourhood Passport maps five transitions

The Neighbourhood Passport scores a neighbourhood on five transition tasks side by side: energy system, climate adaptation, mobility, socio-economic and urban development. Each task receives a traffic-light score from two perspectives: the data picture and the resident perspective from the Neighbourhood Agenda. The format, to complete independently, combines public sources such as CBS statistics, the KIS neighbourhood monitor, the Living Environment Atlas, RIVM and the Climate Impact Atlas with municipal data, each characteristic set against the municipal average. Where tasks coincide, linking opportunities emerge; where data and lived experience diverge, the neighbourhood deserves a second look.

The Neighbourhood Agenda gathers the resident perspective

The Neighbourhood Agenda describes ten formats for resident engagement, physical and online: from a neighbourhood summit, a talking stall, a talking tour, a street party and a talking post, through to a resident platform, social media, an online summit, online input and an interactive livestream. Each format is weighed on effort, budget, reach and depth of conversation. A summit offers real depth but asks a higher budget; a talking post is anonymous and low-threshold; a talking tour reaches under-represented groups in their own surroundings, and social media reach younger residents. No format is the right one — fitting the residents and the working method of the municipality is the criterion.

From dreaming to delivery

The wishes of residents, other stakeholders and the municipality come together in a neighbourhood agenda that takes shape in five steps. At the table sit not only residents and the municipality but also schools, housing associations, community associations and the police, so the agenda becomes the run-up to wanted interventions rather than a paper wish.

Step plan from the Neighbourhood Agenda guide. Source: Transform Zuid-Holland.

Representation and co-creation

A neighbourhood agenda only takes effect if the perspectives gathered genuinely represent the neighbourhood. Good representation goes beyond residents alone: a school, a neighbourhood police officer or a local employer belongs at the table too. The invitation matches the world, language, culture, timing and accessibility of those invited — including people who do not speak Dutch, are partially sighted or hard of hearing, or have a physical disability. Co-creation then places residents at the centre as experts on their own neighbourhood: it encourages coalition building, gives ownership over the tasks and builds trust. Consultation gathers a picture; co-creation makes residents co-owners of the agenda and of the actions that follow.

The Societal Impact Analysis

The Societal Impact Analysis makes the added value of linked tasks visible in four moves: setting the goal, breaking down the intervention, analysing qualitatively and then valuing on the basis of societal cost-benefit analyses and comparable projects. Qualitative scoring and financial valuation together show which linked tasks deliver the most societal added value. The result is a substantiated neighbourhood agenda in which every euro returns multiple value, rather than a choice made on gut feeling.

Downloads and formats

The method is freely available, including formats for a municipality to work with independently.

• Neighbourhood Passport format (pdf, in Dutch) — the data-driven neighbourhood scan to complete independently
• Neighbourhood Agenda guide (pdf, in Dutch) — ten formats for resident engagement

At buurttransform.nl there is also an added-value game to start working with linked tasks (in Dutch).

Method and source

The Neighbourhood Passport, the Neighbourhood Agenda and the Societal Impact Analysis were developed within Transform Zuid-Holland and are freely available at buurttransform.nl (in Dutch). The valuation in the impact analysis rests on societal cost-benefit analyses and comparable projects, so that the added value of linked tasks is traceable and substantiated.