Digital Inclusion Works Better When a Place Works Together: A Look at Good Things’ Evidence

We’ve written a short positioning paper for councils and local partners, and we wanted to introduce it here.

It builds on recent research from Good Things Foundation, Strengthening a place-based approach to digital inclusion, which makes a simple but important point: tackling digital exclusion in a place works best when local partners act as one coordinated system, not as a scatter of separate projects. That means a shared vision, shared leadership, a shared way of reaching the people who are excluded, and a shared way of measuring whether things are actually improving.

Where our toolkit fits

Our paper looks honestly at where the IFB Gaming Stage Index helps with that, and where it doesn’t. We’re clear about one thing up front: the Stage Index is not a partnership tool, and it doesn’t replace Good Things Foundation’s. The two do different jobs, and they work well side by side.

• Good Things Foundation’s tool helps a place understand how well its partners are working together.
• Our Stage Index gives those same partners a shared, resident-level evidence base to work together around.
• Together, they help a place see who is excluded, agree what to do, and prove that it is making a difference.

The paper maps the Stage Index against the four areas the research highlights, and is honest about which ones a measurement tool can genuinely support and which depend on leadership and funding that no tool can supply. If you work in a council or a local partnership, we think it’s a useful, practical read.

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