Convening a cross-sector social value steering group for a major London regeneration site
Our client manages a landmark regeneration site comprising office, retail, and residential space, situated within a densely populated urban district home to nearly 70,000 residents.
Having invested significantly in the physical transformation of the area, the client recognised that lasting community benefit required more than individual corporate social responsibility initiatives, it needed a coordinated, cross-sector mechanism to align the efforts of businesses, charities, schools, local government, and community groups already active in the area.
The challenge was twofold. First, there was no existing forum bringing these stakeholders together, meaning valuable social value work was happening in silos, with duplicated effort and missed opportunities for collaboration. Second, any new initiative needed to be grounded in evidence rather than assumption, an accurate, current understanding of the area's actual needs, rather than a generic corporate social responsibility template.
Jefferson Communications was engaged to design, establish, and manage a new quarterly steering group on the client's behalf. We began by helping commission and interpret a detailed local needs analysis, drawing on national statistics, deprivation indices, and direct consultation with local stakeholders.
This research surfaced priorities across three themes: community wellbeing, economic opportunity, and the quality of the local environment, which became the organising framework for everything that followed.
We then built the steering group from the ground up: developing its terms of reference, identifying and engaging a first wave of participating organisations, and hosting an inaugural meeting chaired by the client's senior leadership.
Beyond logistics and facilitation, our role centred on translating discussion into action, capturing commitments made in the room, following up between sessions to keep momentum alive, and connecting members with complementary goals who might not otherwise have crossed paths.
Each quarterly session combined project updates, spotlight presentations from members, and open discussion, with Jefferson producing full notes, action plans, and follow-up reporting after every meeting to maintain accountability and a clear record of progress.
Within its first year, the steering group grew from an initial cohort at its inaugural meeting to over 60 member organisations, spanning local businesses, community and voluntary groups, and academic institutions. Four quarterly meetings were delivered, each generating tangible connections between members, from volunteering partnerships and funding introductions to shared venue space and joint programming.
The group has since become a recognised platform in the area: a national local-giving organisation, a further education-focused charity, and several new community groups have joined since launch, citing the network's value in connecting them with businesses eager to volunteer time, expertise, and resources.
Members have gone on to secure grant funding, in-kind donations, and volunteering support directly through introductions made within the group, impact that would have been far harder to achieve through individual outreach alone.
Building on this foundation, the client has committed to continuing the steering group for a further year, with an explicit ambition to deepen collaboration through additional in-person convening and a doubling of the connections made between members.
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