The following article by Cllr Rachel Wade, Executive Councillor for Communities, was published in Cambridge Independent on 24 December 2024 (pages 24 and 25).
"I became a Cambridge City councillor in May 2023, and more recently took on responsibility for the council’s communities work when I became Executive Councillor for Communities in November 2023.
The council has been working towards its vision of One Cambridge, fair for all since 2014. I stood for election because I wanted to support this work; building on my previous experience working with the Department of Work and Pensions, running an after-school club at a college, and working at the Meadows Community Centre. This helped develop my understanding of people's needs and appreciate ways that they can be met – by listening to and valuing people’s lived experience.
So the commitment that I and the council have to addressing the inequality in our city is nothing new. But what is new for the council is our understanding of how best to achieve this.
Previously we have invested a lot of time and money in delivering projects directly. And lots of these are good projects that help to ease the burden of people struggling to square the circle of increasing bills and stagnating wages – whether by helping with emergency food, heating vouchers, school clothes, or subsidised fitness activities, to name a few.
But these are sticking plasters. They don’t help to fix the root causes. They don’t empower people to see a better future for themselves and their families. And they don’t always recognise that different solutions might be more suitable in different contexts.
Our new approach is to build on the wealth that already exists in our local communities. Moving away from a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach, we recognise that different communities have different makeup of skills; networks; values; community cohesiveness; knowledge; infrastructure and tech.
We also recognise that the council can’t, and shouldn’t, tackle issues like this on our own. We’re often not the experts, whereas our local partners talk to people every day and really see what solutions are needed. Individually, local people also have many of the best ideas about how to bring about change. Not only that, but working collectively with local partners, we can have a much bigger impact together.
This new approach also recognises that people want the opportunity to be part of the solution, but may require organisations like the council to reduce barriers, and provide resources, skills and networks to enable them to put their ideas into practice. We want to support this shift, turning the dial by investing in people so that they feel empowered, heard and enabled to drive change.
People need to feel that they belong, that they are welcome, and that they are seen. From the volunteer freely giving their time; to those seeking support and not knowing where to turn; each of us will play both of these roles at different times in our lives.
In our community centres across the city we regularly see the benefit of these connections, where networks of community groups and volunteers are creating welcoming spaces for everyone, building a strong foundation that this growing area of community wealth building work can build on.
What could this approach look like?
Tackling homelessness: Working with partners like It Takes A City to deliver holistic solutions to support people out of homelessness. Ordinarily, councils might only be responsible for providing a house, but we recognise that we need to work with other local experts to make sure people can access support for mental health crises, addiction, family breakdown, loss of employment, and any other experiences that may have led people to homelessness in the first place. A house itself is no good to someone who is not in a place in their life where they are ready to take on that responsibility. (Pictured below, one of the new homes at Joy's Corner.)
