Tower Hamlets

With the arrival of Canary Wharf, Tower Hamlets found itself in the unusual position of being the richest borough during working hours and one of the poorest boroughs at night. Much of our focus in Tower Hamlets has been about helping to embed Canary Wharf into its surrounding communities and breaking down many of the barriers facing local people.

Our activities in Tower Hamlets are championed by Chris Watson, Partner at CMS Cameron McKenna and Chairman of the Tower Hamlets Area Forum and managed by Fozia Parveen-Sheikh, ELBA’s Programme Director for Tower Hamlets.

Below are some examples of the work we do, but for more information please contact Fozia on 020 7068 6960.

Spitalfields Together
We have developed a new Spitalfields Partnership Programme in partnership with Allen & Overy, Deutsche Bank, and Hammerson plc to create sustainable links between the Spitalfields area and the City by levering business resources, time, skills and expertise of the partner companies. The project represents an exciting new resource for the area and is also raising the profile of the three companies in the community. The wards which the project will focus on are Spitalfields, Banglatown, Bethnal Green South, and Weavers.

Spitalfields Together is based on ELBA’s successful Banking on Shadwell programme with Deutsche Bank and more recently Project Shoreditch which is a partnership between ELBA, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Linklaters. As well as the corporate members and community partners, the project will also work closely with key stakeholders such as the police, the health authority and the council to identify areas of need and then go on to develop projects using the skills and resources of the partner companies.

ELBA Graduate Local Employment Scheme (EaGLES)
Our innovative Community Affairs Trainee Scheme (CATs) was developed in 2005 for Tower Hamlets graduates. In response to our members, this year we have expanded the graduate placements to include HR departments as well as the Community Affairs departments. The aim is to enable local young people to gain skills, knowledge and experience of the Community Affairs and HR functions of businesses as well as influence the agenda by providing a unique local insight. It is aimed at graduates who want to be role models for their communities by working in the public or private sector in the City or Canary Wharf.

The benefits back to our members are clear. They are given an extra pair of hands for several months but also more crucially benefit from having a local person within their team providing a unique insight into the Tower Hamlets community. This means that CCI programmes and recruitment structures remain relevant and sensitive to the needs of the borough.

Since 2005, we have supported 31 graduates through the scheme all of whom are now in employment in both the public and private sectors.