Regenerating a community

How an ongoing CSR project driven by a partnership between East London Business Alliance, Linklaters, Deutsche Bank, UBS and the Shoreditch Trust, is helping community regeneration in the Shoreditch area of London.

By Katy Miles, ELBA

Project Shoreditch is a unique partnership between East London Business Alliance (ELBA), Linklaters, Deutsche Bank, UBS and the Shoreditch Trust, with the aim of involving business to promote regeneration of the community.

The project is the first time that three major City firms have worked directly with a government-backed regeneration programme, by focusing on the support and skills their employees can give to a deprived area. As far as we know, Project Shoreditch is the only example of such organisations working collabratively with a regeneration agency.

The project was launched in April 2005 and, to date, over 2,600 employee volunteers from Deutsche Bank, Linklaters and UBS have supported more than 50 Shoreditch-based organisations and schools through team challenges, pro-bono legal advice, business planning, mentoring, training, visits for young people to workplaces, football tournaments and more.

Project Shoreditch has been awarded a Business in the Community ‘Big Tick’ in 2006 and 2007, in the Power in Partnership Category. In 2006, the project was awarded the ‘Lord Mayor’s Dragon Award’ for Economic Regeneration. It also won the Business in the Community ‘Impact on London Award’ and the Legal Marketing Award for ‘CSR/Pro Bono Campaign of the Year’ in 2007. Linklaters received a top ranking in the ‘CSR/Pro Bono’ category of the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards 2007, for its involvement in Project Shoreditch.

How the project started
Project Shoreditch began in 2005, after ELBA was contacted by the chief executive of the Shoreditch Trust to discuss ways in which it could partner with the private sector and maximise the impact of City support. Shoreditch Trust’s New Deal for Communities (NDC) funding ends in 2010 and the Trust was keen to forge links with the City to support its succession strategy.

ELBA supports the regeneration of East London by acting as a broker for its member organisations, placing employee volunteers from more than 100 organisations into East London. Through ELBA programmes, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Linklaters had a history of supporting Shoreditch, so agreed to fund Project Shoreditch in partnership with the Shoreditch Trust. The model used for the partnership was based on the successful ‘Banking on Shadwell’ Deutsche Bank project, which saw an increase in corporate activity, leverage, funding and cohesiveness in the deprived area of Shadwell, Tower Hamlets.

The objectives of Project Shoreditch are to manage a unique, focused, long-term employee-engagement programme in Shoreditch, with three City businesses bridging the gap between Shoreditch and the City. The aim: to use the skills and expertise of employee volunteers to help Shoreditch Trust meet its targets and build the capacity of grassroots organisations to enable them to effectively address priority issues.

How it works
The project is truly reponsive to the needs of Shoreditch. Volunteers with different skills and backgrounds can contribute to the needs of the community as they arise.

For example, some school head teachers reported that Turkish and Kurdish young people in Hackney achieve a lower percentage of A*- C grades at GCSE level than any other ethnic group. Project Shoreditch responded by running a programme matching business volunteers from Turkish backgrounds with Turkish pupils, to help raise aspirations in this under-achieving community, and enable them to understand how they can access employment in the City. Volunteers and children created poems together around the theme of belonging. This helped the young people understand how positive role models have experienced the transition from Turkey to London.

Shoreditch is unusual in that it is in close proximity to the many employment opportunities on offer in the City, but Shoreditch residents, due to the skills gap, are unable to compete for them on an equal basis. Project Shoreditch ‘employability days’, involving volunteers from all three partner organisations, have offered local residents an opportunity to receive interview-skills training, CV advice and have a tour of City organisations. One participant said of the day; “Today has really opened my eyes to the opportunities out there. The interview role-playing with a business volunteer has really helped my confidence and I feel much better prepared to find myself a job.”

Volunteers are able to use the skills and expertise from their work to help organisations create innovative solutions to problems. Linklaters was able to help the Shoreditch Trust Housing team develop a Community Land Trust (CLT) model by preparing a pro bono report on the legal implications of CLTs. The report encouraged the Trust to explore the potential of a CLT as a vehicle to deliver extensive housing regeneration in severely deprived neighbourhoods.

Entire teams have also been able to get involved and work together to volunteer using a whole variety of skills. The EU Competition Team at Linklaters came to Project Shoreditch seeking a way in which it could utilise its skills and be involved in a long-term project. Project Shoreditch brokered an introduction to Hoxton Hall, a Youth Arts Centre in Shoreditch, which had recently experienced some drastic funding cuts and needed support to help it become sustainable. The team has been able to get involved in mentoring; pro bono legal advice; helping at youth arts performances, fundraising; office-based support and painting and decorating in the centre, involving staff at all levels.

