From The Ground Up

Combine a global pandemic, a decade of cuts to local government funding, cost of living crisis and the ongoing failure of trickle-down economics and what do you get? More Inequality and the growing smell of poverty as described by Shannon Griffiths in her book. This disparity is no more evident than in the place I call home. LDN.

Moving around I see it, on the trains I smell it, in the rapidly changing parts of our economically segregated city, I feel it and through my network of professional and personal peers and friends, I am hearing that what is being done (or not) in our great city, isn’t meeting the needs of generational Londoners – young or old.

In response to their exclusion from decision making, working-class Londoners defy odds, forming organisations and groups with minimal resource, to come up with solutions to systemic issues they did not create, whilst?advocating for their happiness, inclusion and wellbeing of others.

Of course, in trying to respond to the growing problem of unmet social need,?community organisers, organisations and the businesses wanting to do the right thing become aligned in their mission. This is the reason I choose this job and ISG .

“There is no logic that can be superimposed on the city; people make it, and it is to them, not buildings, that we must fit our plans.” Jane Jacobs

Maximising impact through grassroots engagement.

As my colleague Carrie Ann alluded to in her post, Social Value is having its long needed moment. Humans' need those working in the built environment more than ever, to be thoughtful in delivering the benefits we say we can. ??But what does that mean in practice??

Within a few weeks of joining, I was given the chance to work that out for an established community nestled in and around an amazing new development. I was given support, resource and encouragement from the project team, to go beyond the industry standard of apprenticeships and work placements (which are still important).

Centring an approach around, engagement and conversation, not only helped develop a detailed understanding of those we are asked to support and the spaces they occupy but can help build trust with the community, improving quality of life in the process. This is particularly the case for those in marginalised or isolated groups. i.e. OAPs, Young People, Disabled people.

It also means starting earlier in the project lifecycle, going beyond selecting activity based on the high value reportable metrics half way through a live project, moving away from a top-down development of an plan, or relying on desk-based analysis alone. Most importantly away from the obnoxious idea that we can do great things for established communities whilst ignoring their greatest asset: Grassroots Organisations.

Lets not reinvent the wheel

We can’t deny the twofold nature of urban renewal programmes, positive for those with resource and or time to enjoy the new and less so, for those that don’t.??A consistently and perhaps conveniently narrow focus on the positive aspects of regeneration has in my view led to existing community assets across London being ignored.?

So that’s where I started, looking for a Grassroots organisation to help start a documented local conversation, which would translate and elevate local needs to those new to the area. The 3C Model for grassroots led development offers 3 key processes which seem useful for developing a social value plan with impact:

Conscientization: Challenge and grow our understanding of social value, the local community and their needs.

In this instance, the team were already in the right head space, appreciating the social and business benefits of using our activity as a catalyst for community involvement and support,

·??????Increased my individual knowledge of the area by completing in depth local needs analysis and identifying community assets to work with.

·??????Explored internal perception of developing and delivering social value, willingness to get involved and plugged gaps of misinformation.?

·??????Presented findings to project team to promote a shared understanding of the community and how we could be of help.?

Conciliation:?Acknowledge issues and work together to find solutions.

A grassroots approach to developing a meaningful social value offer is centred around need as communicated by the experts of the local neighbourhood; Community.?

·??????Procured support/services of established community group/organisation to explore that need whilst building trust and rapport. Transparency about what, how, when and if you can deliver anything is particularly important at the tender stage.?

·??????Reviewed findings with the group/organisation, discuss/develop potential responses. social innovation is often found through this process and can be nurtured and supported.?

Collaboration: Work together to support grassroots organisations and community leaders to do their thing.

Evidently, impact can be maximised when the responsibility for delivery of social value is shared.

·??????If the social value lead collaborates with project team, sub contractors, support functions and client,?the opportunities to improve quality of life by supporting grassroots organisations are exponential.

·??????All insight from the community should be shared with the client to help inform their ongoing social value goals in the region, where possible relationships should be handed over, to maintain trust.

·??????When working in an area with lots of existing development, cross industry collaboration is key to supporting neighbourhood improvement and long term local employment.

Reflecting on our impact so far

As a Social Value Manager, my role and main motivation is to maximise ISG’s impact, create social value in the process and report on it.?As a Londoner, my role in this industry is to make sure established communities are understood and benefit as much as possible from all the change. Because a humans value in my view is not pinned to their economic contributions.

Applying the processes discussed in the 3C model, we have been able to build strategic partnerships to support existing community infrastructure to thrive in the now and potentially during other project phases. The initial social value plan focused on supporting young people but through our creative project we realised other people in the community and organisations needed support from our industry too

By procuring a service from a grassroots organisation, money was diverted into the local economy, intergenerational conversations were facilitated in a borough where social isolation is a problem, community insight has been created, opportunities identified and since we choose a creative engagement exercise, we have supported the creation of a product/tool to share with a community archive.?

There have been beautiful moments along the road, like the unexpected but valuable input from the project team, when the young, glowing director shared how much she enjoyed filming OAPS as part of our brief and how they now want to do a preview to the participants in the AGE UK centre. These instances hold undeniable value, but how on earth do you put a number on it? or capture this type of value in a spreadsheet?