About the Tower Hamlets Cornerstone Project
The Tower Hamlets Cornerstone Project is a partnership between Tower Hamlets Council for Voluntary Service (THCVS) – the infrastructure organisation supporting the voluntary sector in London Borough of Tower Hamlets and six community groups and organisations.
This two year project, funded by The National Lottery, aims to influence more inclusive decision-making across public sector agencies in Tower Hamlets. The project aims to create a model for voluntary sector partnership for public sector bodies wanting to work with local communities to address inequalities within policy making services in Tower Hamlets.
The project aims to achieve this by:
Creating a partnership that brings together community organisations led by and representing people across the diversity of lived experiences in Tower Hamlets by partners working together, and with public sector bodies, to create a good practice guide and resource for carrying out Equality Impact Assessments (EqIAs) across the borough.
Raising awareness and improving the visibility and understanding of the different equalities’ issues and experiences across our communities through practical, lived, understanding of intersectionality and how this applies in Tower Hamlets.
Organisations Involved
To enhance decision-making and ensure it reflects the diverse experiences and needs of disadvantaged and marginalised communities, we have formed a resident panel comprised of two members for each of the seven organisations involved. Each organisation and their respective panel members, represent different protected characteristic groups within the borough.
As part of our aim to establish a diverse and representative panel capable of advocating effectively for residents’ voices, members of the community are recruited to share their personal experiences and help us. This was done with the intention to recruit representatives from each of our communities.
The Resident Panel is a fundamental part of the project and will aid us in helping curate effective inclusive decision making.
These organisations include:
- Age UK East London: Representing the Older People’s Reference Group
- Tower Hamlets Inter Faith Forum: Representing faith communities
- Real: Representing people living with disabilities
- Tower Hamlets Women’s Network: Facilitated by account3
- Limehouse Project: Representing the ethnic minority network
- Women’s Inclusive Team: Representing the ethnic minority network
- elop: Representing the LGBT forum
Our goal is to ensure that all residents benefit from improved planning and decision-making that better reflects the experiences and needs of disadvantaged and marginalised communities in Tower Hamlets.
The panel members attending regular meetings to help co-design the EqIA evaluation process. Building a secure environment for open dialogue and participation is a fundamental part of our mission.
Introducing our learning partners:
Dan Range and Tom Fisher - Capture Consulting
Dan Range and Tom Fisher Capture consulting Dan Range and Tom Fisher have joined the Cornerstone Partnership team as Learning Partners. Their role will be to work with all those involved to understand the difference the project is making for residents, the Council and the partner organisations themselves.
Between now and October 2024, Dan and Tom will be joining meetings, talking to those involved and facilitating interviews, group discussions, surveys and so on.
They’ll be helping in two main areas. Firstly, they’ll use the information they gather to advise on how the project could work better, helping the partners to understand your feedback during the project.
Secondly, Dan and Tom will write a report which will capture the impact of the programme for its key stakeholders: residents, partnership organisations and the Council.
The report will be based partly on the information and feedback you provide.
Any information you give to Dan and Tom in interviews, surveys, etc. will be completely anonymous and kept confidential – Dan and Tom are bound by research ethics protocols so they treat your data as you’d expect it to be treated: securely, anonymously, confidentially and with consent. Dan and Tom are community researchers.
They’ve been researching across the UK together for the last 15 years, including a good amount of research in Tower Hamlets. In that time, they’ve worked on issues of social cohesion, faith and interfaith relations, racism, disability, gender discrimination, poverty and deprivation, health services, volunteering, inequality and a wide range of other areas.
Their main focus is in understanding how community programmes work, who they work for and how they can work better. In this project, Dan and Tom will be looking at how well the Cornerstone partnership works together, works with residents and works with the Council. Dan and Tom will also look at what kind of change the project can create in the Borough.
If you have any questions or would like more information, you can contact them directly: tom@captureconsulting.co.uk and dan@captureconsulting.co.uk