Designing Policies for a Wellbeing Economy – A new resource launches for policy makers!

by Lisa Hough-Stewart

In March 2021, WEAll published our Policy Design Guide. This Guide was co-created with over 70 WEAll members, and aims to support visionary policy makers to build just and sustainable economies for people and the planet. 

Since then, WEAll hubs in California, Canada, New Zealand and Scotland have been working with community partners and local or city governments to bring the Wellbeing Economy Policy Design process to life. Today we are proud to launch the outputs of three of these pilots (the Scottish pilot will run to the end of 2022) and a brand new website that offers an interactive journey through the Wellbeing Economy Policy Design process, and a host of new resources based on the experiences of the pilot teams.

The WEAll hub teams have created a variety of outputs to tell the story of their journey and learnings. The most exciting news is that all of these projects will continue in some form – the pilot phase is just the beginning, and it’s an important moment to reflect on the journey so far. Below you can learn more about how each of the hubs brought the the wellbeing economy policy design guide to life at a local level:

WEAll New Zealand:  

In Porirua, Aotearoa New Zealand, the WEAll hub has been working with community partners including Indigenous Maori tribe organisations, to share learnings and good practice around Wellbeing Economy concepts. Below is a case study showcasing the work of Te Hiko in Porirua as an exemplar of the Wellbeing Economy in action. Porirua, New Zealand: “What we heard” visual report on the Te Hiko case study

WEAll California

In Pomona, California, the WEAll team is working in partnership with local community organisation Latino Latina Roundtable and city officials to carry out visioning work for what a Wellbeing Economy means for the city. They have progressed to an exploration of what a Community Wealth Building initiative could look like:

Pomona, California: Mini documentary on the Pomona Wellbeing Economy project

WEAll Canada

In Toronto, Canada, a core group of individuals representing diverse communities in the city has been on a deep-dive journey to envision a Wellbeing Economy future for Toronto and explore system change theory. They are experimenting with Wellbeing Economy outreach initiatives in their various communities and have published their story in a brand new “zine”:

Toronto, Canada: Zine sharing the Toronto Imaginal Transitions process

WEAll Scotland

In the Letham area of Perth, Scotland, the team has established Commissions of children, adults and young people which also include decision makers and local council representatives. WEAll Scotland carried out in-depth visioning work with hundreds of children and young people about what living well in Letham would mean for them, and the Commissions are driving forward those visions by analysing how the Council can make them a reality. Check out the Love Letham website (please note the Love Letham pilot continues to Dec 22)

ZOE Institute for Future Fit Economies has been delivering this project in partnership with WEAll, and they led on the creation of a new website: “Designing Policies for a Wellbeing Economy”  to help provide resources for policy makers seeking to move towards a Wellbeing Economy in their own communities. 

This site is connected to ZOE’s existing successful Policy Database, and it adds the “how” of policy process to the “what” of this extensive database that ZOE already offers for policymakers.

Visitors to the site can go on a bespoke journey through the Policy Design process, offering an interactive and tailored way to engage with the original content of the Policy Design Guide. This includes case studies and examples of best practice in policy design from around the world.

Beyond this, the site also offers a wealth of new content – all of which is based on the experiences of the four pilot projects. Throughout the site you will find fifteen brand new resources, from workshop templates to guidance for different parts of the process. To name a few, we are pleased to publish:

• Guidance for carrying out wellbeing visioning work with children and young people
• Recommendations on how to set up your team and project plan to carry out a similar project
• Guidance on the importance of relationship building with core stakeholders
• A template for running an engagement workshop with stakeholders
• Policy lab outlines with powerpoint templates

You can read more about the background of the pilot projects in our introductory blog posted in December 2021 and about how they approached the creation of wellbeing visions in this update from May 2022.