Please provide a short outline of your current role and a brief description of any other relevant career experience:

As the Community Manager at Broadgate my role involves connecting with the businesses based at Broadgate as well as local schools, grassroot charities and community organisations to help facilitate shared social value.

My previous career experience was not a traditional route into CSR, but every position has been relevant as it’s led me directly to where I am today (even if I didn’t know it at the time.) After university I qualified as an English Literature teacher. I myself come from a very working-class background, I grew up on a council estate in Camden and was raised by my hero of a Nan. While I had some challenges (as everyone does,) I loved my childhood and where I grew up and I learned so much from the people around me. However, what I wasn’t able to learn about was different careers and how to access them. To me, the private sector/corporate world was a different world, a world in which I didn’t know anyone and one in which I didn’t belong.

After teaching for a few years and having been in education in some form my whole life, I started to get itchy feet and wonder what else was out there. Then came my first opportunity, the Careers Manager at the school was going on maternity leave and they needed someone to run the programme while she was away. While managing the school’s corporate partnerships and connecting with new businesses in order to provide opportunities for the students, I myself was also building my own professional network and getting to know people I probably never would have crossed paths with otherwise. Getting to know people from a variety of different backgrounds in a range of different professions was a really enriching experience for me, it also showed me that we are all human beings and have far more in common than we think. Accordingly, the intimidation and unease I’d previously felt began to fade away. Interestingly, I then found myself in the position of listening to students conveying the same fears about fitting in that I previously had when discussing applying for certain universities or for positions in certain organisations and while I tried desperately to show them how much they had to offer and how valuable they would be to such establishments, I recognised and related so much to that fear, and knew deep down that until businesses and institutions diversified their workforce/cohorts, that fear about not belonging would always exist.

As the maternity position was coming to an end, another opportunity arose – a maternity cover position on Santander’s (a business I had been working very closely with) CSR team. Going from working in an inner-city community school to a bank was probably the biggest culture shock I’ve ever experienced and while, after my year there, I decided that it wasn’t quite for me (the role was actually way too much time sat at a desk, and way too many excel spreadsheets for me!) I learnt so much during my time there and it led me directly to my current company. Santander’s head office is situated in Regent’s Place, a campus owned by British Land. During my time at Santander I sat on the Regent’s Place Community Fund project team. When I advised the team I was leaving Santander, British Land invited me in for a coffee to discuss an exciting opportunity, and the rest, as they say, is history…

Why is CSR important to your organisation?

Responsible business practice is key to the long-term success of the business. It is why my role was even created, so I could expand the opportunities for Broadgate and all our customers there. As landlords I am really excited about the opportunity that we have to provide an additional service to Broadgate, bringing people together, helping our customers to deliver their own CSR programmes locally, brokering connections and helping them access a wonderful, local, pipeline of talent for their workforce.

Which topics, themes or initiatives are your organisation currently focused on?

At Broadgate we work hyper-locally to facilitate mutually beneficial connections for people and organisations in and around the neighbourhood. As part of this, we work closely with ELBA on a number of initiatives but our headline partnership is Broadgate Connect, where a dedicated member of the ELBA team is placed with us on site to support local people into jobs. Together we’ve connected over 400 East Londoners to employment opportunities in and around Broadgate since we began this amazing partnership in 2012.

We also have a ten-year community programme as part of our Broadgate masterplan construction activity – called the Broadgate Legacy – making the most of a unique construction opportunity. Working closely with our masterplan construction partner Sir Robert McAlpine, the Legacy ensures that the ten year masterplan delivers tangible benefits for the local community; supporting young talent, boosting local businesses and enhancing the environment. Now in its fourth year, the programme has so far benefitted over 6000 people including local schoolchildren, students, jobseekers and people affected by homelessness.

And, of course, we’re looking at how best to cushion the impact of the current crisis, rerouting Broadgate Connect to reinforce support for candidates we’ve placed in jobs over the last two years. Pulling together a quick-fire response with ELBA really highlighted the strength of the partnership and how it’s possible, and critical, to come together when times get tough.

What is the best part of your job?

The best part of my job is having the opportunity to meet with so many different people working on incredible things, from people working to support the homeless, to teachers, to CSR professionals to office managers, to people who have started their own businesses to really interesting social enterprises. I get to meet and work with such an amazing variety of people but the common theme that unites everyone I work with is that they really want to help others and make things better which is always so inspiring.

I also love the limitless potential of the role. Over the last few years there has been a strong realisation that responsible business practice and community relationships are fundamental to the sustainability, survival and economic success of organisations. I can see the opportunity here of scale, and already I am seeing the impact, shifting discussions and programmes from the side-lines to being core to organisations and their identity and purpose. It’s really exciting to be working in the industry during this movement, working with wonderful people to imagine a better world and collaborating to see it realised.