Community Groups

As we plan for the future of the Olympic Park, we have listened and learned from the very people who know the area best of all – the local community.

Change for the area will be a carefully crafted process involving stakeholders of all levels and most importantly the communities currently living nearest the Park. For the regeneration of this part of East London to be successful, a sense of ownership amongst local communities is essential.

To help aid this, we have developed an outreach programme to work with various communities resident in east London, which allows us to:

• develop connections and networks in the community
• visit communities and individuals sharing information with them
• show them plans for the Park and collect
• spread information to a wide audience

As we begin to develop an events strategy for the Park it is important for us to understand from local people the kind of local and international events they would like to see developed in their Park.

As a company, we are not in the business of assuming we know what local people want. We believe it is better to ask them.

Faith community

In a community as diverse as those found in the Olympic host boroughs, faith leaders and communities are an essential and instrumental conduit to the communities. With congregations in their thousands, places of worship provide access to a large proportion of the community in a trusted and well established forum.

The representatives of the faith communities we have developed a relationship with have been incredible advocates for disseminating information to their vast congregations and have encouraged wide participation at consultation events.

Faith groups engaged via our outreach activity to date include:

• Chelmsford dieses meeting at St John’s Church, Stratford
• Newham churches
• Waltham Forest Faith Forum
• Newham Deanery Synod
• Homerton Baptist church
• The Well Christian centre, East Ham
• North London Muslim Centre, Hackney
• Faith Action event – 2012 and Beyond; opportunities and challenges
• Hindu business forum
• LOCOG faith reference group
• LOCOG faith advocate group
• The London Jewish Forum
• Newham multi faith group
• Regular meetings with London’s multi-faith advisor

Case study

Matthew Porter – Transform Newham

Transform Newham is an umbrella organisation for the Christian churches in the borough of Newham. Mathew Porter organised a tour of successful faith run community centres operating in the borough as an example of how mixed use facilities can be operated by faith groups. The request for further case studies of multi purpose spaces/uses arose at the Legacy Master Planning Framework (LMF) social infrastructure workshop in February 2009 concerning specifically shared faith facilities in the LMF.  The objective of the visit with the planners was to demonstrate the abilities of faith groups to:

1. Manage buildings for the benefit of others
2. Deliver a range of successful projects and activities that add value to the local community
3. Work with secular agencies in partnership to help achieve the aims of each

The site visits included Bonny Downs Community Association in Beckton, Britannia Village Hall, Royal Docks and The Well, East Ham. The masterplanners used the visit to corroborate their case study work in support of community infrastructure and faith provision in the LMF.