Informal support
Local ties form despite limited service contact.
For Cities & Governments
The belonging infrastructure your integration strategy already promises.
Cities set integration KPIs but lack the tools to actually move them. ELSSSE turns integration strategy into measurable social cohesion — neighborhood by neighborhood.
From arrival to belonging
The city owns integration. Belonging needs a pathway.
Services can make arrival work. Local life develops over months and across many partners. ELSSSE gives cities a repeatable way to help newcomers build connections, participate in local life and feel they belong — something no single municipal service can achieve on its own.
- Arrive
Registration and practical setup
- Access
Guidance and services
- Connect
People beyond work or school
- Participate
A first local activity
- Contribute
A role others value
- Belong
This feels like my place
ELSSSE focuses on the pathway from access to belonging.
The hidden gap
A service visit can look like success while local life remains out of reach.
A more useful municipal question is not only whether residents reach services, but whether they are also finding a place in local life.
Few services
Services reached
Active local participation
Stronger settlement
Services work. Local life grows.
Little local participation
Disconnected
Few services. Few local ties.
Hidden risk
Services reached them. Community did not.
Why cities need better signals
The case for action is visible across policy, resident experience and measurement.
Nordic cities already invest in practical settlement and participation. The remaining challenge is seeing whether those efforts become durable local ties.
2025
A broader municipal role
In Finland, municipalities now carry overall responsibility for integration, including residents outside the labour force.
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, KOTO24
53% vs 65%
Life outside work lags behind
In one Finnish study, international technology professionals rated social integration less positively than integration at work.
TEK and Insinööriliitto, 2025; n=756
Belonging
A Nordic measurement gap
A Nordic review identified gaps in indicators for belonging and everyday social contact among migrants.
Nordic Council of Ministers, 2025
Vaasa offers one example of the ambition: its integration programme supports social networks and the experience of feeling at home. ELSSSE is designed to help any city test which invitations lead to a first visit, a return and eventually a valued local role.
Local participation infrastructure
A resident-facing path, paired with aggregate insight a city can act on.
ELSSSE connects the resident experience to a municipal learning loop. It helps people find a route into local life while showing city teams where outreach works and where participation falls away.
The signals we test
- ConnectionDo I know people here?
- ParticipationAm I taking part locally?
- ContributionCan I offer something useful?
- RecognitionAm I known beyond a service record?
- BelongingDoes this feel like my place?
The municipal learning loop
- MeasureWho joins? Who returns?
- Find gapsWhere do people drop out?
- ImproveRefine invitations and partner fit.
- TrackDoes the pattern change?
One pathway, two useful views
Residents get a route in. The city learns where it works.
The personal experience belongs to the resident. Municipal reporting shows patterns across groups.
Resident experience
From newcomer to local participant
- Opportunities close to home
- A first welcome from an existing group
- A reason to return and contribute
- Choice over what to share
Municipal view
From activity counts to learning
- Who reached an invitation
- First and repeat participation by cohort
- Which partners need support
- Opt-in measures of welcome and belonging
No individual social profile is proposed for municipal staff. Consent, reporting thresholds and data governance are agreed before a pilot.
From first invitation to local roots
Belonging grows through return paths, not one-off encounters.
A pilot starts with the moments a city can influence: a relevant invitation, a welcoming first visit and a reason to come back. Over time, participation can become contribution, recognition and a durable sense of place.
- Week 1
Feel welcome
Get oriented, discover the neighbourhood and meet an existing local group.
- Month 2
Build a circle
Return to activities, meet people again and begin participating regularly.
- Month 6
Contribute
Offer a skill, support another resident or take on a useful community role.
- Month 12
Feel at home
Belonging becomes visible through continuity, reciprocity and relationships that last.
Measure early enough to improve
A city needs useful signals before a programme ends.
A municipal view can show where invitations become participation and where people are left out. Reach, first visits, returns and opt-in experience measures give partners something practical to improve while the work is still underway.
Reach
Who received an invitation, and through which channel?
First visit
Who took part once, and what made access possible?
Return
Who participated again or took on a contribution?
Experience
Did people report welcome, usefulness and greater confidence to take part?
Illustrative interface concepts for ELSSSE. Figures shown are fictional examples for design purposes and do not represent measured outcomes in any city.
Founding Municipality Pilot
Prove the pathway in one place before scaling it.
A focused pilot brings together one defined area or resident cohort and a small group of existing community partners. The scope, recruitment target, budget and success criteria are agreed with the city.
- 01
Baseline
Map current invitations, partner capacity and a short opt-in experience measure.
- 02
Invite
Recruit through trusted city channels and local organisations.
- 03
Learn
Support first visits, repeat participation and partner feedback.
- 04
Report
Compare with the baseline and decide what to change or scale.
What the first six months can establish
Reach
Which channels and partners reached the intended group?
Behaviour
How many residents joined once, returned and contributed?
Experience
Did participants report welcome, usefulness and greater confidence to take part?
A pilot can test uptake, participation and feasibility. Attributing changes in belonging or population retention requires a stronger design and longer follow-up.
The municipality brings
A named owner, a defined area or cohort, referral channels, active community partners and agreement on evaluation and data governance.
ELSSSE brings
Resident onboarding, the participation pathway, partner support, an aggregate learning view and a report for the next decision.
The next decision is a pilot brief, not a citywide procurement commitment.
Bring ELSSSE to your city.
Start with one neighborhood. Scale to city-wide impact.
Who this is for
- Municipalities
- Regional governments
- National integration agencies
- Public libraries & cultural institutions
- Civic tech partners