In the return of our CB1 interview series, we find out more about what it’s like to work on and manage the CB1 estate. This second installment of the series features an interview with Sam Kenward, Community Engagement and Project Coordinator, who has worked on CB1 since late July.
Community RegenWhat does your job involve?
This newly created job was created by Community Regen to work predominantly on the CB1 estate. Community Regen (led by Paul Bragman) is a consultancy firm contracted by CB1 to work on how CB1 can further improve for all stakeholders. The role involves building relationships with stakeholders (residents, businesses and agencies) and looks to then work with everyone to bring about improvement in CB1. My post involves meeting people, getting to know the area and seeing how we can bring people together to ensure that issues are acknowledged and acted upon. It also involves working on communication through the running of CB1 Community’s social media and the website. Through these aspects of my job, I want to build upon progress that has already been made in CB1 and help further improvement of the area.
In terms of a bit of background about me and my experience, I was part of the UK Youth Parliament for four years, part of my local youth council for two years and a Town Councillor for three years. In these organisations, I worked to ensure local people had a voice in community life and I worked to ensure that this engagement contributed to improvement of the local area for the community. Thus, my experience aligns quite well with the post.
What are your first impressions of CB1?
I have received a warm welcome by CB1 stakeholders and I am impressed by the estate. Of course there will be some issues that arise (like anywhere), but overall the estate is looking good and I am really pleased to be working on the community aspect of CB1.
What are your plans for your job?
This job is a three year placement and I will be based in Cambridge for 3 days a week. I won’t make outlandish promises for the job, but I am and will continue working hard to engage stakeholders to provide a voice for them and to bring about positive outcomes in the area. In terms of fulfilling this, I am going to be accessible so I will be going to resident meetings and am happy to meet with people to discuss how we can strengthen the community further here. As part of that, one of my immediate priorities is the reopening of Mill Park. With the park now reopen, we will be doing a community event in late September and it would be great to work with local residents on this!
Where’s your favourite place in CB1?
I am still getting to know the place but I quite like the green on Mill Park. I think the newly refurbished green space there looks great and it is a location that can become a really major community hub in CB1.
What are the best things about the job?
I think the best thing is the opportunity and the potential to create a good community ethos here. I really like that in my job, I can play a role in creating further progress here on communication and cohesion. It is really exciting!
As I hope I’ve made clear above, I really want to get to know the area and the people and so I am very happy to go along to meetings and meet local people! You can email me at sam@communityregen.net or you can call on 07946304332.
For more information on Community Regen, please go to https://communityregen.net/.
We will be adding new interviews every two weeks. Stay tuned for more interviews on CB1!
