Community Network Map: Analysis & Overview

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The Clapton Care Circle sits at the heart of a vibrant and multifaceted landscape of care and support in the Clapton Common area. This network includes individuals, families, community groups, grassroots organisations, local businesses, and volunteers - each connected by a shared purpose: taking care of, caring for, or caring about the well-being of local people.

This care network is not limited to formal support services. It spans everything from neighbours helping each other with everyday tasks, to community-led wellbeing sessions, to structured activities delivered by local groups. We call this collective capacity “care wealth”: the rich set of resources and relationships that enable people to live well and support one another. Much of this care wealth already exists, but its full potential remains unrealised. By strengthening collaborative links and making relationships more visible, we aim to unlock that potential.

What the map shows

The interactive map we’ve created brings this local landscape to life. It includes over 40 different individuals, groups and organisations who contributed to our pilot project in some way, either as participants, collaborators, or valued members of the community care ecosystem.

These actors fall into several broad categories:

• Individual active citizens – people who offer time, care, or skills informally in their neighbourhoods.

• Grassroots or mutual aid groups – informal, volunteer-led groups working from local knowledge and trust.

• Community-based charities or not-for-profits – often registered as CICs or charities, with formal care offers.

• Social enterprises and ethical businesses – organisations prioritising social benefit over profit.

• Local community hubs and voluntary organisations – more formal bodies connected into local service systems.

• Statutory services – NHS, council-commissioned care, and social care services.

Who is (and isn’t) on the map?

You’ll see that statutory services are underrepresented. This reflects two things:

1. Our project focused on engaging community-led care networks.

2. It proved difficult to build sustained, collaborative links with statutory services during this pilot.

This gap is important. Services like social prescribing, district nursing and social work play a vital role in the wider care landscape, but our mapping shows that in this community, they are not well connected to the informal and voluntary networks already delivering care and support. This fragmentation makes it harder to coordinate support, share knowledge, and work collectively.

Informal care as the dominant force

The Clapton map makes clear that informal care networks are doing much of the heavy lifting: peer support, emotional care, shared meals, mutual aid, community check-ins. These networks are relational, adaptable and embedded in daily life. Yet much of this work is invisible, undervalued or disconnected from the formal systems designed to provide care.

This isn’t to say formal services aren’t needed - quite the opposite - they are vital for complex or long-term support. But without stronger relationships between these systems and the community networks already operating on the ground, opportunities for more holistic, joined-up care are being missed.