Transforming social housing and empowering communities
The William Sutton Prize for Connected Communities provides up to £25,000 in funding, along with expert support from Clarion and the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art, to support impact-led ideas that enhance social housing residents’ physical, emotional, and social wellbeing.
This category focuses on fostering community connections and promoting citizen inclusion, both in process and outcomes, to create healthier, more welcoming environments for all.
Our focus areas
In 2025, we called for submissions that centred on one or more of the following areas:
- Innovative Technology Solutions: people-driven technology interventions that break down barriers and enable communities to connect in intuitive and meaningful ways.
- Intergenerational Interventions: scalable new ideas that are desirable across age ranges, with potential to bridge generational divides and promote intergenerational interactions.
- Social Inclusion: concepts and projects that engage under-served communities to help them feel heard, build belonging, and community by adopting an intersectional lens.
- Community Spaces: proposals that present novel and creative ways to bring communities together within a space to increase social networks, be it physical, virtual or a blend of both.
Applications closed
Applications for The William Sutton Prize for Connected Communities are now officially closed.
Thank you to everyone who submitted an application. We have been incredibly impressed by the creativity and passion shown by all applicants.
The William Sutton Prize team will now begin the assessment process. Long-listed applicants will be contacted directly over the coming weeks. Unsuccessful applicants will receive an email notification of the reason their application was not taken forward. Finalists will be selected in July, and winners will be announced at our prize-giving ceremony in September 2025.
Thank you once again for your interest and commitment to creating a positive social impact.
If you need any more information, please get in touch.
FAQs
You can find answers to frequently asked questions below. For more information, please contact us.
Meet the judges
The esteemed judging panel is a diverse group of experts and industry leaders dedicated to identifying and supporting groundbreaking ideas that drive meaningful change.
- Chair: David Orr, Chair of the Clarion Housing Association Board
- Andrew van Doorn OBE, Chief Executive of HACT
- Dr Chris McGinley, Senior Research Fellow at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art (RCA)
- Matt Harvey-Agyemang, Co-Founder of The POoR Collective
- Michelle Reynolds, Chief Customer Officer at Clarion Housing Group
- Phil Miles, Director of Clarion Futures (the charitable foundation of Clarion Housing Group)
- David Hunter, Director of Housing at Clarion Housing Group