The project has placed more than 2,600 volunteers into opportunities in Shoreditch and has made a significant contribution to Shoreditch Trust targets. Relationships formed between the partner organisations and other organisations in Shoreditch will enable the work of Shoreditch Trust to be sustainable after NDC funding ends in 2010.

Project Shoreditch therefore forms an integral part of the succession strategy of the Trust.

How the project is managed
The project was designed to give equal weight of support from each of the corporate partners with direction by Shoreditch Trust. ELBA acts as a broker between the community and private sector and oversees the day-to-day management of the project. To maximise the impact of work with grassroots organisations, a project manager is seconded to the Shoreditch Trust offices.

Communication is vital to the success of the project and consists of regular update meetings with the theme managers at the Shoreditch Trust, and outreach to more than 50 organisations and the Project Shoreditch Steering Group, which meets every six weeks with representation from each of the partners.

Recruitment of volunteers takes place via a variety of means, including volunteer recruitment sessions, presentations to staff teams, newsletters, exhibitions, intranet articles, e-mails and posters. ELBA provides mentoring training and facilitates the introductory meetings for all business volunteering, as well as providing guidance to team leaders undertaking team challenges. A leaflet has been designed and produced, which communicates the support available to local organisations through Project Shoreditch.

Business benefits
The partnership has enabled collaboration across the legal and banking professions and provided opportunities for employees to volunteer in Shoreditch. This not only creates goodwill among employees, but also enhances each organisation’s reputation as a socially responsible employer.

The majority of staff at Linklaters, who fed back on their volunteering experience, stated that they had a more positive attitude towards the firm for allowing them time to volunteer through Project Shoreditch. They also said that volunteering had developed their skills, including improved teamwork, communication, problem solving and influencing skills. “Through mentoring a Community Manager, I have developed my skills in building relationships, trust and strategic decision making,” said one volunteer.

Volunteering provides the partner organisations with a cost-effective option to motivate and develop their key asset – people. Team building is an integral part of Deutsche Bank’s staff-development strategy, with all graduates (approximately 700 annually) participating in community challenges as part of their core training programme.

Feedback from employees who have participated in volunteering programmes demonstrates that involvement in community projects improves employee morale, provokes innovative thinking and provides excellent cross-business networking opportunities. In the 2006 annual staff survey, employees’ perceptions of UBS’s community programme increased by eight percentage points.

Linklaters' HR department reports that questions about the Community Investment programme are common at interview, and it believes that it makes the firm more appealing to future employees. Linklaters mentions the community programme, highlighting the successful Project Shoreditch programme, in client pitches.

The project demonstrates the partner organisations’ strategic, long-term commitment to the community. This helps to improve their relationship with regulators and other governing bodies , as well as increasing the loyalty of both employees and clients. As Deutsche Bank and UBS are not high-street banks in the UK, building brand awareness is difficult with individuals in the community. Project Shoreditch has built a local awareness that would not otherwise be possible.

Independent evaluation
In 2006, the partners agreed to jointly fund an independent evaluation of Project Shoreditch, which was carried out by external consultancy Rocket Science. The report produced assessed the impact of the project and will inform the strategy for its future. The evaluators used an e-mail survey of community groups and business volunteers alongside in-depth interviews with a selection of key community organisations. Key findings were:

Project Shoreditch has been able to address ‘real’ issues: “Many corporate community volunteering programmes tend to focus on ‘nice to do’ activities rather than addressing the ‘need to do’ issues. This is not the case with Project Shoreditch”;
Project Shoreditch has enabled the creation of meaningful relationships between companies and local organisations. “Project Shoreditch has deliberately invested time and resources, not least being located in one of the neighbourhood’s key organisations, to ensure it directly contributes to, and is consistent with, the broader regeneration strategy for the area. This has required significant investment in partnership building and an effort to establish trust”;
More than 65 per cent of volunteers stated that ‘giving something back’ was the primary motivation for participating in Project Shoreditch. 18 per cent view it primarily as an opportunity for personal development;
A key aspect of the evaluation was to ascertain the impact on the community. Sixty-six per cent of those surveyed felt that the support their organisation had received through Project Shoreditch had improved its stability and future prospects. Thirty-three per cent stated that involvement in Project Shoreditch had raised their profile with other partners and stakeholders;

Overall, the evaluators found that Project Shoreditch is regarded as a well-managed programme and is positively recognised for generating a range of easily accessible volunteering opportunities for both community groups and volunteers.

The evaluators summed up by saying: “Project Shoreditch offers an important template by which other companies with suitable resources can really make a difference. This [evaluation] report is not designed to publicise Project Shoreditch’s efforts, but to demonstrate what can be achieved. It is hoped that in doing so, other companies can be encouraged not only to follow suit, but also to bring new innovations and solutions to bear on the regeneration of communities."

For more information please contact Katy Miles, project manager, East London Business Alliance at katy.miles@elba-1.org.uk