Marking National Careers Week, London Property Alliance discussed the latest initiatives that Grosvenor (one part of a global, privately-owned family business that have been making and managing places for over 300 years) has implemented to engage young people in the built environment and widen access to the industry. Nicola Rochfort, Senior Community Engagement Manager at the firm also explained why National Careers Week is so important to the sector.
Tells us more about your Voice.Opportunity.Power toolkit and the reasons driving its conception?
We passionately believe that the places we build and manage should work for everyone; people of all backgrounds, abilities and ages. But despite making up around a fifth of the population, young people are often not part of discussions on changes to their local area. There are a significant number of young people who have never been asked their opinion about the future of their neighbourhood, which is something we are keen to tackle.
We also believe that by encouraging participation and access to the sector at a much younger age, we will improve the overall volume, and more importantly, the number of people coming into the industry from a broader range of backgrounds.
So we developed Voice.Opportunity.Power (VOP), a free toolkit for those working in the built environment sector to encourage youth participation in the development and management of places. The toolkit is designed to help those shaping our neighbourhoods, such as developers, designers, and councils, to consider how best involve young people, giving everyone a voice in the process.
What else is Grosvenor doing to attract more young and diverse people to the industry and why?
This April, we are running a work experience week for 16-21 year olds. The programme, which runs twice a year, will introduce more young people to the property sector and help grow their confidence in professional skills such as public speaking, CV writing and interviewing. By partnering with schools, colleges and social mobility organisations, we aim to encourage students who may not usually have access to such opportunities to get involved, as well as social groups who are underrepresented in our industry.
Can you explain what the Mayfair Youth Forum is and how it helped break down barriers to engagement?
Grosvenor launched the ‘Mayfair Youth Forum’ to give young people in the area an opportunity to understand and influence its future. It’s fundamental that the local community – including young people – benefit from the opportunities which come from living in a thriving part of London. Under-18s were the age group we heard from the least during our community engagement programmes, so we knew we needed to make a concerted effort to reach them.
So we launched the ‘Mayfair Youth Forum’ at the start of 2021 in partnership with 2-3 Degrees (a social enterprise that inspires and equips young people with development skills) and a diverse group of twenty 14–18-year-olds from Westminster.
There was an open call for people to register to join the Mayfair Youth Forum, requirements being that they lived or studied in Westminster and were aged 14-18. Most members came from existing 2-3 Degrees contacts or Westminster Youth Council.
We ran the ‘Voice. Opportunity. Power’ toolkit sessions across an 8-month period with a focus on Grosvenor Square in Mayfair and we offered each member of the youth forum a paid work placement with teams across Grosvenor, from development and asset management to marketing and sustainability. This brought creativity, diversity, and fresh insight to the whole business.
The Mayfair Youth Forum ran until October 2021. Because of its success, we are now reviewing how best to apply it to other neighbourhoods, such as Belgravia. You can read more about the process here.
How successful has the toolkit or Mayfair Youth Forum been?
Since launching, ‘V.O.P’, it has been formally endorsed by more than 38 supporting partners, downloaded by over 600 organisations, including councils, architects, and developers. Our figures show that 140 young people have now taken part in the process, including the twenty Mayfair Youth Forum members.
The Mayfair Youth Forum has helped us to adhere to the principles we made in our Community Charter, Positive Space, to ensure young people understand how to play a critical part in day-to-day neighbourhood life and influence change.
Voice.Opportunity.Power was developed and launched by Grosvenor, ZCD Architects, the TCPA & Sport England in 2020. Visit www.voiceopportunitypower.com to find out more.
