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13 Jan

A year of community partnerships

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A year of community partnerships

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Local charity Time and Talents brings together people of different ages

Through the Canada Water development, our goal is to positively contribute to a community where everyone has a chance to thrive. We’re proud to be partnered with local organisations to deliver a range of impactful programmes, serving the needs of this part of London and making the most of what the area has to offer.  

British Land support these partnerships with direct funding, access to space, and by co-ordinating volunteers from our supply chain who share their time and expertise with local projects. 

Much of our work with these groups is through Canada Water Connect, a partnership between British Land and charity ELBA that was set up to connect people to opportunities being created by the development.  

To our community partners, thank you for a great year. It’s a pleasure to collaborate with you all. 

Here are some of the local projects we enjoyed playing a part in in 2024:

Sports 

Our partnership with Ballers Academy, a Community Interest Company, offers free-to-access football sessions for local 15-year-olds.  

We’re also involved in football through our sponsorship of Fisher FC. British Land are recognised as the main sponsor of the Club. The sponsorship helps keep ticket pricing and food affordable for supporters.  

Roosters Boxing Club offer low-cost boxing sessions for local young people and adults. Our funding has covered equipment and staffing costs to keep club membership costs low. 

Southwark Park Cricket Club offer community cricket coaching for 9- to 15-year-olds, while Canada Water Tennis run a half-term junior tennis camp for ages 5-14. To make sure everyone has a chance to get active, sports activity sessions for 6- to 18-year-olds with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) take place at Bacons College, where we host them in partnership with The PE and School Sports Network. Local charity Bede House, active in the area since 1938, have partnered with us to offer free-to-access sailing lessons for people with learning disabilities. 

Education and training 

We enjoy working with several primary schools in the area, including Albion, Alfred Salter, Redriff, Rotherhithe and St Joseph’s. Initiatives we’ve been involved with at the schools range from school fairs and literacy programmes to outdoor space improvements. Expert volunteers from our supply chain have helped children at these schools develop their research skills and learn about the development sector.   

At Bacon’s College we partnered with London Bubble Theatre Company to put on a confidence-building workshop for young people. The workshop, titled ‘Way Into Work’, culminated in mock interviews at the British Land offices.  

Outside of the school setting, we also work with various local groups to provide opportunities for children and young people. Our partnership with Community Interest Company Bizzie Bodies enables local young people to access free or low-cost education to develop language and STEAM-related skills during the school holidays, and helped the organisation put on a film screening for Black History Month. We also contribute to funding their October half-term camp. Our partnership with educational charity Global Generation enables young people to access to a programme that develops green and practical skills through nature-based learning, while volunteers from our supply chain have put in a lot of work to help construct and maintain their space, the Paper Garden and classroom.  

Ignite Hubs are on a mission to help children understand computing, outside of the school environment. We’ll be working with them on the expansion of their Ignite Learning Hub to include Scratch, Roblox Coding, Python, and Lego Coding to complement in-person classes delivered at Canada Water Library and allow for remote, self-directed learning, as well as collaborating with local schools to facilitate pupils using their platform.  

RJ4ALL is an international institute focused on restorative justice. We’ve hosted local children from their holiday programme at the Canada Water Project Hub to share information about the development and the opportunities being created. We’ve also donated several refurbished iPads to their youth project. 

A project with Bermondsey Community Kitchen gave two adults the training, skills and qualifications (City & Guilds) to enter the hospitality workforce. Local copywriter and editor Eugenia Sestini has also worked with us to offer creative writing sessions for young people and families during half-term.  

The Canada Water development is already creating new employment and business opportunities, and we’re committed to ensuring that local people can benefit from these. Our long-standing partnerships with Construction Youth Trust and Southwark Construction Skills Centre help people of all ages to understand the built environment sector, and to learn the skills and make the connections that can lead to meaningful careers in the field.  

A project we ran in partnership with The Launch Group delivered a free two-week training programme for 21 local people. Participants learnt vital skills for roles in the security, leisure and retail sectors, and were then helped to apply for roles on and around the development.  

Circle Collective help unemployed people in Southwark who experience a range of barriers to find permanent, life-changing work, with a focus on the retail and hospitality sectors. Canada Water Connect work with them to deliver the programme and to connect local people who’ve upskilled themselves through the programme with live job vacancies. Our partnership with Big Local Works also aims to help people find work, through enabling local people to access welfare and benefit support whilst seeking new job opportunities. 

Entrepreneurs will be key to the future of Canada Water, and we support local enterprise through Thrive, the low-cost workspace run by charity Tree Shepherd in a unit in Surrey Quays Shopping Centre. Through Thrive, Tree Shepherd provide an impactful business support and mentoring programme.  

Community groups  

Proper Blokes Club are a fast-growing group who get men out to walk and talk about whatever’s on their mind. We’ve made space available for the organisation to run pop-up events in Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, enabling them to reach more people who can benefit from the service.  

Building on our partnership to date, Proper Blokes Club are facilitating a professional and personal development project aiming to build their members’ confidence and connect them to employment opportunities. This is starting in January 2025 and will run for 6-12 months. 

Time and Talents are a lively local charity who run activities both for children and families, and for older people. We provide them with a unit at Surrey Quays Shopping Centre where they host groups ranging from Toddler Shake n Boogie and Polish Singing Playgroup to the 60+ Friday Social. We’ve also funded some of their holiday clubs and weekly sessions with Mischief Theatre, and helped their staff access professional training with RJ4ALL. 

Love North Southwark run a food pantry offering low-cost foodstuffs to people in Rotherhithe and Bermondsey, along with Betty’s Baby Bank, which collects donations of baby and toddler goods and distributes them to people who need them. We’ve helped the organisation with direct funding and with items collected in our offices.  

Arts 

Local artist Rod Kitson is known for his work with the community. We support Rod’s Art of Isolation gallery, which is open for people to stop by and draw/create with equipment and materials all provided. The gallery is also made available for other artists to exhibit their work, and the programme also includes sessions with students at Bacon’s College. Meanwhile, with Southwark Park Galleries, we enable children from Rotherhithe and St James primary schools to access workshops with local artists.  

Festivals 

We’ve sponsored various local festivals this year, including the Bermondsey Carnival, Greenland Dock Festival and Rotherhithe Festival. Our funding helps the festivals keep running and provide entertainment and a chance to come together for local people. From our stall at the Rotherhithe Festival, we run children’s competitions and give out free goodies.  

Tenants and residents’ associations (TRAs) 

We’ve worked with a number of local Tenants and Residents Associations, with our support tailored to the needs of each TRA.  

For more on how Canada Water Connect are connecting people with the opportunities created by the development, visit canadawater.co.uk/jobs 

 

 

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