The power of our long term partnerships with grassroots organisations in communities around our places has really come into its own this year. Combined with our deep relationships with customers and suppliers, it means we can be agile, pivoting support in response to local need.

Rose Alexander of Regent’s Place and Farrah Rainfly of grassroots partner, Lifeafterhummus Community Benefit Society, explore the impacts of our approach and how collaboration can lead to innovation. Regent’s Place is British Land’s 13 acre, fully managed campus in Camden.

Adapting to local need

Farrah: When the pandemic hit, Lifeafterhummus needed to quickly adapt our services to meet the needs of the community. Usually, we run healthy cooking classes for local families, supported by the Regent’s Place Community Fund. We knew the pandemic was going to hit those families hard as most are employed in the service industry.

British Land reached out to us and asked: “How can we help?”. We wanted to support families struggling to put food on the table, so they donated funds for us to start our culturally appropriate ‘Eat what you Request, Request what you Eat’ foodbank. Our volunteers now collect surplus supplies from 45 stores locally every week: to date 17 tonnes of diverted food waste. We would never have achieved this without British Land’s support.

Then, when we urgently had to find a new space, the Regent’s Place team already knew what we needed. They introduced us to their networks, which resulted in us moving into Old Diorama Arts Centre on campus. We’d asked others for help, but it was Regent’s Place who found us space in time. And we’re not paying any rent, so we can spend what we’re saving directly to help the community.

Through this partnership, we also get a lot of support from different businesses based in Regent’s Place, not only with space and funding, but also donating supplies and giving their time. We have volunteers from Facebook and the Regent’s Place team. And this benefits everyone. We see the happiness it brings people when they’re helping their local community.

For us, food is a vehicle for support. We’ve connected local people to jobs on the campus. One person we recently put forward for temperature screening work was taken on. Another two we put forward for security work have just completed their security training, paid for by us via donations from Regent’s Place. They are now progressing to their final stage interviews. That means potentially three households lifted out of poverty.

Bringing in the experts

Rose: Lifeafterhummus are so imaginative in how they support people to leave poverty cycles. Having this visible example of positive impact on site is uplifting for our customers and site team. It creates a dynamic culture, bringing children, families and people from across the community to Regent’s Place, which is great for us and our customers.

It is about efficiency too. When we support grassroots organisations like Lifeafterhummus, we know everything goes directly to the local community. They’re very lean in the way they work, so the impact is considerable.

Partnerships with local groups doing incredible work in our communities are part of our customer offer. People want to help and get involved. And we learn so much working with local organisations. You’re bringing in the experts. Lifeafterhummus have a genuine understanding of local need and they’re innovative in the way they completely pivoted their services in response to the pandemic. 

Listening to thrive

Farrah: One of the things I value most about our relationship with Regent’s Place is that they truly listen to the needs of the community. That doesn’t always happen with businesses. But, when you listen, you both have a chance to thrive and come up with creative solutions. 

As the lockdown was easing, a local school told us that many parents didn’t want children back to school, due to misinformation. British Land heard this and helped us run a BAME book project for local children, called ‘A Book Like Me’. Working with British Land’s partner, the National Literacy Trust, we chose books we knew the children would see themselves reflected in. A little boy of Somali descent has taken to reading because he says: “Jabari Jumps, mummy he looks just like me,” and “Look Up, he has the same hair as my hair”. Seeing the positive impact on their children, the parents changed their minds in favour of their children returning to school. 

As a grassroots organisation, you long for this sort of connection for your community. The support of Regent’s Place has allowed us to bring together the local community to help that same community in need. We now have over 50 local volunteers. 

Bridging gaps

Rose: There’s always more to do. We see a real appetite from our team and businesses on the campus to connect more local people to employment opportunities here at Regent’s Place and grow an established talent pipeline, bridging gaps.

We’ll be running our Bright Lights employability programme again in a couple of months, with Lifeafterhummus a confirmed partner. We’re also planning employment projects with customers, building on what we’ve already been doing.

I dream of a future where there is no poverty. But, as long as there is, we’ll continue to work with locally-led, grassroots organisations who tackle local challenges in such a meaningful and sensitive way.

Images courtesy of Lifeafterhummus.

Regent’s Place community in 2020

• Over 1/3 of customers connecting with each other and local partners through campus networks and collaborations, including the Regent’s Place Community Fund, Regent’s Pride, REGEN sustainability network and Pass the Mic Sis professional Muslim women's network.
• 11 community partners are based on campus, including: New Diorama Theatre, Old Diorama Arts Centre, Lifeafterhummus foodbank, West Euston Partnership health and employment hub, Global Generation environmental charity and Steel Warriors tackling knife crime. 
• 10 local groups received strategic support on navigating the impacts of the pandemic via our coaching programme with The Business School.
• 9 local community groups supported with funding from the Regent’s Place Community Fund, a collaboration of businesses on the campus.
• 5 virtual work experience projects for 200 young people, involving Regent’s Place customers and local partners.
• Free parking spaces for NHS staff working at nearby University College London Hospital during the pandemic, and a Covid test centre on campus.

Visit Regent's Place.