As Big Society Tsar steps down, East London steps up

02Feb11

On the day Big Society Tsar Lord Wei announced he is cutting back his commitments to the Big Society agenda, over 100 people from the private, public and voluntary sector across East London came together at a Chain Reaction event to take local issues into their own hands.

With cuts set to hit the deprived communities of East London particularly hard come April, the event builds on the regions existing projects skills and resources to develop collaborative solutions to promote economic development in East London, to make sure the regeneration millions benefit the people of East London, and to make the area a better place for young people to grow up despite the difficult economic climate

Held at Clifford Chance’s offices in Canary Wharf, the day was organised jointly by Community Links, a local charity, and the East London Business Alliance (ELBA).With representatives from leading Canary Wharf companies, local authorities, community groups and young people from local schools, the day was buzzing with ideas for how to work together better in response to rocketing youth unemployment and the withdrawal of public sector funding from key community services.

Participants committed to take forward ideas from the a number of concrete ideas from the day, which include organising a peace march through East London to combat rising fear of youth crime, training young people as peer facilitators and facilitators to talk to others about job opportunities, and ramping up business involvement in work placements and job creation.

David Robinson, a senior adviser at Community Links, who spoke at the event says, ‘Post-April will bring even tougher times for East London. But the turnout at the Chain Reaction event, from MPs through to teenagers, shows that people are willing to commit to take action to improve prospects in East London. If the government wants to see the Big Society in action, then it’s right here.’

Liam Kane from ELBA, who opened the discussions on economic development, highlighted that there are opportunities out there for local people, but that more support is needed to make them ‘job ready’ and to raise aspirations. He pointed out that East London as a whole over the last 8 years has created more than 100,000 new jobs – more than Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow put together, and said we need to continue this positive growth

One of the young people who took part said he had started the day feeling hopeless but now recognised there were opportunities out there and that we could work together to create more.

Filed under: Big Society, Chain Reaction 2011, Collaborate, East London, Events   |  2 Comments
Tags: big society, chain reaction 2011, Clifford Chance, cr11, david robinson, east london, east london business alliance, ELBA, liam kane, lord wei, nat wei, tsar, unemployment, Young People