Rebecca Rieley, Head of Communities visits Poplar HARCA to learn about their community investment

Rebecca with Managing Director Jacqui & Head of Social Value Michael at Poplar HARCA

In Spring 2023, myself and colleagues were invited to come along to meet the Poplar HARCA team and participate in a tour of their work across the borough. We started the day at The Hive, an Ofsted-accredited employment and training hub. From there we walked through Crisp Street, and talked through the regeneration plans for the market square and neighbouring area. As we walked through residential areas, we learned that the resident mix had changed from 95% social housing to 60% social housing and observed it was impossible to see the difference.

We met the team lead at Spotlight, a purpose built creative youth space attached to a school, and saw boxing lessons in action and the incredible facilities in place for young people. We moved on to cross the busy A12 using the crossing the Poplar HARCA team had lobbied and campaigned for – how else could we access this space without it? – and walked and talked through the Teviot and Aberfeldy estates.

We visited the impressive Poplar Works  enterprise centre where the UAL and London College of Fashion have located production space alongside local enterprises and on to the café for lunch, where a local social enterprise bakery serves up great food. The experience was full of conversation, anticipation for future developments and a real sense of joy and pride came through from everything we engaged with on the day.

There was a lot to take in, but I left feeling full of ideas. The boundaries of traditional community investment had been stretched and blurred here in Poplar and we were struck by the depth of work carried out locally. We re-grouped to consider our thoughts further and the following reflections surfaced.

• Working for the long term impact: both buildings and services were aiming for long term gain; investment had been made to create things that would serve communities for a long time, be sustainable and provide space for a way of working that looked to cultivate local community strengths and support long-term community goals, social mobility and a reduction of stigma. A ‘good ancestor’ approach was active and palpable in everything we saw.
• Relational: staff knew their communities well and we heard how staff looked to work alongside communities locally to create the objectives of strategic developments right through to shaping services that worked alongside people to cultivate and nurture local peoples’ strengths.
• Taking an active role in the local system: There have been a number of proactive campaigns to improve infrastructure, inform education plans, doctors surgeries and much more to champion great outcomes for local people. The team have taken a systems view of their local place and identified the key factors that will hold back or accelerate their residents’ access to opportunities, health, wellbeing and ability to connect with neighbours and decided to have an active stake in cultivating the best possible conditions for their communities to thrive. And in reality, this has meant, campaigning for pedestrian crossings, being active in shaping local education plans, road plans, train routes and much more.
• Bold ambitions and persistence: the team have thought ‘big’ when it comes to impact and goals. They’re ambitious for their own work as much as for their community, and across all our conversations with team members at Poplar HARCA, everyone wants the best for the community there. The buildings express that ambition in their innovative design and nurturing local business and social enterprises, providing not only inspiring spaces physically but culturally, cultivating space and teams that look to empower, and encourage communities to shape their own goals and to live happy, healthy lives. In the face of setbacks, they have persisted, sometimes for decades, to do the right thing.

With all this in mind, I’m encouraged to question the boundaries of community investment practice. When does a housing associations’ activity stop being about community investment and start to be something else? Can it? What can this approach and way of working offer the wider housing departments? Where are the boundaries of its impact? What can it offer other local systems such as health, education, infrastructure and transport systems?

It’s timely, as at HACT we start to shape a new strategy for our Communities and Projects work with the sector and it’s exciting. We’re keen to continue this thinking and want to open it up to partners to reflect together.

As a first step, we’re hosting a webinar in the summer to share early thoughts on HACT’s new communities and projects strategy and how we want the Centre for Excellence in Community Investment to grow and develop over the coming years. These early plans have been informed by this visit as well as being inspired by many conversations with housing professionals across the UK. We hope you’ll join us to continue shaping how our work can best support the sector in helping our communities thrive across the UK.