Bringing together partnerships of agencies across sectors to learn from each other has proved a potent way of galvanising fresh thinking, linking different sectors and experiences, bridging policy and the day to day reality of work on the ground. This is a powerful way of developing both policy and practical understanding of priority issues and breaking through some of the barriers to action.

The Young Foundation has helped organise networks based in local government and communities (including work on neighbourhoods and community empowerment, wellbeing, youth crime and housing), networks of international organisations and collaboratives bringing together research funders to look afresh at social needs.

For participants, our networks and collaboratives have offered a way of comparing their experience to others facing similar problems and learning from their peers, whilst also learning from individuals and agencies that operate in very different ways with very different perspectives; bespoke work tailored to their needs; being part of the process of generating a larger body of work with national profile; and the opportunity to work with the Young Foundation to catalyse fresh thinking and innovation.

Our networks and collaboratives include:

• Future Communities. Bringing together local areas and national stakeholders to develop fresh thinking about how new housing developments can become socially as well as economically and environmentally sustainable. This is supported by HCA and IDeA and has started work in Birmingham.

• The Recovery Network. An expanding grouping of local authorities who are working with the Young Foundation to develop fresh thinking about their priority issues. Currently this includes work with Sutton, Camden and Knowsley.

• Local 2.0. Funded by the CLG's Community Empowerment Fund, we are working with three local authorities (Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, Kirklees and Kensington and Chelsea) to find out how new digital technologies can be used by councils and other local agencies to communicate with and involve their residents.

• The London Collaborative Funded by Capital Ambition, London's regional improvement and efficiency partnership, this ambitious programme aims to improve collaboration amongst London's public sector, and boost their understanding of the key strategic challenges. This work ends in April 2010.

• The Local Wellbeing Project. Three local authorities - Manchester, South Tyneside and Hertfordshire - came together with the Young Foundation, IDeA and the London School of Economics in a four year project to explore practical ways in which local government can improve wellbeing. This will end in March 2010. For more information on our work on wellbeing and resilience please read here

• Mapping Britain's needs. A consortium of 13 major funders - including the Big Lottery Fund, the Economic and Social Research Council, Comic Relief and many others - came together to develop a major research initiative designed to map Britain's needs. A major two year study mapping Britain's needs, looked at unmet material and psychological needs to guide policy and priorities for action and innovation. It also included case studies in Teesside, London and Bedford. For more information on this work, please read here.

• Neighbourhood Futures. A focused network bringing together six local authorities (Camden, Hackney, Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, Knowley, Lewisham, and Suffolk) to talk about key issues in taking forward neighbourhood working against a backdrop of recession and spending cuts.

• The Innovation Catalyst. We worked with CLG and IDeA, and four pilot local authorities (Essex, Knowsley, Sheffield and Westminster) to use innovation methods to find new ways of tackling and preventing youth crime. This completed in March 2009.

• The Neighbourhood Action network. Our second neighbourhoods consortium brought together twelve local authorities, the HCA, IDeA and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation with a focus on exploring the practical ways local authorities could accelerate and develop their community empowerment and neighbourhood working approaches. The work was completed in March 2009.

• Transforming Neighbourhoods. - Our first major consortium involved twelve local authorities, CLG, JRF, the Housing Corporation, CLG, Community Alliance and CABE. It worked with local partners, and on a programme of policy work. Through this programme we also developed fixmystreet.com. This work was completed in March 2007.